Hostellerie Du Lac Bleu 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

... ride the train from Limoux to Marseille, which involves a couple transfers, then from Marseille there is an overnight bus that will take me right into Torino, where I'll meet my friend Carlo, and spend a couple days.

My simple train ride into Marseille turns into a series of missed connections and mis-communications. It somehow ends up taking five hours longer than I expected, and for the last stretch I just got on a train that I hadn't paid a ticket for. Note to ...

... easy to sort out. Sending Sarko my love!

And so now the run-up til Christmas begins! Some of the lights are on and there’s a Christmas market along the Cours Mirabeau that we had a quick look at yesterday, and they’re selling roast chestnuts in the street, so starting to get excited about coming home, but at the same time no wanting to wish my time away here. Town is definitely getting busier on the Saturdays, which makes Aix really feel like a ghost ...

... English in the entire town. We found our hostel super late at night (and they don't make hostels in France like they did in Spain... no more free internet!). The next morning, we walked into town not really knowing what to see or do. But as we were looking for a quick Petit Dejuner (breakfast) we stumbled upon the Saturday market. We sat at a cafe on the square and had the most amazing breakfast 5 euro can buy if you ...

... 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 ...

... on the street in one of the many city squares, salmon with pesto and mussels in a cream sauce.

We are headed to Genoa tomorrow and the off to Cinque Terra from there. Its about a 7 hr train ride to Genoa, so that means lunch and wine on the train.

We will try to get pictures posted soon.

... to get pictures up because I forgot my camera's hook up to my computer (the ones I've uploaded are stolen from friend's facebooks). We had over a 3 hours lay over so we kicked back at our gate. Another American girl showed up and started a conversation with Libby and I. Her name is Rachel and as fate would have it she was also heading to Aix to study at IAU! I got the down-low on everything from her because she is a full year student and this is her second ...

... relaxed and read in the Parque de Buen Retiro. We topped off the night with nearly-authentic Tex Mex from an "American" restaurant and caught some really good music at a local jazz club. It might not sound like an authentic Spanish experience, but after many weeks of travel, we got exactly what we needed right then. It was one of the few cities (other than Arcos for me) that we both agreed: "Hmm... I could actually live here!" Then we made our way to ...

... qui maîtrise le feu, fabrique les armes et les outils. Elle est en charge de la conception, de la fabrication et de l'entretien des masques. Cette caste est redoutée pour la maîtrise de ses pouvoirs magiques, de sorcell**ie et autres envoutements (voir ci-dessous). Il n'est pas question de sortir de sa caste. On y est, on y reste de père en fils !! Pas question non plus de mariages collatéraux·, et encore moins d'all** cont** fleurette dans la tribu d'à coté !! Puis ...

... at this point, because I only had three more months to go, and one can stay in France for three months and travel in and out of the country without a carte sejour, so I probably would have been okay. But I changed my mind. Something inside was telling me to go to Aix's Prefacture and reapply for the damn card so that at least I could get a receprise, which would act as a temporary carte sejour, thus meaning I could travel ...