The driver of the 3VB to Mougins gave me an odd look when I climbed aboard with a white pool chair that Andre and Jacqueline had loaned me. I have used the loaner to avoid wear and tear on the antique chair at the desk in Francoise’s room, but today it was time to return the pool chair. I took the bus to Mougins, dropped off the chair and took the blue Honda to a carwash. I also filled it with regular unleaded gasoline, which costs an impressive $4.20 a gallon in a country serious about energy conservation.

Right now we are packing for the night train to Toulouse, which will leave Cannes at 10:32 pm and arrive tomorrow at 5:08 am. I booked three couchettes, which may or may not mean a few hours of sleep, because I have no idea what a couchette is. From Toulouse, we will strike out tomorrow in a rental car toward a long-planned rendezvous with Upper Paleolithic art in a cave at Niaux. I’m not sure if Maison de la Grande Ourse, our scheduled three-room bed and breakfast in Salsein, will have a phone line suitable for internet connection, so the Chronicles may go dark until our return Sunday night.

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