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Thursday, April 24, 2003,

Report from the middle of France, by Karl Hipp

09:00 local

I'm in the backseat of our rented Ford Focus diesel.  Judy is driving; John is navigating with Barb's help.  About half the cars we saw in Uzes yesterday were diesels. They don't stink, make noise, or smoke. I don't know why the French get to have diesel cars and we can't have them in the US?

Our French rental car, a diesel Ford Focus.

 We did a walking tour of Uzes yesterday which is rich in medieval history.

John van Bladeren, soaking up medieval culture in Uzes, France.

 

Today we are driving to Arles and Les Baux which are south of Avignon.  John and I are already suffering cultural overload, so we plan to not pay much attention today.  We checked all our emails this morning before leaving; John put out a few fires at his office, and we then logged on to an European weather web site to check out tomorrow.  The only significant weather in the direction we plan to head is forecast to be off the coast of Portugal.  Our flight plan is to San Sebastian, Spain but if the weather is good we will press on to Porto, Portugal and visit San Sebastian on the return.

French wine tasting by a true connoisseur.

 

Bulk French wine … about $5 a gallon.

 

14:00 local

Now, back in the rental car, we've visited all the old Roman stuff at Arles.  

Coliseum in Arles, France … circa, first century A.D.

 

Descriptive name on a shop in Arles… Karl thinks they have the words backwards.

Judy and Barb purchased some additional ballast for 56Y--actually tablecloths--which I would much prefer to carry in 56Y rather than pottery.  We are heading south in the car to Camargue and then to St.Maries De La Mares if time permits.  

Judy and Barb dipping their toes in the Mediterranean at St Maires de la Mares.

I am going to call Dave Buttle and ask him if he thinks we can negotiate our destination tomorrow to Portugal once airborne.  They have an agreement in mainland Europe called chengin, (not sure of spelling) that allows travel between countries with no customs hassle once you have initially cleared in.  Although, I think you still need a VFR or IFR flight plan to travel from one country to another.  Since we have an approved plan filed only to San Sebastian, Spain, we may need to stop there first.

 

16:30 local

I called Dave; he advised that since we have an IFR plan on file to San Sebastian to use it and file IFR or VFR, whichever is appropriate, to Porto after we land at San Sebastian. That's great, since we would need more fuel to go nonstop and we are already well over gross.

 

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