On our way to La Belle France

Our departure to France took much longer than expected, as it was the start of our day of foibles.

As mentioned earlier, trying to find major destinations in a town, by car, is a challenge. Our destination was the train station, and the town was Figures. We left in plenty of time, anticipating a challenge to find the station. While it took longer than we liked, and our directions from the Michelin site ended up being completely useless, we managed to get our car to its home on time.

But by the time we found the guy to take our car back, and get our train ticket, we saw our train on the platform away from us pulling away. The next train - 3 hrs later. So we had more down-time than I would like, especially when looking like an obvious tourist with massive backpacks in tow.

Mullets
If you miss the popular 80s hairstyle, then Figures and northward is for you! Yes, the style for young men in the region appears to include a mullet. Whatever the case, it still looks ugly as sin and needs to be banned worldwide.

More Waiting
Once we finally got on our train, we arrived at the end of the line at the border. We got out, showed our passports to the boarder police, and then bought our next ticket. The next train was over an hour away. One would think that with so few boarder trains, that they would try better to coordinate their timing.

La Toilette
We were on our way again, with only a brief stop to change trains in Narbonne. Mike had to use the toilet and ran to the station to use theirs. He came back with a puzzled look on his face (actually more of a wtf look), only to learn that he just had another european moment. The good ol' pay toilet. I never understood the idea of charging people to use the facility at a place you're a patron of.

Vines everywhere
Finally on the last leg of our journey, we made our way to Carcassonne. Of all the fields we passed, about 85% of them were covered in vines! So to keep myself amused after a long day of travel, I just imagined the wonderful wine those little grapes would become.