New Hotel Of Marseille - Pharo

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 ...

... 8230;<br><br>First of all, we had a deadline. Something neither of us are accustomed to dealing with right now. Ferry departs Marseille at 7pm. Brian was concerned about covering the 100 km distance and finding the port in time. So, up extra early and on the road withour even eating breakfast! After all of the worry and fussing, and snaps of the whip to go &#8216;faster&#8217;, we arrived at the port at ...

... 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 ...

... 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.

... as if they omit bathrooms strictly as a matter of space. So I&#8217;ve got the bell tower room, high above the street and across from the Gare St. Charles, watching people come and go at all hours. I don&#8217;t have TV, but I do have Tinariwen on my buzz-box. <br><br>This room could probably be dubbed the &#8216;suicide suite&#8217; if it weren&#8217;t so small, given its high perch five stories over the street far ...

... about it at dinner. I'll just keep the broken door knob and that whole incident to myself.. and you guys! <br> Anyways, dinner was great. We had quiche, meatballs, and salade, and then peaches from their garden for dessert. They have two huge Maine Coon cats! One is black and one is Grey. Really pretty cats. I want one. Their home is really beautiful. It was built in the 16th century. They guesthouse is huge too. I'm just in one part of it. In the main ...

... own' boat race in the port ... We enjoyed our time in Marseille, although now we are both sunburnt for we have not experienced any real sunshine for almost a year (nothing you can get any heat from anyway). We are already planning to return to southern France ! (Maybe drive/train through it on our journey from Spain to Italy)

... choice by tradition. You just don't smoke joints by candle light and whisper "Je t'aime" in a breathy swoon. I guess it's just not romantic. I don't know why not. They don't have any problem doing the same with cigarettes. I read today that France is the last country in Western Europe to outlaw smoking in public places. Four years ago the thought that any of them could do that was unthinkable. Ireland was the first ...

... of the guys I was with, John, was almost pick pocketed by a guy trtying to distract him with some dodgy karate moves as though he was fooling around. I was like 'what the...' and then the other guy we were with told him to 'get *&amp;%#ed' and get his hand away from John's pockets, very ordinary... and its only like 2 blocks from the hostel. Definitely wouldn't be ...

... jagged cliffs down to it did not, our conclusion being that the island would have served as a great prison. By now I had formulated an au pair job for myself out of town and to celebrate my last night in Marseille, we decided to take a look at the much talked about Trolleybus, a nightclub set up in the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Marseille, each tunnel with its own bar, DJ and gender of music. It was all it cracked up to be and a great ...