i. note that no actual night or sleep to speak of intervene between day zero and day one = i am “awake” from 2.45am to midnight-ish
ii. n’mes is a tiny small roman airport to a tiny small roman city once long ago but no longer the capital of the region (= the rh’ne delta i guess?): it still proudly features its amphitheatre, but gladiators vs gladiators long ago gave way to bullfighters vs bullfighters >:(
iii. en route north to dr’me we visit le pont du gard, which since my companions – dr vick and her mum – last visited has been converted from a giant huge ruin in the middle of nowhere to a giant huge ruin in the middle of an extensively tailored tourist-heritage site: this means you can longer wander dangerously abt on top of the aqueduct – let alone rollerskate on it!!? (did i imagine/doze/dream a discussion-description of small dr vick doing this?)
iv. as i retreat further into sleepy confusion we drive around between dr’me and ard’ches, where vick’s foax have family-holiday roots and current business: by early evening we are headed back to mont’limar (= world capital of nougat!!) to eat and sleep, through
v. THE MOST GIANT THUNDERSTORM I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN MY LITTLE LIFE!!!!!! Not just huge rain and thunder and lightning on all sides quite close, but startling visual after-effects of lightning this close (like the “corners” of the lightning zigzags bursting into sparks!!) (or is this a genuine actual ball-lightning phenom?) plus also the electricity at my hotel (The Sphinx) being knocked out twice, for half an hour each time; meanwhile dr vick and her mum didn’t dare leave the car to run under the trees to where they were staying across town, and the (softtop) car wz filling up with water so they were having to bail it! Later we stood on their balcony and watched the remains of the storm move behind the mountains (french alps? massif centrale? mark s = totally too tired even to guess the direction), from where it still lit up the entire lower half of the sky with great purple flashes