Goodness, is this how the rest of the world lives? No email or internet or phone access for five days. My God. A geek could die of real world exposure!

After some initial confusion, Andreas and I have adapted well to our much-changed honeymoon. We are not working the vendanges at the Tour du Bon…since we are sans papiers we cannot even volunteer. We are not seeing much of T. … since she and her husband are moving this week. In other words, the vacation was not what we anticipated or planned on, but it has been lovely none the less.

The upside: since we cannot work, we have been free to wander. T. took pity on us and loaned us her tiny little car and this week has been Road Trip France 2004! After a day at the Tour du Bon (feeling a little weird as everyone worked while we went to the beach), we drove up to Le Gorge Verdon, the Grand Canyon of France. I’m not in a place where I can upload photos, but rest assured that it was amazing.

Also, rest assured that camping in France is VERY different from in the US. We basically “camped” in a parking lot full of Germans. But we had access to full showers, toilets, washing machine, etc. Like I said: not really camping per say, but we did sleep on gravel in our little tent! It was a great few days of being tourists…we drove around the canyon, we rented a paddle boat, we swam in the lake and read on the rocky beach. I got weird headaches every afternoon. I don’t know why.

Now we’re back in Bandol at the Tour du Bon. To make up for not working, I take pictures of the others working in the fields. How weird, but whatever. Nous sommes adaptive. Monday we leave for our Barcelona - Madrid - Paris circuit. Then, who knows. Like I said: plans have changed and we roll happily with the punches.

PS: My french has atrophied and is worse than ever, while Andreas’ is so good that he can sass folks who give him shit. I’m mildly ashamed of myself for being so lazy with my studies.