Hotel Royal Cottage Cassis

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

... I stammer back
"Meguez?! How do you know Merguez?! Where did you first eat Merguez?"
"Canada"
He's shocked to hear that we've heard of Merguez in Canada. "Maybe the Algerian community is making it there" he guesses.

The places is packed, with a fun atmosphere. There's only the one man behind the counter, though once in a while a customer will go back to help themselves to a pop or more ketchup. There's plenty of banter, though most of it I don't ...

... playing well and looking gorgeous. The girls all thanked me for dragging them there, even if we did all get sunburnt!

After over two months of being here, I also finally visited Marseille! And all the things I had heard about it were true. It is massive, second largest to Paris, and very diverse. After we got off the bus, we didn’t hear French for about 10 minutes, walking through one of the quartiers populated by ethnic minorities. On the bad side, this ...

... t speak french: baguette, coffee, pan de chocolate, fresh squeezed oj, all fresh fresh fresh. Then we hit the market, vendors were begging us to try free samples of meat, cheese, honey, fruit, olives, you name it. Needless to say, we found our lunch for the day.
Oh; did I forget to mention it was Halloween? Not that it really matters, since the french do NOT really understand what halloween is. We decided to not even ...

... 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 ...

... about 10€ on pic 'n' mix...have finally found someone else whose sweet tooth can match up to mine! Then for dinner we had the best meal that I've had since we got here...sausages, new potatoes, and Heinz baked beans. I realise that's sounds awful, as I'm supposed to be integrating into the French way of life, but during dinner I did at least have a bit of a chat with Amy's French landlord (he doesn't like Sarkozy much). Then today I tagged along with Lizzie and ...

... a :) Também descobrimos que tinha passeio de barco pra visitar os calanques. Vimos o horário, ainda faltava umas duas horas pro passeio. Até lá nos almoçamos, eu e Hed fomos atrás de um lugar para dormir a noite e depois fomos tomar sol na praia. Vanessa como boa carioca acostuamada a águas geladas tomou banho. Depois fomos fazer o passeio, os calanques realmente são lindos . O mar estava mais ou ...

... pare dintr-o viata anterioara! Nici nu ma mir ca nu gasesti parcare aici. Inainte de a pleca, mergem sa vedem plaja de la calanque, macar atat daca nu avem timp pentru excursia cu vaporasul la calanques. Calanques sunt ca niste fiorduri, unde marea a sapat in interiorul stancii de pe uscat, sunt superbe, iar zona Cassis e plina de ele... Ce diferenta mare intre doua statiuni la asa mica distanta! Cu siguranta e tara in care se gasesc de toate pentru toate gusturile si asteptarile! Pai nu-i bine asa?

... of photos (only posted a few to spare you the details), watch people, talk and enjoy our drink. Then we scope out where to rent scooters so we can ride to Bandol (one of our FAVORITE wine regions in France). Got it. No prob. We grab a bite to eat and dessert - then head back to our hotel. This hotel is on very near the Port - great for convenience...no so great when going to sleep. We put in our ear plugs and call it a nite. Bonsoir (good nite).

... our mark on life?" The answer on both stops was: "Get your feet wet." Cassis is a small Provencal town crouched on the rim of the Mediterranean sea below Aix and to the right of Marseille. Luckily for us, this was an easy Sunday afternoon's drive away. And so we took to the winding village roads through orderly fields of grapes slowly ripening under the punishing sun, past pastel villages and signs promising rooms for just35 ...