Final Day in Paris!

So my dad and I woke up super early to drive our rental car back to the Marseille airport car return. It meant that we were about 4 hours early for our flight so we just hung out in the airport. Fortunately they had plugs and wifi so we were able to entertain ourselves. After arriving back in Paris and checking into our hotel we spent a good portion of time rearranging our items in various bags. I have A TON of things I'm bringing back as gifts for people. If weight weren't a problem then it would all fit, but sadly they limit bags to 50-lbs each (used to be 75-lbs on international flights), so I actually have to check a second bag (my dad loaned me his extra one). But it will be worth it to bring all the goodies back for everyone. We took a break after this and went to a cafe for some wine and snacks with a great view of Notre Dame. After that we relaxed in the room for a bit, doing some final organizing and then headed out for Moroccan food. It was delicious! We started with pastilla (powdered sugar and cinnamon on the outside of flaky baked pastry with savory chicken and spices inside). Then we each had a lamb tagine with prunes, onions and almonds. So good! Dessert was mint tea with pastries. We only selected two from that platter, but they had a lot of good options. I have had an amazing time over here in Paris (and the surrounding towns). I can't believe it is already at an end. But I am also ready to go home and actually start working (and making money) again. And to see all my friends and family. That has been the tough part, being away from everyone, but I think this was a really great experience for me to get out on my own. It gave me the opportunity to build confidence traveling on my own and finding my way around strange towns. And just my success in doing that and succeeding at hitting all the tourist spots, or finding a hidden cafe, or not getting lost anymore, helped create a stronger sense of self, and pride in myself. I went to EVERY monument/museum/tourist attraction/cafe/street that was on my list of places to visit. Some of the visiting was leisurely, like my times wandering through Paris. And other times it was a whirlwind of tourist stops like in London and Barcelona. Both styles appealed to me, though I'm glad the whirlwind visits were limited to a few days each. I can't wait to come back to these places and bring new people, showing them around my favorite spots. I hope it's not too long in between visits, because I definitely want to come back soon! But for now, Au Revoir Paris! Vous allez me masquer!

Beachin' in South France

So the end of this lovely trip to the Mediterranean coast was set aside solely for relaxing on the beach. I could have done that for all 10 days of this trip, but it would have felt like a waste not to do a little exploring. So all day Sunday and Monday were reserved for being beach bums. Sunday we hung out for most of the on the beach of Le Lavandou. My dad went to find water and ice cream at one point and picked possibly the two best flavors ever: lavender and violet. No picture unfortunately because it was melting so fast. But it tasted fantastic! We went back to the hotel to take an afternoon siesta and then went back out for an evening stroll before dinner. We went to what looked like the most popular café/restaurant on the wharf, so of course it was seafood. My dad went for the seafood platter but my beef stew, while not as fancy looking, tasted really good as well. Dessert was amazing: fresh fruit with sorbet and marron glacé with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. "Marron" is chestnut and while we in the States only know it from Christmas carols, it is used in some very nice desserts over here and might just be my new favorite. It has a creamy subtle flavor that is almost nutty and almost chocolatey but not quite either. Delicious! After dinner we went up in the ferris wheel to watch the sun set over the water. Definitely a fun, beautiful little town. Then we went back to the hotel to get packed up and get some sleep before moving on to our final southern France town. This morning we had a quick breakfast, packed up the car and drove a little over an hour west to the small town of Cassis. It sits in a calanque: narrow, steep-walled inlet usually formed from limestone. This makes it look like the hills fall straight into the ocean. Cassis has a fort/castle on one of these hills and the town starts higher up and cascades down toward the water. Our hotel is about 15min walking from the beach, up that hill. So we parked the car, changed and headed down to the beach. It's a cute little town with a small amount of beach, but there was still a fair number of spots open to lay our towels down. There was this misty cloud patch all along the horizon and we thought it was fog that had burnt off from the morning. About one hour after we arrived at this beach this is what it looked like. It was crazy. It wasn't actually cold, the air temperature was the exact same so it was still pleasant, but we decided to go get some lunch and hopefully give it a chance to burn off or blow away. We found a little tapas restaurant on the water which sounded perfect because we seem to be eating the same things at every café and they all seem to have identical menus. But the tapas were delicious and not too heavy. We set off to find an ice cream place after because you HAVE to have ice cream when you're at the beach! Then we made our way back to the sand and not long after setting up our towels the fog was starting to burn off and maybe 20m later it was back to sunny skies. Not sure if that is a regular occurrence but no one seemed very fazed by it. We headed back up to check into the hotel, since our room hadn't been ready before. Then we hung out by the pool for a bit before heading down to dinner. Found a good place with seafood for dad and veal with polenta for me. It was delicious. Then we walked around the harbor a bit before coming back to the room. Tomorrow we head back to Paris for our last full day in France. Can't believe it's almost over!

Lavender Fields & Le Lavandou

Saturday morning we woke up early to get everything packed up for our next location. We left Avignon and headed south to the little town of Saint Remy en Provence. This is where Van Gogh supposedly painted Starry Night (my favorite painting). There wasn't much to the town but they did have a tiny market happening so we checked this out and bought a butterfly-shaped bakery item. My dad thought it would taste like beignet from New Orleans but it was heavier, with a strong orange-blossom flavor that made it almost taste soapy. Not as good as we'd hoped. We also found the hotel where the opera Mireille was written in 1863 by Charles Gounod. Neither of us knew the opera but it was a cool historical fact that we happened upon. Our next stop was the Abbey of Sénanque, which is supposed to have beautiful lavender fields. We made our way past the town of Gordes and then turned into the hills. The town was beautiful, perched on the top of the hill and cascading down the side. Next time I'm back to look at lavender, I would stay here. It's adorable. We planned to walk through the town after the Abbey. We arrived at the Abbey fairly early, around 9:30am and already there were other tourists. But the lavender was beautiful. And everything smelled amazing! We toured around the inside of the Abbey, which was very simple. It was founded in 1148 but during the Wars of Religion and then the French Revolution the lands were taken and the monks expelled. In 1854 it was repurchased for an order of Cistercian monks, but they were later expelled in 1903 and departed to their headquarters near Cannes. A small community returned in 1988 and have been residing in the Abbey ever since, working and praying as their way of life. They tend the lavender fields as well as fruit trees and bee keeps and sell all the produce locally. After the lavender we checked out the village of Gordes. There was a wedding in progress at the church so we couldn't explore that but they had a pretty sweet getaway car ready for them after the ceremony. A little over an hour drive away from here was the city of Aix-en-Provence where we stopped for lunch. I had heard about Les Deux Garçons cafe which was started in 1792 and has hosted a number of notable figures throughout history including Cézanne, Zola, Picasso, Piaf and Churchill. It is always busy but we managed to find a table and the food was good. One of the best hamburgers I've had in awhile (including in the States...though it doesn't quite beat Bud's burgers). And a very good rum baba for dessert that my dad was very excited about. The main street also has lots of neat fountains down the center, many overgrown with moss. After our lunch stop we headed to our final destination...Le Lavandou. We wanted a beach town that had open hotels within our price range and this fit the ticket. Beautiful views from our balcony, and also amazing views from the harbor at dinner time. Looking forward to my beaching time over the next two days!!!