Bastide du Cours Aix-en-Provence

Really beautiful train ride along the coast (which in a way it is a shame that the railway is right on the beach) Marseille is a bigger city and not so quaint but the port area is nice. Flew out of Marseille to Lisbon. I know not quite geographically logicall

... its agonizing end, and I hop off, ready to explore.

The first order of business is to locate my bus connection to Torino. Looks like I can add another entry in my file "life lessons I've learned while traveling". As it turns out the bus station is closed, and I was supposed to reserve my ticket yesterday. Well, I've also learned that one of my strengths as a traveler is my ability to handle sleep deprivation, so I book a train ticket for 5am tomorrow, and set out ...

... looked quite poor, as did a lot of Marseille, and was very dirty, the bad weather not helping the atmosphere. We did get to see one pretty spectacular place, the Notre Dame on top of the hill overlooking the port. We took the tourist train up there (can tick that one off our list), and saw the richer areas of the town on the way up. The views were fantastic and the cathedral amazing, with a crypt below. All very colourful and lots of artwork based around the port and ...

... made some friends had we the time and resources to put together costumes... I decided we were dressed up as Canadians, which I thought would have worked great until Tom pointed out that Canadians would probably speak more French. But we weren't really left out, there were only a handful of people dressed up. Overall; here is the tally of costumes in Aix on halloween: 2 girls in witch hats (with one stocking each), 5 ...

... Argh! I tried to get him to go up into the town and explore, but I couldn’t drag him further than a few blocks - worry that we needed to be back in time…?!?!

Finally around 4, they opened the gate so we could drive in. Only to find the ticket office didn’t open until 6pm. While waiting, we talked with a lovely Frenchcouple who were completely unperturbed at our lack of language ...

... we all went out for dinner and drinks last night. Wine has re-entered my life!

Happy Birthday to Helen for tomorrow. Missing everyone at home, but am fighting off any serious homesickness, and have found somewhere that sells Heinz Beanz! Have had a lazy Sunday, managed to get some pool time in before the rain, and tomorrow we're going to march down to the uni to nag for our student cards (nagging is certainly the way to do it here)!

A toute! xxx

... at all though! Arles does cobblestone streets, lots of shops, fancy Gallic folk walking around, and nice cafes in all the squares... a pretty standard nice small French city. To counter the rain's effects we splurged on an actual bed and breakfast instead of the usual one star and were very pleased with a warm kitchen table and nice sheets! By the time dinner rolled around it had turned plain nasty and we ran through the windy streets with umbrellas that ...

Hello again fellow bloggers! Sorry for the delay in blog updates at the moment but we ran into some itinery problems. We have been staying way way way outside Aix En Provence due to the lack of accommodation - but as always there is a story to tell! So we arrived in good time and spirits in Aix and it could be described as a mini Barcelona. So we trot off to the tourism office to ...

... ce fleuve avec plusieurs récoltes par an et pourquoi les fleuves Sénégal et ***** sont-ils dés**tiques ou peu cultivés tout au long de leur cours ?? Les cultures sont restées les mêmes, traditionnelles avec en majorité du sorgho, du riz, du coton et des potag**s. Les chèvres se sont multipliées et ne laissent plus aucune chance aux repousses de la végétation encore épargnée par la déforestation. Enfin les feux de brousse finissent de dévor** le peu de végétation laiss ...

... parking. That feeling left quickly and we entered the parking garage and grab a ticket. Easy peasy. We tour around Aix and walk along Cours Mirabeau (the "Champs-Elysees of Provence"), check out the Mazarin Quarter (elegant residential neighborhood), peak at Aux Deux Garcons (café now popular by the local mafia and according to Rick Steve - we didn't take photos), do some window shopping at the ...