Sisteron

After a lovely visit in the Grenoble area, I'm on my way to La Napoule (near Cannes) where I have a reservation for the 15th of April. The simplest way to get there from Grenoble is a bus that travels between Grenoble and Nice once a day. Easy enough, but it takes six hours so I thought I'd stop halfway there, in Sisteron, to break up the trip. There is currently a train strike going on in France and when twice as many people as usual showed up to take the bus this afternoon, they called in a supplementary bus. The only problem? The retirement-aged driver of the second bus had never been to Sisteron. That wasn't very reassuring! His driving wasn't very reassuring either. I was sitting in the very front of the bus, and the road was at times very narrow and steep with rain and occasional snow along the way. (There are a lot of mountains between Grenoble and Sisteron) Fortunately, some of the passengers knew the route so they helped the driver with directions and we found our way to Sisteron.

To think that just yesterday I was nervous about driving with a 17 yr-old driver with a learner's permit and then today the "professional" had me holding my breath again . . . !

I am staying in a hotel for the very first time tonight. I realize how spoiled I've been staying either in an apartment or with friends. Hotels are not nearly as much fun. And it's cold and rainy here so I haven't been out exploring yet. However, as I sat in the hotel restaurant having some dinner, I noticed a couple of interesting monuments - so I stuck my head outside in the rain just long enough to take the following pictures. I'll tell you more about the town when I go out exploring in the morning.