Hotel Des Moulins Allauch

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

... but petty crimes and muggings are commonplace. There's no need for paranoia but you should avoid the Belsunce area. Women will get unsolicited attention, ranging from wolf-whistling to sometimes aggressive chat up routines- but keep your wits about you and you should be fine."

OK....This is coming from a guidebook that can make Somalia sound like an enticing destination. I take the opportunity to hide most of my cash deep in my pack. The train finally creaks ...

... Danni! But at more than half the price of the train, we weren’t complaining...and we definitely weren’t when we got a look at Wilko’s thighs! So we arrived early to give us a chance to look around Toulon. We headed straight for the port for breakfast; croissants, bread, butter, jam, orange juice and hot chocolate, and then had a scout around the market before deciding to go out on one of the tourist boats (to make a change from the little trains ...

... 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 ...

... stay at this lovely lady’s home and forward onto Italy from another port
2) change destination to another port on Corse where there are more options for forwarding onto Italy
3) wait 2 days until there is a direct ferry from Marseille to italy (the one we thought we were on)

In the end we decided on No. 2. I was actually thankfull for once of Brian’s obsessive earliness as ...

... Aix...oh, the Brits abroad, mon dieu! Still, best 6€ I've ever spent. We've also been along to the cinema. Embarassingly, it was to see Fame but I'd like to point out how important cinema, and going to the cinema, is to the French. There are at least 3 cinemas in Aix, and there are huge film posters everywhere. 'Le Cezanne', has it's name lit up, and, unlike at home, the seats are like armchairs and there's plenty of leg room. But, like at home, it's bloody ...

Bonjour avec Aix-en-Provence Cherie
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.
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’- manned a barrow in the marketplace and the rest is history. The grid plan came later or elsewhere. This is more like a ...

... a fine and self-aware old age? Will she be valued as an exemplar to younger writers, such as Anne Lamott? Or as the chronicler of daily life in a world now gone from all but memory? Her writing about food stands apart from most such writing in our own twenty-first century, most of which might be published until the title "Food as Chemistry." Fisher did not view food analytically-so many grams of this, so many units of that. Instead, the reader is introduced to food as a ...

... are run on the same system. Upon arrival in Aix, we must find somewhere to park. The historical centre is mostly traffic free, so we must select one of about 10 large car parks dotted around the perimeter of the city core. After a bit of confusion, we finally enter a parking lot, lock up the car and walk into the darkening administrative capital of Provence http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/aix /aix.htm.