Hotel Du Rocher Sisteron

Hello, good evening or good morning to all.

It has been a while, and i have been doing many exciting and colourful things.
I arrived in Provence a couple weeks ago, where i was staying with Clara and Pierre, (family of friends from Lasqueti for those who dont know)
They are amazingly kind and very entertaning. They have been showing me wonderful things here, and have treated me like a royal guest. We have been to the movies, gone to a music festival, visited goat cheese ...

... would make it difficult to sleep, especially without the relative comfort of our tents. Having to get up in the middle of the dark night to pee did not make things any easier. But hey, the conditions in France posed no threat. I had certainly endured much tougher things in the army, not to mention first grade.

This all sounds great, right? It sounds like I had a great time here in Provence? Well...I did not...for a number of reasons:

1) Having already ...

Renting a car in the States is easy enough, and we were hoping the same would be true of renting a car overseas. Thank goodness for our friends/family, the Gignouxs. We drove out to the Marseille airport and rented a very, very small car for a few days to get us around to all of the places Michael wants to see while we're in the South. It was just big enough to fit four people. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't have put our luggage in the small hatch ...

Thursday 19th June Alison: After packing and organising a bag full of things we don't need any more to post home with FedEx using Michael's account, we said a fond farewell to Marie-Rose while Bernard kindly drove us into the Bordeaux station to catch our train to Provence. We had a very comfortable train ride through the magnificent countryside down to the coast and across to Marseilles where we finally arrived in the late afternoon, about half an hour ...

Hello Everyone: Today we had a lovely breakfast at Hotel l'Horloge and headed for the TGV train station to pick up our rental car which was a very small Renault Clio with a manual transmissioin (Roger - when Ryan got behind the wheel, he had flash backs of when you taught him how to drive a stick shift in your Renault!). We had HUGE Michelin maps in hand, but better than that, we had our GPS loaded for our journey. Thank God the French drive on the ...

... old architecture; Coolest astronomical clock; Prettiest hostel...Prague Best new architecture; Coolest Americans; Most to see and do...Berlin Most (best?) legal prostitution; Best "Secret Annex"; Best permanent Van Gogh collection...Amsterdam Place there's no place like...Home J This entry is dedicated to Jesse, Bianca, Stephen and Mike, the stars of my trip.

July 9, 2006 -- It was a long and early morning for me. I woke up at a gite in Normandy with plenty of other hung-over wedding guests, caught a ride to the train station in Briouze with one of the afore-mentioned guests, then took a train to the Paris Montparnasse station. Once there, I took a taxi to the Paris Gare de Lyon train station, where I waited. What was I waiting for, you ask? My friend, Darlene, was 3 days into her first trip abroad, certainly her ...

Déjà notre dernière journée dans le Vercors ! La neige est toujours aussi superbe aujourd'hui et je me sens vraiment en vacances et détendue. Une des plus grandes joies de l'hiver pour moi est de passer la journée à l'extérieur en faisant un sport d'hiver et puis de rentrer en fin d'après-midi pour cuisiner et savoureux un copieux repas chaud. Nous profitons de notre dernière journée pour faire une dernière promenade, cette fois-ci jusqu'à la ligne ...

... a pretty postcard and my bank card: the gateway to my French finances and the piece of plastic that will henceforth bring to fruition the anal-retentive budgeting habits I've kept for the last six months. I had to wait until after my classes to open my packages, but once I did, it was GLORIOUS!! My Mom, sister, and new brother-in-law had conspired to send me wonderful Halloweeny goodies, the highlights of which were lots ...

... and the FRENCH LANGUAGE. Did I ever tell you about my one other theory? The "Language Theory?" If the language is pretty, the people will be happy. Brazilian and French people have the cheeriest personalities I've seen. Hitchhiking the small roads of France was a terribly enjoyable activity. I persistently felt friendly warmth surrounding me. The small villages were precious, the nature surprisingly rich, and the people romantic. Some villages were as ...