The next phase of our European adventure is a road trip through southern France.  We started today by taking a train from Barcelona to Perpignan, France.  We had concocted a scheme to save €35 by renting our car on the outskirts of Perpignan instead of at the train station.  This resulted in a spectactular misadventure not unlike you might see on The Amazing Race – we took a bus with no idea of where to get off, we walked around an industrial district loaded down with our overstuffed backpacks and attempted to converse with people using our limited French (consisting mostly of “Parle vous Engles?” – the answer is always no – and words like “rendezvous”, “reconnaissance”, and “raconteur”), and eventually Alonna talked to some friendly commercial car dealers until they threw up their hands and drove us to the car rental place.

We did save €35.  But I think next time we’ll just rent at the train station.

Next we found a place that appeared to be the French equivalent of a Walmart.   The seafood section included some very large squid, there was an entire wall with a wide variety of baguettes, the selection of wines was jaw dropping, but other than that it was like a Walmart with a dress code.

Finally, a country that appreciates the hazelnut! €3.50 for half a kilogram.

After some mildly stressful driving (and driving in another country is always at least a little stressful), we finished the day strolling around Carcassonne, a gorgeous medieval city.

Next stop: Arles.  Probably.