As soon as I passed the borderthe change of pace was all encompassing, and navigation no longer felt like a fight for survival. I even started using my indicators again, once I realised that everyone else was.
I realised I´d been pretty much flogging my poor bike through the whole of Italy, which still has a long way to go.
I bumbled through Cannes, Monaco, Antibes, Nice, Marseille and just knew I had to try and find the youth hostel in Nimes I had been to 8 years before. In my memory it was the best and cheapest hostel from our three-month Euro-Rail trip. But I couldn´t remember why - all I remembered for certain was that it had a ping-pong table and a tumble dryer (which shrank every piece of clothing I owned to half-size).
It soon became obvious why it was stuck in my mind. The atmosphere. It is one of those places. A lovely, communal, sharing, family vibe, and unusually well integrated with the local community.
I stayed a couple of days, met some awesome people (including Dave, who camped at the hostel for a decade busking in Nimes every day), gave my poor motorbike an oil change and some TLC, and had more than a beer or two...
And after a night camping outside the incredible medieval walled-city of Carcassonne, was off to the last European country of my trip-
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