Heading south to Fraisse des Corbieres

Saturday September 15, 2007

Today was not one of Dawn’s better days - more about that later.
We had an early breakfast at L’Oliveraie and were off to the market in Uzes by 0830. The drive was a familiar one past many important Chateauneuf and Tavel producers. By the time we arrived in Uzes they were already parking on the edge of town. This and the market of Vaison are easily the largest markets we have ever been to that envelope the entire town and provide all manner of goods. Our focus was dry goods and some items for lunch. As we made our way to the Places des Arbres in the centre of the old town, the place was jammed with people. We chose numerous Provencal items at our usual spot when Dawn noticed she no longer had her wallet. Since I didn’t have sufficient cash for the purchase, we made our way back to the ring road for a bank machine and began to contemplate the whereabouts of the wallet. By the time we had paid for our purchase and met up with Dennis & Jackie, we figured we’d better get back to the car to check for the wallet there. No wallet. Fortunately my phone had sufficient charge to make two Canadian calls to cancel Visa and Master cards, which ended up being a fairly smooth process. We knew that the last time Dawn used her wallet was the day before in Vaison and ended up surmising that she had been the victim of one of the very famous and apparently very smooth voleurs – pickpockets.
In any case, we continued on our travels south and got back on the autoroute. Everybody needed a washroom break and the autoroute is the best bet for finding a washroom since they appear in one of their excellent rest stops about every 5 kilometres. The one we stopped at also had a restaurant and takeout lunch items, not greasy fast food like at home, but excellent sandwiches and pastries. While perusing the offerings, Jackie came out of the washroom and announced to me that Dawn was locked in her cubicle - a solid door and wall affair unlike our Canadian counterparts. We told the girl at the lunch counter about the event and she got someone to take over for her at the counter and headed for the bathroom with a knife – I’m thinking this was not the first time they’d captured someone. She couldn’t free Dawn, but shortly the manager appeared with tools in hand and Dawn was out. We were starting to think we’d better keep an eye on Dawn and save her from the apparent black cloud over her head.