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France - Day 9 : A proper day off

We could have been on our way to the Mediterranean sea by now, but as we were three days ahead of schedule we decided to take a proper day off. After a good breakfast, we visited the medieval city of Avignon. There were a lot of Dutch people there. On the way there Stefan mentioned Croatian people overtake other drivers really fast and so could he. Right before a turn, he floored the car, just when another car came around the corner. That one needed to break quite a bit and flashed his lights, but 'that was just normal'. A bit later Stefan smelled sweat, but that was just fear leaving our bodies. 
 

Finding a place to park using the TomTom turned out to be difficult because it kept directing us toward a closed parking lot. After driving through way too narrow streets three times in a row we found a spot. We searched for an outdoor store and glue to fix my shoes. Avignon holds the palace of the pope, for which you had to pay to enter, which we of course didn't.

palace of the popes

The palace for which you needed to pay
 

Bram mentioned that by always making right turns we could be sure we visited every street. Instead, Stefan just wanted to walk around randomly, so we kept getting lost. Eventually, we did see the entire town, some parts three times and some not at all.

Avignon

We quickly had enough of all the churches and touristy things.
 

During our cycling vacations we try not to eat expensive stuff, just a lot for cheap. There was a supermarket called 'Geant Casino'. It was enormous, about 10 times a normal store. I bought glue for my shoes and Bram a bottle of some kind of fuel for his stove. There were too many different types to figure out if it was the right fuel. There was 'alcohol a bruler', 'alcohol a menager', 'essence f', 'essence therbethin' and at least five more. We also bought a bag with 17 chocolate buns and some lemonade. Within a few minutes those were gone and we could continue.

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We still needed to buy pasta and drinks for dinner. We also looked for a nice souvenir related to the Mont Ventoux. They sold mile markers in various stores saying 'Mont Ventoux 1910 meters'. We both wanted to buy one, but they were too expensive. In another store I wanted to buy a mug. Bram was still looking at the souvenirs after 15 minutes. Eventually I asked him what was going on, to which he replied he had been waiting for me. I quickly bought the mug. Bram didn't need anything, not so much because he didn't want anything, but because if he would buy something now that would confirm he had made us wait unnecessary. We would visit Bedoin again during our return journey, so he would have another chance then.

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The mug of the Ventoux
 

In the store we bought enough pasta to feed ten people and then again got in line for checkout number three.

Spider

Back on the campsite we found a kind of tarantula in the laundry room.
 

We tried the fuel Bram had bought. We still weren't sure what it was, but we thought it was white spirit. I made a funnel from an old bottle and a piece of my towel. While filling the stove a lot of fuel spilled. It was kind of greasy so that wasn't a good sign. After pressurizing the stove, Bram opened the gas. A white mist emerged. I tried to light it, but the flame never came. It definitely wasn't white spirit. Probably it was petroleum. Using Stefan's stove, we ate all the pasta we had bought including three unions and three cloves of garlic.

Campsite Bedoin

Cooking pasta, our last real meal for the remainder of our trip.

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We also saw a rare natural phenomenon, Bram with a mobile phone.

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Bram using his mobile phone

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