2. No Castle: So I understood enough that the sign said visiting hours in French (thru 18:30), but didn't try to read the next note when I passed by at 4:30. I was unfortunately met by a ticket office manned by a French guy closing out the register at 5:34PM upon returning. It was closed. I took another look at the sign and realized the second note said the last entry at 5:30! I returned and pleaded to no avail. Ultimately this was my fault, but a sign in English or a lenient clerk would have made it work out fine anyways.
3. French keyboard: I am so glad that I have my palm (with folding keyboard, but even graffiti is faster) to update the blog. I stopped in my first french i-net cafe to use a computer and left frustrated after 20min. The letters are in different places (not QWERTY), a period requires hitting the shift key, the @ requires hitting the 'Alt Gr' key, and the numbers across the top are accessed only via 'Shift'(this is particularly frustrating when the first numbers entered are for a password and displayed only as *), to name a few changes.
4. Train ticket machines: These machines have a lousy touch screen that then takes so long to process that you've already hit the screen 4 times before you realize it is doing something. Then after you walk through the extended process of finding a ticket to buy, you try both US credit cards and another 2 US debit cards, all branded VISA and after each it says card not taken (actually it responds in French even though you've selected English as the language) and proceeds to show you a screen with the cards that it does take, VISA is very prominently shown. And if you were smart, and booked online in advance you only have to print out the ticket. But, it still says card not taken so you have to go to a teller, meanwhile who knows how many people got in line while you were getting to know this machine better than you know some friends. But anyhow, I had the problem of not being able to print it before, and will be leaving early Friday so I thought I'd give it a go tonight. I got there after the ticket office was closed and confirmed that I couldn't get the machine to work for me (after waiting patently for the bloke in front of me to arrive at the same conclusion). I checked the hours (I'm getting better at this, I swear) and they open at 7:05 tomorrow. The latest train I could find Friday that meets my itinerary leaves at 7:46am, so buying a ticket and boarding the train with my bike loaded to the gills could be iffy. I'm gonna shoot for an early trip to the station tomorrow and slightly delay my mountain ascent to make sure Friday's trip goes smoothly.
If you watch the Tour Thursday (or the highlights), watch for me high up on the Col du Tourmalet. It's the last climb of the day, and a summit finish, so that should be the majority of the highlights footage that they show. And this is about the last real stage to make a move for anybody that isn't great at time trials. Friday's stage is flat, Saturday is the time trial, and Sunday is just for show (Paris).
Oh, and the picture is the castle they wouldn't let me into. That could be tomorrow's biking weather in the background.
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