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Martin T. (to the right) had pleasant and fascination trip
with some weird company to France in the period above. Martin has his party hat on.
France was a place where Martin studied from 1973 to 1974 to gain an MBA
(Masters of Business Administration) at INSEAD. |
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Above, you have a map that show where Mérindol in Provence is situated in
France.
The weather
at Marseille, next to Mérindol.
For detailed maps of France, look at
Mapquest. They are excellent. Martin used them as his roadmaps for his
trip from Nice, where he landed, and to Mérindol. |
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The pictures below
and on the following pages, are all thumbnails, meaning they are small copies of the real thing.
You just click on the thumbnails, and you get the full picture in a separate
window. And depending on your browser, it may be a little smaller to fit
your screen size.
Just click the enlargement button to see the full picture. It looks like
this  . |
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To the left, the Hôtel Auberge Bellevue where Martin stayed for two weeks.
Auberge details. It is
situated in Mallemort. To the right, you have a road map of how to
get there from Lyon to
Mérindol. |
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Here you have the route Martin took in his
rental car from Nice
to Mallemort where he stayed just outside the village at Mérindol.
Details of the last few kilometers from the highway A7 to Mallemort. |
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At the main airport at Oslo, an early morning
coffee always tastes well at 0615 in the morning. Landing at
Nice airport on time, exactly 2,5 hours flight from Oslo. |
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Some other carriers do land here as well. This
is the Brussels Airlines that just has landed next to our SAS (Scandinavian
Airline Services), Martin's carrier. The long winding roads
through before you could pick up your luggage. The custom's officials were
not interested in Martin's gun. Three times the were asked. Twice before the
luggage arrived, an once with the gun bag in front of them. They just
smiles, and waived Martin through. |
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There are a few terminals at Nice airport. The
trip from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 was quite long and the road was difficult
to navigate. Martin's rental, a VW diesel. A lovely car to
drive. |
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Martin posing proudly in front of his car.
Compared to the scrap heap is is driving, this is a dream to drive.
To the right, two photos of the highway A8 just outside Nice. This road
clearly shows the difference between road construction in France and Norway.
Norway is way behind most countries in Europe. Even behind Portugal that is
considered a relatively poor nation by Western European standards. Shame on
Norwegian politicians. |
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The road signs just outside Nice.
A quick stop at Fréjus. For the road taken, see the roadmap above. |
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Some nice pictures taken while driving through the
friendly landscape of France. |
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The even have some fur trees like back home ;-)
Truck stops are abundant along the road. More than third of the cars were
long haul trucks from all over EU (European Union). Not so in Norway. Big
trucks have hardly any prepared stops for them. |
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Martin was missing the typical French toilet, in
this case a crapper. You do your business if you are fit enough.
This Portuguese driver had built in cooking facilities in his truck. |
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The mountains near to La Celle. See Map above.
The turnoff to Sénas. Also on another map above. |
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The entrance to Hôtel-Auberge Bellevue Mérindol.
Notice the violet gates. Martin managed to scrape the side of the car there.
But since he took out an additional insurance of € 10,- a day, he has his
damage excess covered. This is € 600,-. Goof for him. The
street outside Bellevue. More violet gates. |
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The entrance sign. This hotel was very difficult
to find. It was hidden well into the small streets of Mérindol.
Martin's room at Bellevue. Low ceiling and Martin bumped his head a few
times before he got the point. |
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Time for a quick tan before a dip in the pool.
The water was rather chilly, but he got at least 500 meters.. |
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Time for shopping. There was a lack of small
shops in the villages, so the big supermarkets had to be visited.
Reflection of Martin taking a photo of himself outside the supermarket. |
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The beers in France were all very high on
alcohol content. Hard to find a beer with normal strength like 4,5 % alcohol
content. Very delicious meat on the rack. Tasted like wet
newspaper. Very disappointing. |
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The view behind the Bellevue hotel. Now it was
time for a nice dinner and a night cap. |
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