We’ve been in Nice for three days now, and it’s abundantly clear that we would be lost half the time if it weren’t for the Gamin GPS system that Patrick brought on the trip. We’ve been staying in Auribeau sur Siagne a 13th century commune (=smaller than a village) about a half hour from Nice where passages (=smaller than a street) have no names, roundabouts take the place of street lights or stop signs, and the directions even on the GPS consist of something like “2nd turn on the next roundabout” followed by “first turn on the next roundabout”. That’s difficult enough to follow because sometimes — just to mix things up — there are stores right by the roundabout with entrance ways that don’t count as a turn.

What makes our drives even more “interesting”, “entertaining” or “terrifying” if you’re Kathleen, is that our GPS appears to have a personality of its own. We’re still learning about its eccentricities, but so far, one appears to be that it doesn’t like to take the same way twice. Two nights ago, for example, we got to Mougins, the utterly charming village about 30 min away that we went to for dinner two nights ago, by the tollway. On the way back, it decided to take us on a windy two-way cliff-side road, the width of a one-way road in utter darkness. It loved that road so much that the following day, it wanted to go back again on the way back from St. Paul de Vence, the beloved village of artists like Picasso, Matisse and Leger. We suspect there was an easier route to get back. But that wouldn’t have been way too boring for the GPS.