Mercure Hotel Marseille Prado

... 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€!

... yesterday, Saturday, and it is cooler but still nice. The trip here was spectacular with many olive groves and big mountains. Today we went on a tour to Les Beax - another medieval town with a castle - poor Graham and on his birthday too. Then we went winetasting and to the premier olive oil producers in France. The Mistrql was blowing on the tour and it was very cold but warmer back here in the camp. Tomorrow we explore Aix on foot then we go to Avignon.

... ask where they will sleep and what they will eat?" Yep, I reckon that’s about all they do. Jesus was lucky; he never had to score WiFi. But he could multiply fishes; now THAT’S cool.

Sometimes I tell my wife when I feel she’s not being appreciative that all she has to do is close her eyes, click her heels three times, then re-open her eyes and everything she needs is right within her grasp ...

... another. We were laughing about how much effort it was taking him to get almost nowhere when the guy in front of us slammed on his breaks. The guy in back of us, rather than slamming on his brakes as well, seized this as an opportunity to pass four cars at once! Absolute lunacy, I tell you! We thought we had front row seats to a high-speed head-on colision for sure. The best part is that he saved less than 30 seconds with that maneuver. He turned off the main road a ...

... can appreciate the pay-as-you-go economic factor, and admittedly many of the customers of the cheapest places here are Arabs who would simply prefer a traditional hammam, but it goes deeper than that. Every room has a bidet, so I guess that covers the important areas. Thus was born the French perfume industry. Of course it’s not that I MIND paying €3-5 for a shower, it’s just the hassle involved. It reminds me of the old Western ...

... stained glass and is very impressive. After snapping some more pics time to head home and relax before dinner.

We head down to the port for dinner and you can totally see some of the African flair in the cuisine. We actually find a little Lebanese place and pig out, well I pigged out. Rest of the night is pretty quiet. Long walk home and relax to get ready for a couple more one night stopovers before we get some done time.

... he delivery charge. This is the moment I get FRANCED although I do not find out until much later. I leave with my new toy and have a few hours to kill at the Youth Hostel so I can play with my toy some more. Matt comes back he missed me at breakfast and we play with my toy. He is so going to get himself one so he can do his book. I give him a few more travel tips of things I have perfected on the way. He finds out he has got the job which is great ...

... go there to study their feeding and mating habits, if they still have any. Marseille just has winos, good old fashioned bums begging coins for booze. I don't know where they sleep, probably on the street. The cheapest hotels close their doors at ten, eleven or midnight latest. That'll keep the riffraff out. This is a part of Europe scarcely known or acknowledged anymore, the old Europe, mostly southern and eastern ...

... what it would have been like to have actually been playing in the game! National anthems were great to hear - especially given the lusty singing of a few good-looking Italian men who were nearby! And I'm sure you all know about the game and the result (76-14 to the All Blacks), so I'm not going to set out a blow by blow (or try by try) account of it. But it was a great game to be at and the atmosphere was fantastic. I met up ...

... why early one morning. We had just woken up from the unfamiliar sound of bustling downstairs and soon enough Jean-Louis poked his head through the hole and told us to be silent, before pulling a plank of wood over the trapdoor. A Gestapo raid! The proprietor had called that morning and said he was coming around to inspect something or other, sending our cohabitors into the fuss of hiding our stuff and doing the massive pile of dirty dishes ...