Mariette Pacha Marseille

It is here, in the train station of Limoux, that I feel I can breathe again. I'm ready for the next leg of the journey. I'm done with WWOOFing for the time being, and it's time to cover some miles. Somewhere in all those layers of Tabby's house is a pair of old rubber boots with holes in the heels. I won't be needing those anymore. So its with a lighter pack, and a slightly heavier wallet, that I have my sights set on Italy.

My plan seems straightforward enough. I ...

... on Sundays, when nothing really opens – the French here observe their ‘dimanche’ a lot more than we do at home, which I think shows a great respect for tradition, even if it is religious, and for the importance of spending time with family. But there’s still one French tradition I can’t get used to: men kissing each other on the cheeks...God knows what would happen if they put mistletoe into the equation!

Charlotte x

... 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 ...

... write her address and draw a map I realized that something was terribly wrong. She drew a map of Corse (Corsca) - a little French island I the Medeterranian. We were headed to Corse, not Italy! The victim of not having an Italian map and too little internet time. Who knew? Propriano certainly sounds Italian to me…

We weighed our options:
1) continue on and cycle across Corse (2700m altitude ...

... 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 ...

... I lived here- that’s the epiphany of any trip for me- Skyping my wife every day and eating instant noodles. The big grocery chains charge more than a € for a pack, but you can score in the Vietnamese shops for a quarter that. So I buy an electric water kettle for inn-room coffee and noodles. It’ll pay for itself in the long run. Ever the creative one, I experiment putting Nutella in my coffee, figure ...

... can skip this part if you want. I just want to have the info available if anyone is interested.) Le Courbusier was kind of a genius so obviously he was a little weird. At that time he made up his own system of proportions called The Modulor (based on golden rectangle and human proportions) and used a 6 ft tall (weirdly shaped) man to illustrate it. This is formed into the concrete near the entrance which was pretty cool to see after leaning about all ...

... the experts about wheelchairs in Marseille. She honestly looked at us with an eyebrow up and said there wasn't anything for us and that the only public restroom was in the mall. We headed for the mall because of the air conditioning qualities located therein. AC and toilets is what its all about in Marseille!! Even Columbus knew that! Inside the mall we saw an exhibition of Buffalo Bill Cody (definitely ...

Les Calanques are the cliffs that meet the Mediterranean Sea behind our campus. If I get off of the bus at the school it's a 45 minute walk to the water's edge... and let me tell you it's a hike, but amazingly beautiful! I did it again today and went both up to the top for the view and then all the way down to the water to sit, write, and soak it all in... so I'm exhausted physically but wound up mentally :) Here's ...

... is a Marseille local and they love him around town. I think he was very generous, etc. Then we went out on a bit of a pub crawl around town, which was lots of fun. Trying our best to communicate with all Matthew's friends who were lovely and tried their best to speak English with us while we just felt bad we couldn't speak any French other than about 5 words. Woke up a little dusty the next morning and had chocolate croissants for brekky... as you do. When in France ...