Kyriad Vieux Port Marseille

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

... teen grabs a bottle from next to me and hurtles against a lamp post in their direction, then runs off. A garbage fire in a little alley draws a crowd, and the fire department. Nearby revelers sing rowdy drinking songs to the amusement of the gathered crowd.

It would be a lie to say that this place coincides with my prior visions of France. This is chaos. Yet still, while I feel unnerved to be here, couples walk past arm in arm, children walk with their parents ...

... gave me a leaflet explaining to the crowd that, as they are one of the worst behaved, they are being asked to not whistle or shout during the game, especially conversions, but to hiss instead. We then walked up to our seats, the pitch surrounded by high-barred fencing and barbed wire, and manned by security guards! Luckily the crowd was in a good mood that day! It was a good game,Toulon won, even if play was a bit unprofessional, and of course got tosee Jonny ...

We have at long last arrived in France! We ended up scrapping the visit to Marseille, both since travellers we've met said its not worth the visit, and since we heard it's not really the place to be wandering around the streets at 10 at night looking for a place to stay. So instead we caught the bus up to Aix-en-Provence, which is pretty much the cutest town on the entire planet. We're pretty sure we were the only people ...

... planning at all!

But tonight we’re talking a relaxing voyage by boat over the Medeterranian. Which will be followed by another. A few relaxing sailing days it would seems. Not exactly what I thought we were going to be doing, but it will work. We have our own berth with a shower and bed. Oh the luxuries never end! At least these 2 fools will rest well tonight and prepare for what lies ahead.

... br>(4) If a Marseillan tells you "no" or shows you his displeasure with just a wag of his index finger and an upraised chin, consider it the ultimate insult that they only seem to do to foreigners. They don´t even do this obnoxious gesture to each other. Just step into his personal area, look him square in the eye, and talk loudly in English. I guarantee you he will fall like a flimsy house of cards and saunter away. Seriously ...

... passeerden heeel wat mooie meisjes en gingen dan maar iets eten in een pizzeria-kebaaand. Verder was er ook nog een kleine kermis (het is er blijkbaar de periode voor hier). Na het eten hebben we nog even wat rondgewandeld en zijn we teruggereden naar Montélimar. We gingen er nog naar de kermis. Deze keer had Ben wel geluk! Hij heeft met dat grijpspelding een truitje van Lyon gevangen. Dat gaat hem morgen zeker van pas komen ...

... grinders, accordion quartets, barbeques and pumpkin scented soap made it appealing to all the senses. All the local farmers were there to show off their wares and join in on the action. We also enjoyed the Autumn Festival complete with mountains of chocolate, cheese, wine and locals donning traditional costumes and dancing out front of the convent. Most of our evenings were filled with the tales of The Count of Monte Cristo ...

So we caught what I think may just be the world's fastest train from Paris down to Marseille... the TGV. From what I have read it's actually faster than the bullet train in Japan, but I'm not entirely sure... At any rate it's frickin fast, which is wicked cos it cut an 8 hour trip down to a 3 hour trip and it was pretty much to the minute on time. Even better was arriving in Marseille, which is notorious for freezing weather due to this particular wind they get there (it ...

... and discovered a great surprise there: There were launches to go to some nearby islands! We boarded the launch and enjoyed swimming in the crystalline waters for the rest of the day. However, a bit of time was left to visit some nice areas of Marseille during the evening.