Marseille Est Saint Menet

... enticing, so I join him.

Daniel is a biologist studying stress. He looks to be in his late 50s. He has a neatly trimmed mustache, a clean apartment with a stunning view of the city, and a dog the size of a small bear. He offers me some Calvados which I'm happy to accept. We watch TV, and chat for a bit. I take a shower, and then I'm on my way.

"When do you sleep normally?" I ask as I leave
"I don't know" he shrugs

What a bizarre encounter.

... a village called Le Tholonet, not far outside of Aix, one of the villages around the Sainte-Victoire mountain. The landscape was incredible, completely different to what we have on Exmoor of course, and views
were stunning. We walked up to the Barrage (dam) Zola, built by Emile Zola’s (a French writer living in the latter half of the 19th Century) father. The water was a turquoise colour, and it was there that I chose my spot to yodel and sing The Sound of ...

... 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 ...

... Argh! I tried to get him to go up into the town and explore, but I couldn’t drag him further than a few blocks - worry that we needed to be back in time…?!?!

Finally around 4, they opened the gate so we could drive in. Only to find the ticket office didn’t open until 6pm. While waiting, we talked with a lovely Frenchcouple who were completely unperturbed at our lack of language ...

... weekend has put me right back on track, though, and so hopefully uni work will follow suit. Also got a lovely postcard from Dad looking over Holnicote, great to hear that everyone at home is well, even though I think I sometimes forget that life still carries on there when I'm not around.

Bon soir to all, from a very happee Charlotteee
xx

P.S Managed to get to one of the markets in town this week, got a full bag of fruit and vegetables for about 5€!

It started with a typical french breakfast - croissants, pain au chocolad, cheese and coffee - then fruits.
Then we planned a trip to the sea. We drove about 2 hours and finally arrived in a town called Saint Cyr Les Lecques.
BIG problem - parking. We searched for an hour to find a place to park. The town is really pretty with a crowded beach. There are a lot of cafes and ...

... plug won't fit in properly with my adapter as it has this cover.... then oooppps, the cover accidently breaks off and everything is fine. I do some typing and then decide to have a snooze for an hour, I have two seats and I can stretch out. Little do I know when you win with one thing you lose with another.! I have no host in Marseille tonight, my host can only host me for Wednesday night. I arrive in Marseille there is a nice train station and I ...

... in their ignorance. Marseille is a fast food paradise. That's good considering that sit-down meals would be about the same price as the cheap rooms. I'm in the shawarma part of town, little Africa. If you want bouillabaisse, then that's another quarter. Moroccans here seem right at home, sipping mint tea in sidewalk cafes, while their wives stay at home and do all the work, just like good little Tangerines back home ...

... walk up that hill in the heat. I got pretty burnt today, oops! Oh well, should come back as the bronzed aussie everyone over here expects us to be. Rang Dad for fathers day today, like the wonderful daughter I am ;-) Think I will catch a cruise out to one of the islands tomorrow, should be nice. Anyway, gonna do some research on Nice. Salut Katharine

... if they could share the attic with us for the night, and us being so hospitable, agreed. We soon found out that it was one of the guys birthdays and so that called for a pile of m&ms with a candle stuck in the middle and a bit of singing, prolonging the little party to 4am. The following morning we gave our thanks to the crew and left a six pack of Carlsburg 1664, some money and an invitation to mooch off of us in Australia any time they liked.