Day 7, 24 May 2008, Aix-les-Bains to Juan-les-Pins

Route

Man, this was a long driving day. I knew it would be long, but I didn't expect it to be this long. We left Aix-les-Bains around 9:30 or so; stopped in Digne-les-Bains for a late-ish lunch at McDonalds (we really just didn't want to fool with parking anywhere and finding a sandwich shop); and got to St. Paul de Vence around 5:30 or so; just as the galleries were starting to close. St. Paul is a stunning little hill-village. Had the weather been better, I am sure that we would have been able to see the Med. We had to restrain ourselves from spending even more on artwork; since many of the galleries had stunning pieces.

We had a slight fuel scare on the way to St. Paul, in that we were in a very remote part of the Verdon National Park and were running very low on fuel. Thankfully we came down out of the mountains with about 50km of range to spare. You don't really appreciate how accessible stuff like gas stations or convenience stores or whatever is in the states until you almost get stranded.

From St. Paul, it was about 40 minutes to Juan-les-Pins and we checked into our hotel and promptly headed out for dinner. My dad had been here just a couple weeks ago, and had recommended some good restaurants (he's a bit of a gourmande, so I trust his opinions), so we found one of them and had a terrific Thai meal at "Pousse Pousse."

Upon our return to the hotel, we were informed about a train strike (a strike in France, no way!) that would cause our station to be closed tomorrow and that would affect the trains that actually run tomorrow. Awesome news, since we have to find the will-call window tomorrow to get our actual tickets for the race.