Le Petit Nice Provence

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 share a laugh with a man who finds it as amusing as I do.

The merguez and fries wasn't so glorious as to justify a description, but it sure hit the spot. Despite a frustrating day of buses and trains, I find myself content with my travels, and happy to be in Marseille.

I duck into an internet cafe to send Carlo and update, then being sure to avoid the Belsunce area, which I'm uncomfortably close to, set out to explore. I pause to watch a small ...

... a tour around the military port and the bay. Saw some very big and scary-lookin’ boats, but apart from them the bay was beautiful, with lots of fishing platforms out in the water, and it was a lovely sunny day. After disembarkment, thanking the pirate-looking guides on our way, we headed to the Stade Mayol, which had a bit of a festival atmosphere, the restaurants cooking outside and selling drinks. At the gates, the steward took the cap of my water bottle from me ...

... in devil ears, 1 batman, 1 Spiderman, a copule dudes in masks, 2 girls with just some random fake blood on their face, 3 poorly represented Village people, and a guy who we think was Peter Pan, but he had cardboard fairy wings so we're not sure. All in all, Halloween ended up being a pretty fun night, but we certainly missed being home for this day! Now we are off to the Rhone Valley for some great wine... in a CAR! Stay tuned.

... The woman talked about the large mountains we would encounter and how the weather was supposed to be bad for the next week.

When discussing our trip, she said it was ‘beau’. Asked if we had a map - no, transaltion book - no, telephone - no. I said ‘je suis fou?’. But she confirmed, no ‘beau’, but offered us a place to stay at their home. As she started ...

... in a bit of culture. Before it closed, we made sure we went along to the Cezanne/Picasso exhibition, originals and all. The pieces were amazing up close, and we were able to recall some French cultural studies lectures...even though, of course, Picasso wasn't actually French, but we could recognise his influences! Definitely worth noting that the only reason we knew where the exhibition was taking place, was because we'd previously been on the little tourist train ...

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 ...

... village perched on a hill. It was just spectacular. However as our directions seemed to run out, and Tom didn't seem to be able to get a satellite location, we started to get a little concerned. We even resorted to phoning the owners for more directions, only to continue to get an engaged signal each time. Eventually, just as Matt's patience for dead ends was starting to fade, I decided we needed help and wandered into the front yard of a local house to ask for directions. Not knowing the ...

... our work is done! We have 2 hours off in the afternoon where we go for walks...OK fine we take naps most afternoons. It's tiring work cleaning dem bathrooms! All joking aside, it's most wonderful to be surrounded by believers again. Our work team, which is about 10, does a weekly bible study togather. We also eat most of all meals together as a team and go on outings when we don't have a group staying. Like ...

... and the harbor overlook of Nice: beautiful! The town was fast paced and much more city like, crowded with so so many people in tozn for the Cannes Film Festival. Dinner in the Old City was had, and not to my personal preference little Kuta definitely heard noises from her neighbors that were NOT the TV and not something she wanted to hear through their conjointed wall. Thank god for Ipods!