Hotel Balladins Gemenos

... 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&#8217;t drag him further than a few blocks - worry that we needed to be back in time&#8230;?!?!<br><br>Finally around 4, they opened the gate so we could drive in. Only to find the ticket office didn&#8217;t open until 6pm. While waiting, we talked with a lovely Frenchcouple who were completely unperturbed at our lack of language ...

... don't think the universities here really take the stance that treating students like adults is important, unhelpful when you bear in mind that most of the students stay at home during their time at uni, mainly choosing the one closest to where they live. Really not great for us third years who are studying along-side first years (oh we're so old...!). One thing I am very impressed with, on the other hand, is the canteens. To make up for the not-so-great universities, and ...

Bonjour avec Aix-en-Provence Cherie<br>Since the last news we have visited the Cote D'Azur spending time at Monte Carlo and Antibes. We stayed near Antibes at a place called Biot and at night you could hear the seals at nearby Marineland - very strange. It was still quite hot and stickey with more mozzies. Monte Carlo was wall to wall money with billions of dollars in boats and cars. Antibes was similar but it had a lovely old town as well.<br>We arrived ...

Marseilles is a great city to get lost in. It may even be a great city to find yourself in. Streets branch off at acute angles that leave buildings on corners sucking in their bellies and hanging on for dear life. They probably mark the spots where some ancient forebear- let's call him 'Desmond&#8217;- manned a barrow in the marketplace and the rest is history. The grid plan came later or elsewhere. This is more like a ...

... helped pioneer modern western art. I found it so interesting that I really didn't miss not seeing the originals. The museum also had marble sculptures. Most of them were busts of important men or Greek or Roman figures, but the two I enjoyed most were one of a shepherd who was distressed by the loss of his bees and a marble relief of a modestly dressed woman nursing a chubby baby by Charpentier (I think that's the spelling). One was funny and the other was beautiful ...

... scorned, and this is a company that even moved into ex-PM Taksin&#8217;s Thailand. That takes some cojones muy grandes, amigo, about the size of oranges; you should see them suckers. This is important, not so much for this week as for the future, since I&#8217;m considering spending time here. If I&#8217;m ever going to &#8216;get French,&#8217; it&#8217;ll be here, or southern France at least. I&#8217;ve seen one restaurant in the mall with &#8216 ...

... trop petits. La prochaine fois, le challenge sera plus difficile. Le prix des OCCASIONNELS DU COMMENTAIRE : revient à tous ceux que la timidité empêchait de commenter régulièrement. Parmi ceux-ci, la liste n'est pas exhaustive, nous avons noté : Michel et Geneviève Dessagne Alain et Lilie Lecler Yvan Vacher (et Marie-Christine trop occupée) Brigitte et Laurent Jean-Paul Sourd Joe and MJ etc Reste enfin que, bien que nous ...

... you'll find the other." This doesn't actually give you a sense of what it's like to be there. The only way you can do that is to really pile detail upon detail, until you pass on a sort of richness in your imagination that enables the reader to feel what it's like to actually sit there, walk there, eat and talk and laugh there. Consider for example her first description of the Deux Garcons: "It is two large rooms, elegant in a deliberately faded style. "The larger ... is ...

... they had the address and details! Exhausted we took a taxi to the apartment....which was only a 4minute journey costing a whoppping &euro;12. When we arrived the apartment wasn't ready, so we left our rucs and went for food and a wonder. Went to look at the beach just to make sure that it was stoney like we'd been told....and yes it is no sand in sight! Ouch! Went back to the apartment, got sorted, grapped our beach gear and ...