Premiere Classe Marseille La Valentine

... fight, as I make my way to Cours Julien, the main pedestrian/ night life area.

I push through the crowded streets, and find a well lit area to sit and watch. Cours Julien is split down the middle by a modest smattering of green space, fountains, and children's playgrounds. Its already late, but a few children still play on the swings and slides. However, the playgrounds are mostly dominated by groping teenagers.

On either side, crowded restaurants, cafes and ...

... which all the girls obviously enjoyed, and I’m sure will help the plants grow. There were lots of mountain bikers about and people riding, but most of the other walkers were middle aged...but we enjoyed ourselves, even if we did get awful blisters! Planning to go again soon and try a different route. I suppose we
should have checked whether our phones work up there in case we get lost...

Otherwise, there’s been a lot going on in Aix. We ...

... and instead went out to a great classic Provencal dinner, and got some good wine. But then, we started to see a couple kids in costumes, or rather just kids in sheets. I think one of them had a mask. But on our way back from dinner, we found the bar scene. Mostly it was just people out on a normal Saturday night, but we had to at least go check it out. We were somewhat impressed with the Halloween scene, and probably could ...

... 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 ...

... year.

Pour conclure, as I feel that this 'essay' will do for now, I've really noticed the French love for dogs...there are more fat dogs here than there are fat people, and they take them everywhere, even into shops and supermarkets. Hygenic?

So, all in all, the first 6 weeks have been awesome. This week I got a pretty bad case of the homesickness and generally feeling a bit low, I forget that for the first time in my life I'm actually living on my own ...

... It was pretty cool. I got to see all these little islands off the coast. It was beautiful.
When we landed, I got my luggage, and walked out, and the family was waiting for me! Marie (the mom), Delphine (19), Francois (13), and Claire (11) all came to pick me up. They are SO nice! Francois and I immediately bonded over our mutual love of Harry Potter, and Delphine told me all about how much she loved Twilight and Robert Pattinson. They love ...

... sucks so I am not alone and she is in a hurry to leave aswell. The Youth Hostel is great letting me hang out and keep my stuff here until 7pm. At 6pm I leave with all my luggage, yes again I realise it is far too heavy, luckily it is all down hill. I get the tram to Patrcia's house, first going in the wrong direction then correcting it. Patricia is lovely she has an Italian boy staying with her also, he is funny. She advises ...

... to Marseille. At the port there were boat rides to an island where Chateau d'if is located. It was originally a fortress then a prison. The movie Count of Monte Cristo was filmed at Chateau d'If. We spent about 2 hours on the island and then the boat took us over to Ile Frioul which we hiked for several hours. We had a great day on the water and islands. Supper in Marseille was difficult to locate. In ...

Delia had very kindly found us a place to live after the attic, a lovely friend of hers, Marie-Hélene, had left her apartment empty for two months while she was in her native Corsica. The apartment was in a slightly more chic area than what we were used to and was very close to a large romanesque building housing two museums and surrounded by vast and ornate gardens and fountains. We were a little overwhelmed by the sight because grass and a ...

Surprise, surprise! We ended up on the inaugural QF1 Qantas Skybed flight to London - what a treat! Best of all, the crew were very excited about the new cabin product, new menus & new uniforms, so there was a buzz in the air. Unfortunately though the actual aeroplane was not in the air until 5 hours after we were scheduled ...