Part 2 Memories of Journey - Paris to Rome by Road
Day 1
Kick off - After breakfast we left Fountainbleau around 10 am . Our first destination was French Riviera , Nice . This is a beautiful tourist spot in south east France on the coast of the Mediterranean sea . But it was about 800 km from Fountainbluea and about 9 hours of road journey .
We started in my daughter ‘s car Estrogen . It was a new beautiful small car but enough for the three of us . She was driving it and the car was to be dropped at Rental car office and a big rental car was already booked for to and fro to Italy .
The first hurdle - Hardly we had driven tor 30 minutes when the car stopped to move . It did start again and again but every time stopped after a jerk . It was a busy road with heavy speedy traffic. One lane was blocked due to the breakdown of our car . Smelling the mess a policeman swiftly came to us . My daughter talked to him . She was not fluent in French but could manage to talk in the most common words . He asked us to get down, the car stopped the traffic and we pushed the car to the parking lane . He called someone to bring a trailer to carry the car to the garage . Within 30 minutes a big trailer came . We were asked to sit in the car and the car was lifted up on the trailer . My daughter had already talked to the dealer who asked to bring it for needful repair . We were worried that it might involve a huge cost of transportation and repair . But my daughter said “ No worry at all. Everything is covered under insurance . The insurance was also done by the leasing company . “
Both me and my husband felt relieved to hear it. Anyway I was too much distrubed that the long journey started in a fiasco . But my Baby was calm and quiet she said “ We will be reaching Nice late by 2 hours . We will be there by 9 pm . Relax .In Europe roads are far better and traffic is faster than the USA too . “
After leaving the car there the garage man called a taxi to drop us off at the rental car office . From there Baby picked up a Renault sedan with a full tank . This car was to remain with us for bothway journey . On return the car was to be handed over back with the same amount of fuel in the tank .
Finally we left around 12.30 pm . We had already packed our lunch before starting , Aloo Parathas and dahi raita . We did not want to waste time , so we took our lunch there in the garage itself . I in particular was terrified at the speed Baby was driving , almost 100 kmph .
We stopped after a nearly four hours drive to have some snacks and coffee in a cafeteria . Then after around another four hours came the famous city Cnnes . This is well known for its annual international film festivals. A film festival had recently concluded which was attended by many of our Bollywood stars also .
Ultimately we reached our first destination Nice , well known for its glamour and beautiful gravelled beaches . But by the time we reached it was around 10 pm , so no question of nay sightseeing . We just enjoyed the city lightings and checked in our hotel . There also we ended up with some Parathas , yoghurt and pickles . Nobody had courage to sit or talk anymore . In no time , We all fell asleep in our beds .
It was a nice day with a beautiful clear sky . We had already seen the weather before starting the trip . The weather was clear though hot but still not as hot as in India . In the morning we took our complimentary breakfast and started for the beach . The vast Medeterranean sea was before us. We were on a beautiful beach which was pebbled with near white pebbles. Sea water was so clean that we could sea our feet and toes standing under more than a foot of deep water . It was not so warm in the morning ,the weather was pleasant .
In fact, Nice was not our dream destination . We sat on a bench on the beach and enjoyed watching girls and women of all ages in bikinis playing beach volleyball . We did enjoy some ice cream before leaving for our hotel . On the way back to our hotel we had our lunch in an Indian restaurant and again got some Aloo Parathas with yoghurt from there . This was our cheapest improvised meal for the onward journey , cheap and tasty too .
Contd .
=============
