A Weekend in Provence

Popped down to Provence - southern France - for the weekend (a little outside Aix-en-Provence, to be more specific) with my friend Michel and his six-year old son. I know that one does not normally use the term "popping down" when describing a distance of 700-some kilometres, but when taking the TGV (high-speed train), it IS actually appropriate. We left on Friday evening, arriving in Aix at around 10pm after only a three-hour train journey.

We spent the weekend with friends of Michel's: Étienne and Stéphanie - wonderful people who were very forgiving of my struggling, though improving, french. They have two kids: a five year-old boy and a three year-old girl. We all went to the beach Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the water due to an unusually (at least, I think it's unusual) large amount of jellyfish. The kids didn't seem to mind, as the jellyfish kept them occupied - they sifted dozens of them out of the water (and then buried them in sand, of course). And I added the word for jellyfish to my French vocabulary: "les méduses". Regardless, it was great to be at the beach - it was a gorgeous day in the high-twenties/low-thirties.

Sunday, Michel, myself and the two little guys went to a different beach in the town of Cassis, a little east of Marseille. No jellyfish at that beach that day. The weather was amazing again and the water was an excellent temperature for swimming and snorkeling. We followed that up with a drive up to a cliff which overlooked the town and the beach - a vista which I have to say is the best of my trip, so far. We had lunch in the old port of the town of La Ciotat a little further down the coast. And then back to Paris in the evening. An excellent weekend, and a reminder of how much more awesome-ness there is to France than just Paris.

The beach at Cassis

Overlooking Cassis