All went well…till I screwed myself up on Saturday morning. I promptly reached the train station at 7:40 am (the train would be leaving at 8 am), proceeded to the ticket machine before realizing that I had forgotten to bring along my 12-25 card (a discount card for youth below 25 years old). The ticket for Nimes without the reduction card cost 37.80 euros one way while that with reduction was only 15.50 euros!! Having spent a whopping 406 euros last weekend in Swiss, I seriously could not afford this amount, especially considering that I would be heading to Paris next weekend.
So I checked for later trains to Nimes which could perhaps allow me some time to go back and return with my discount card. To my disbelief, the tickets were sold out…even for the 1st class TGV! I was really disappointed and I only had myself to blame for this screw-up. Bye-bye Nimes… Sorry I can’t get to know you better!
Sinhui suggested that we go somewhere nearby in the Isère region (area around Grenoble). I agreed, a bit reluctantly at first, but I did have some fun in the end in Uriage. Uriage, recommended by the man at the gare routière (bus station), is a small, pretty (and pretty small) village located just 30 minutes from Grenoble centre.
L-R: Slurping my duck noodle at China Moon, Sinhui the faithful company
When we reached Uriage, it was drizzling and the tourism office was closed. Luckily, we found a locality map, so we had some ideas of where we could head to (the village was really small anyway). This village was tranquil, with a few nice parks (except that now leaves are real luxuries), a casino, a few thermal bath centres and a private castle.
L-R: a random wall; general view of Uriage
Both of us at the park & the wooden bridge (and arguably the pretties thing in town)
We took a super slow walk to kill time…taking a couple of stupid photos along the way. That’s what we do when we have lots of time and few things to do! Haha. Our intention of a picnic lunch had to be cancelled due to the rain, so we gobbled our ham and baguette under a shelter which resembled a bus stop.
The pictures say it all...hope it didn't smell too bad.
L-R: who lets the dog out?; Sinhui at the discovery of apples as small as cherries
Still another 1.5 hours to kill when we finished lunch. It was time to lose the fat by hiking up to the castle on top of a hill. The hiking trail was not long, but it was one of the steepest I have done thus far (sometimes the slope went as steep as 60-70 degrees from the horizontal). Add the wetness of the ground with the steepness and it became an extremely dangerous adventure. We did not have much problem hiking up, but it was really scary on the way down. Anyway, the castle was a private property, meaning that there were actually people living inside.
Sinhui & I at the vicinity of the private castle
I am still upset for not being able to go to Nimes as I write this post. But this was possibly a blessing in disguise as I found out that the original train that we wanted to take was delayed by 1h 45 min due to some technical problems. In any case, I would not have made it to Pont du Gard in time as I still had to switch to a local bus to reach there from Nimes. Fated, perhaps. Is it part of God’s plan, Michelle? Hahah.
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