Hotel Mascotte Aix En Provence Aix-en-Provence

... 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
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 ...

... as if they omit bathrooms strictly as a matter of space. So I’ve got the bell tower room, high above the street and across from the Gare St. Charles, watching people come and go at all hours. I don’t have TV, but I do have Tinariwen on my buzz-box.

This room could probably be dubbed the ‘suicide suite’ if it weren’t so small, given its high perch five stories over the street far ...

... towns. It is a little further south and east and is surrounded largely by a cedar forest, so we got a very different, but equally beautiful view from some of the others we enjoyed throughout the day. We had no luck getting snacks, and it was too early for dinner, so we had to cut our visit a little short or starve. On the way home I spotted a boulengerie and we picked up bread, tarts and Lucy got something with nuts.

Lucy and I thought the impressionist paintings of Provence were just stylized to have those eye-popping ochre colors. Not true in Roussillon! Ochre from the red soil and rocks has been used in the stucco on the buildings in this village to gorgeous effect. They use contrasting paint colors on shutters, doors and other fixtures to gorgeous affect. If I come back, I ...

I'm not sure how much I can get down tonight because I'm dog-tired, but Lucy has gone off to the cyber-cafe and I'm here. Let's see what I can come up with...

Food here is pretty cheap, restaurants are very expensive, so we went back to Les Halles, the marketplace in Avignon to pick up some supplies for some lunches, snacks and dinners. Also, of course, we went for fun because Les Halles is a very cool place. Lucy bought seafood salad, marinated mushrooms (she ...

... there. Turns out that no one else had paid attention to her, as there were almost no other tourists there, which is one of the reasons why we give this the golden JeffandJenGreatestHits award. VLR gets this title even though our arrival was marred by an inability to find any of the hotels which were supposedly there. In the end, we did find a hotel which from the outside did not look like anything remotely special. But every nook and cranny of this cute ...

... very excellent vintages can be had for well under a premier cru or a screaming eagle. The areas immediately surrounding this town provide excellent choices of similar wines at very competitive prices. Further up in the mountains we were very excited by the excellent and not expensive choices in Gigondas and others. The best part about it is that it is hard to get a bad bottle in this region - even the collective stuff is pretty good. The French ...

... cedo pq tinha que atender um interessado no aspirador que ele colocara a venda ( ele vai começar uma volta ao mundo de varios anos em outubro e esta se desfazendo de tudo.Decroissance total!) Pra ser beeem sincera, nao gosto de reunioes infindaveis em torno da comida, nao sou pelo fast food,mais nao gosto de muito suspense na hora de comer.Aqui sempre tem o apero que dura infinitamente onde mordisca-se biscoitinhos salgados, batatas fritas, amendoins, etc....e ...

... faith too. Every morning we have a little devotional and prayer time, which is a great way to start the day. In all this learning and growing we have made the most wonderful friends who will be so hard to part with. We have already had to say a few goodbyes and it has been most difficult. This place is very envelopping, and the people warm in heart and spirit. Perhaps we will find out way back to l'Eau Vive one day... you never know... Greece here we come! Love, Gwen and Jen