France - Narbonne, Toulouse ( almost ) and Leon 31st May- 7th June 2010

The second train from Barcelona to Toulouse made a stop at a way station of a seaside town called Narbonne. I had an hours wait here and my mood was as dark as the closing night. Having been up almost all night previously and enduring the “Estacion Franca” mess up earlier in the day I could feel my resolve fading and opted ( stupidly ) on finding a Hotel room in Narbonne for the night. This seemed a better option than carrying on to Toulouse where I had no room booked and attempting to find one after midnight . As the ticket office was closed I managed to convince myself that I would be able to exchange my Spanish bought ticket the next day ( this was delusion caused by tiredness) and found a room in the hotel opposite the station. I was told by the very French looking elderly proprietor that the only room available was a double ensuite as the rest of the hotel was full…Again my mental state allowed me to believe this without putting up a fight and I found my self in a rather spacious though untidy room over looking the street. One thing I can say about Narbonne is that ( on that night at least ) it is the windiest place I have ever been . The wind outside the window was intense and the creaking sign just outside made noises more accustomed to a boarding school junior dorm room at an unashamedly intense rate all night… Having said this I was so tired I managed to sleep through after listening to a couple of hours of Radio 6 through the free wi-fi in the hotel …..The next morning I was surprised at how empty the hotel was …. Hmmm the other residents must have checked out early for a conference or something ……said Mercy Boucoup ironically to the hotelier and was on the next train to Toulouse on the way to Dax the closest town to my destination.

In the end only had an hour or so in Toulouse due to the previous days episode …a shame as would have liked to have spent a day there checking it out….. The next leg of the train journey took me through the Pyrenees snapped a couple of photos…..looked like a nice place to spend a week but I must say I was satisfied with my decision to head to southern Spain from Madrid rather than to the northern mountains before Barcelona. I didn’t get the impression there would be many late night drinking haunts in these parts…..

My main aim for this week was to save money and get back onto budget ….I managed to navigate the French pay phone system in the next stop to arrange the pick up of the keys a family holiday home in the small coastal village of Leon. Ended up costing me 40 euros to get a cab from Dax Gare Sncf to Leon. So far not of to a good start. However once I had picked the keys up and walked the 20mins to the chalet the hassles of getting there seemed insignificant next to the luxuries of private accommodation. A bath, home cooked meal and wash load later I was feeling much refreshed. Thanks to Helen ( step mom ) for leaving food in the fridge.

The next week largely involved lounging on the sofa, trying to avoid watching the British Satellite set up and -recording new song ideas with little success. The one major incident of the week came when I decided to walk the 7km or so to the next town and beach rather than renting a bike to save money. The walk to Moilettes was easy enough although having realised that my French was on about the same level as that on a certain Flight of the Conchords episode ( ie Jacque Cousteau, Baguette, ou est la piscine….urgh no etc ) I managed to navigate on a simple tourist info map rather than sheepishly asking strangers for directions. This strategy worked fine on the way there and after about 2hours of walking I managed to get a couple of good hours in on the beech although being midweek there wasn’t much going on …On the way home I decided to take a different and shorter route based on my limited understanding of the area and the “not to scale tourist map“ never a good idea….About 1 hour later I was alone in the woods totally lost tired and desperately trying to listen out for sounds of the motorway to nav myself back….This was a result of not turning back or asking for directions at about 4 different locations where any woman would have happily and sensibly done so …..ah well I was determined now to continue going forward at all costs, although the possibility of newspaper headlined back home started to spring to mind :“ Cardiff man’s body found in woods 3 weeks after massive man hunt called off”. Luckily this wasn’t to be the case as managed to stumble onto a small road and using the sun to get my bearings ended up in a small village that turned out to be the edge of Leon. And I didn’t ask for directions once! Man-Nav 1 sensibility 0.My feet were so chewed up after this journey that I couldn’t really walk for the next day or so and resorted to using gaffer tape as makeshift plasters for my blisters.

Eventually left Leon on the only bus going to Dax on Sunday having enjoyed a quiet but cheap week. The musical inspiration didn’t really happen …got some new ideas for Scruton Show songs but nothing worthwhile for Monkey-Dolphin…this being in part due to a power problem with my guitar modulator….seems that screaming into a semi acoustic guitar and then putting it through a rotary effect and mega distortion is really draining on the batteries…..oh well will have to wait for inspiration to take hold another time.

Next stop Paris on the night train after an 8 hour wait in Gar SNCF Dax…oh well better than forking out another 40 euros for a later cab I guess.