Another great Provence Trip

It is hard to believe that we only have a month left in Lyon and will be back in the US in July.   This weekend we made a trip back down to Provence.   Wes had a lecture he was giving in Aix en Provence on Friday, so we pulled the kids out of the school and got up at dark-o-thirty to catch a train at 600am.    This time we actually were on the high speed train and rails.  The thing flew down to Marseille in a hour and half, so fast infact I got a little motion sickness.   Much better than our four hour car trip in traffic.   We stayed with a couple who we knew in Minnesota and Wes went to graduate school with.  It was awesome to stay with Michal and Bruno in their lovely home and she is an amazing cook.  We had it good this weekend.

Wes had his lecture Friday morning and despite never being in the city, I got up the courage and dragged the kids on the metro for a little sight seeing.   One downside this weekend was that Marseille was hit with a "mistral".  It is a cold, big wind that come down from the Rhone Valley.  It was really windy on Friday (and slightly artic like), especially as we walked around the harbor.

Ava can be a little dramatic at times, but it was cold.

We didn't stay down by the water too long.  This kids were complaining of being cold and tried (they did get  up at 430am. so we headed back to the house.   The high wind did nothing to help my allergies that have also been pretty bad this spring.  I was ready for a nap as well.   At our metro stop there is a park and of course a playground.  The kids enjoyed the "silly zoo".

After a little (I took one) and down time for kids, Wes returned and was eager to explore the city himself.  We hopped back on the metro and took a short bus ride along the coast.  The wind was pretty amazing.

It is kind of hard to see, but there is a small island with a fortress on it and it is supposed to be the "Count of Montecristo".

This was a memorial to JFK

An adorable fishing village under a bridge

On Saturday we drove with our hosts over the Aix en Provence.  It is a small city not to far from Marseille.  Michal and Bruno used to live there prior to buying their home in Marseille about a year old.  We hit the farmer's market, but was a really nice market.   Slightly different produce available compared to Lyon due to the warmer weather.

The kids enjoying hot chocolate when we stopped for coffee

As I have mentioned before I am still mourning the fact I will not be able to visit Morocco, but Marseille has a very large North African immigrant population and we were able to have an amazing lunch at a local Moroccan cafe.

Pictures walking back to the car

After our wonderful lunch we headed back to Marseille and decided to go for a hike at the Calanque national park.  It is right outside Marseille and is a park right on the Mediaterranean Sea with these amazing limestone cliffs.

All the herbs de Provence grow wild in this area.  I spotted sage and rosemary,  Couldn't locate the thyme and lavendar on the trail.

Our emerging view of sea as we hiked down.

On Sunday we really didn't much time for a lot of sight seeing other than to make a quick trip to see the Notre Dame de la Garde.  It is large church built up on top of the rock over looking the city.  Unfortunately when we got there it was PACKED!   You know you have hit a major tourist spot when they have installed revolving turn style type doors.  We were running late so I really didn't get much pictures of it, but the view was amazing.

Like the finger covering the lens?  I was in such a hurry trying to take pictures, plus dealing with two irritated children who thought we were torturing them by climbing a steep hill and the crowds did not mix.  These last three pictures did not capture how beautiful it really was.

So what trips do we have left?   Ava's 9tih birthday is next weekend and her request was to go to Paris (and of course you can't live in France for four months without ever visiting Paris; however a school mate is having a birthday party, so the Paris trip is postponed until the following week).  We have our apartment until June 28th.  After that we are going to make our way up to Northern France Germany and to the Netherlands.  We will take a ferry from the Netherlands to the UK, explore London and end our amazing four months in Ireland.  Stay tuned!

More French road trips

Since we got such a good deal renting the car, Wes and I decided to make a whole weekend of road trips.  We initially get really excited about this and dream of the all the placed we can see and quickly forget that certain little girl and boy may not be so thrilled with sitting in the cars for hours.  Our original plan was to drive to to northern France around the border of Germany to get in another country, but a our plans were quickly laid to rest when we could not find a hotel for less than 300 euros.   After further searches we decided on an overnight trip to Provence, partly because we found a cheap (think Motel 6) like hotel with a room available.   The kids groaned a bit and reluctantly got in the car. 

Our first stop was Avignon.   It has a lot history due to being the site of the palpacy from 1309- 1423 entire city is surrounded by a wall.  It was quite amazing and beautiful.  The main attraction is the papal palace that built and expanded by various popes before the pope returned near Rome.   At one point there were actually two popes, one in France and the other in Italy.  Do an internet search for more info on the history as it is quite extensive.

Walking through the center square of town.  About 12,000 people live inside the walled city

City Hall

Papal Palace

Of course, we had to find a playground.  This one was at the top of the hill by the palace.

View from the top of the hill- "outside the walled city"

Once we were inside the palace, it was strange but a flower show was happening and the courtyard was full of roses.  

Inside the courtyard- we could not taken pictures of the inside of the palace.

In addition to seeking out every playground in Europe, the kids also have a 6th sense for finding carousels as well, so after a lot of begging and pleading we relented.

The homes here are built right into the rock!

We took the kids to a fancy dinner.  The food was wonderful, but the dinner was a bit stressful.  As we walk into the restaurant I notice that inside there is a TV and they are showing bull fighting.  As many of you know, Ava became a vegetarian when she was four after watching a documentary on migrating birds and there was a hunting scene.  She was so upset that she has not touched meat since.  I knew she would absolutely lose it if she saw what was going on.  So most of the dinner was making sure she did not turn around.

That night we stayed in a motel out in suburbs.  I know when you think of Provence you picture nothing but fields of lavendar right?  Well, it was beautiful, but there was also a large number of strip malls and housing tracks!   Our little motel was on one of those strips.  The room as fine, but despite our room being non smoking the floor was not and I spent the night coughing and sneezing until dawn.  My allergies have been in full force and this did not help. I was a mess the next day.

 

This picture really doesn't capture the strip mall feel.  But if the sign wasn't french this could be a town in Southern California right??

We decided to drive to another medieval village built into the rocks (do you feel a theme coming here?).  It was called Les Baux.  It was beautiful, but Wes and I have determined that gift shops are going to be our down fall.  They send our kids in into a frenzy and I would like to go to just one place that was not plagued with them.

After the village- Johnny had one request that we go to a mysterious cave.  The motel we stayed at had a bunch of handout of different tourist spots and of course Johnny found the cave- that happened to be two hours out of our way but they we so excited we had to go.  Some of the scenery on the way there

Lots of olive orchards on the drive

 Cote du Rhone vineyards

 Lavendar fields- not in bloom yet, but you could smell it- honey in this area must be amazing!

 Entry to the "mystery cave"- actually really neat.   Unable to take pictures, but it was a 30 km limestone cave.  The kids loved it!!

Unfortunately Wes and I did not anticipate traffic on the way back to Lyon.  What should have been an hour and half drive- dragged out to almost four hours!  We have a great time on these trips but the drive back is always torture and we tend to forgot the fun and question our lives as we drive home.  This last picture says it all

Yea, he was not happy and ready to be out of the car-unfortunately we still had about two hours to go!