good report and glad you enjoyed it

Looking back, I realize I should have thanked a few more Fodorites who helped us prior to our recent vacation. Their suggestions and restaurant recommendations, which made it onto the lists Margie carried along, enriched our trip. They were bilboburgler, historytraveler, ira, Lexma90, and mpprh. I've already mentioned cigalechanta, StCirq, and Stu Dudley. There could still be someone I forgot.

We also got help from Peter of The Languedoc Page, http://www.the-languedoc-page.com/.

I've noted that I cut and pasted my trip report onto my web site, with the addition of some photos, at http://ljkrakauer.com/travel/france09sep.htm. After putting it up, I decided that while Fodorites have often said they like to have an indication of the <i>prices</i> of hotels and restaurants, I didn't think that was appropriate for a Trip Report <i>on my web site</i> (as opposed to the Trip Report on the <i>Fodor's</i> site). So I went through the web site version, and edited out the prices (except for our total expenditure on diesel fuel for the car, actually).

I wonder what Fodorites think about putting all this detailed price information in a Trip Report. Obviously, people travel at all sorts of different levels of expenditure. I'm sure some people spend less than we do, and others spend substantially more. This Trip Report is the first time I've put in that much financial detail. Is it appropriate?

(Just attended the Boston area GTG yesterday, and had a great time - thanks, Bob.)

>>Is it appropriate?<<


Sure - why not????

Stu Dudley

Not only is it appropiate to include detailed financial information, but it is also practical. I've always believed that mentioning places to dine, stay or to visit along with transportation information without including the cost is rather pointless. Thanks again Larry for your (detailed) trip report

Just read your report, thanks for sharing your trip. About detail, what I have found is that some people like to read reports with lots of detail and some don't. Whichever route you go, there are people who will appreciate your style. I do think a lot of people find it useful to know how much you paid for your hotels and meals.

It was nice to meet you both at the get-together yesterday.

Great trip report!! Putting together my own itinerary for a trip to Provence, hopefully next September.

Would love to get some more detail on your trip through the Camargue. What route did you take?

Had similar experiences with a Garmin two weeks ago while in the Piemonte. American Jill doesn't speak Italian either!

Thanks for writing, <font color="#0066CC"><b>drbb</b></font>.

The first time we used the Garmin in Europe was in fact in Italy. In my trip report on that trip, I noted:

"The English pronunciation of the Italian street names made the name-reading feature almost useless. ... Lots of Italian road names started out with "Strada Provinciale" (Provincial Road), followed by the actual name. "Provinciale" is properly pronounced something like /pro-vinn-CHA-lay/. By the time the Garmin unit got past /STRA-da pro-vinn-see-YALE/, I usually couldn't understand the rest. Fortunately, I could read it on the display, and proper pronunciation of the street names, while helpful, is not a critical part of the operation of a GPS."

That trip report can be found at:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...tober-2008.cfm

We only spent one day in the Camargue, starting from <i>Arles</i>, and we really only went down to Les <i>Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer</i> and back. We didn't visit <i>Aigues-Mortes</i>, having been there on a previous trip (although quite a few years ago), and we didn't visit <i>Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône</i>. We left <i>Arles</i> at the north, and drove down the D570. Rather than taking it all the way, however, we turned off on the D36, and drove down to <i>le Sambuc</i>, to see a bit more scenery, and to take a look at the restaurant <i>La Chassagnette</i>. It proved to be closed, however, and we couldn't really see beyond the gate. You can see a web page for the restaurant at http://lachassagnette-uk.blogspirit.com/ .

<i>La Chassagnette</i> is on one of our Provence restaurant lists, <b>ProvenceRestaurants(1).doc</b>, a 7-page Word file that we brought along. There's actually a second, 25-page Word file too, named <b>ProvenceRestaurants(2).doc</b> (duh!). These are a bit rambly and un-edited collections of restaurant recommendations that Margie collected from various on-line sources, organized by town. You can see either of these, and download them if you'd like, by going to my web page at:

http://ljkrakauer.com/docs/travel/

Anyway, we then drove back north to the D37, and took it across to the D570 at <i>Alberon</i> (the overlook platform I reported on was somewhere along the D37, I think). Once at <i>Alberon</i>, we turned south on the D570, and arrived for lunch at the <i>Hostellerie du Pont de Gau</i>, with the rest of the day as reported in the trip report above under <u>Friday, 9/18/09</u>.

September was a good time to visit - we had generally good weather, and missed the record-setting August heatwave.

- Larry

The former chef Rabenal opened his own place in Arles L' Atelier. Chassagnette has a new chef who is getting rsve reviews

Hi, <font color="#0066CC"><b>cigale</b></font>! Indeed, you are the source of our notes about <i>La Chassagnette</i> on that restaurant list. But as you can see, we never got to eat there. We could have phoned them first, but open or not, we wanted to try to take a look at it.

Let me add a reminder that this trip report, <i>without</i> the restaurant and hotel price information, but <i>with</i> added photos, can be found at:

http://ljkrakauer.com/travel/france09sep.htm

There aren't a lot of photos (we didn't take many on this trip), and some of them are of dishes we ate.

- Larry

Beautifully done and so organized!