That evening, I met Clare and Gareth back at the airport, where we picked up our rental car and began our journey to the South of France.
Stop #1: Chateroux / Vineuil for Kate & Ben’s wedding:
We arrive at Chateroux nearing 1 in the morning and we’re lucky to get a room – the front desk was closed, but the hoteliers happen to be up having a drink with some of the wedding guests. The morning after arriving to the “one horse town” (these are Mike McGeeney’s words…) that is Chateroux, we decided to take a tour of the downtown area. Several glasses of beer and wine later, we quickly prepare ourselves for the wedding.
We take a taxi about 20 minutes away to the small town of Vineuil and pack into a pretty, old stone church to watch the ceremony. Despite the small hiccup of no shuttle buses to the reception, we all manage to make to back to Benoit’s family home, in the middle of the only forest in Vineuil (seriously, I wish I had a picture). We had a lovely meal, with several great speeches made by various friends and family members.
After a bit of dancing, we retired from the evening by hitch-hiking back into town (ok, they were wedding guests, but still…). Fortunately, there was a brunch the next day so we got to spend a few extra minutes chatting with Kate and Ben. It was a wonderful wedding!!
Stop #2: Montpellier:
From brunch, Clare and I began our journey south. We took a small stop for Clare to re-teach me how to drive a manual car… she was a great teacher and I did ok for about an hour. The end came when I tried to maneuver through a rest stop with too many people and stalled about 4 times before we pulled a Chinese fire drill and switched seats – for the rest of the trip! Once safely parking at this rest stop, I come to realize that the French just seem to make everything prettier… even their rest stops. One of the rest stops had a hill that you could walk up to see the long spanning bridge and the valley below.
About 4-5 hours later, we arrive in Montpellier in the dark. Not only is there road work almost everywhere, but we managed to drive our way down the tram’s path… though we can’t be sure if it was legal! We finally find the hotel (of course it’s on the street with the tram line) and parking to go with it. We sit down to a late night dinner in the Place de la Comedie [insert pics]
We took the next morning to explore Montpellier: [insert pics]
Stop #3: Avignon:
Before long, we got back in the car to head for Avignon. Driving into Avignon feels a bit like what it must have been like centuries ago when visitors had to enter through specific points in the town walls:
[insert pic]
We walked around Place de l’horloge (Place of the Clock tower) and found our hotel. What we couldn’t easily find was the clock tower… apparently it rests high above the Hotel de Ville, but it’s centered and very difficult to see from the ground. Thankfully we had a nice view from our hotel room! The next morning, we visited the Palais de Pape – the Pope’s former residence in the 1700s (check date). Clare was nervous that we would be underdressed in our sleeveless dresses, so she asked the hotel receptionist who promptly replied, “well, the Pope isn’t actually there…” HA! After touring there, we left the city wall to check out Pont St Benezet, which was the original bridge into town. It has an interesting history [look it up on Wikipedia]. [insert pics]
Stop #4: Aix-en-Provence & St. Maximin au Sainte Baume:
After retrieving our little Ford Fiesta, we left Avignon and headed to Aix-en-Provence. We knew that we wouldn’t have much time there, but figured a quick walk through town would be enough. We had a great dinner of Fois Gras, Risotto St. Jacques (scallops) and pasta at La Rotunde.
After dinner, we went to our hotel, which was in the small town of St Maximin au Sainte-Baume. Though it was marked on Hotels.com as a “boutique” hotel, it was actually a lot more than that – it used to be a convent! As we drove the autoroute, we could see the Convent lit up against the evening sky (sadly I couldn’t get a picture from the highway with my little point-and-shoot). We spent the rest of the evening sneaking in and around the hotel and checking out the cloisters. The next morning we walked around the outdoor market that was just outside the hotel and bought some souvenirs.
Stop #5: Cassis:
From St. Maximin, we headed south to what would become my favorite part of the trip – Cassis. Cassis is a beautiful port town that has been visited by sailors from many lands for hundreds of years. The first hotel we stayed in was a little further up the mountain, about a 15 minute walk from the main town center. We took a walk, ate some crepes, drank some vin de Cassis and went to the beach. The terrain of the beach at Cassis if very rocky, but it doesn’t stop the French vacationers from setting down their towels and umbrellas… aaaand the French women from taking off their bathing suit tops. While that might sound amazing to all of the boys who read this, please keep in mind that women your grandmother’s age also like to frequent this beach, wearing only their bikini bottoms (and to be more clear, 70 YEAR OLD BOOBS!). After a great dinner at the port of Dorade, Pasta St Jacques, and lavender-infused crème brulee, we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning, we decided to get started early with a breakfast at the port before jumping on a boat to the Calanques. Calanques are the small inlets where vessels have been taking cover along the southern coast of France since the B.C. years. The Calanques are the most beautiful, natural, and untouched sights I have seen in my life so far. The cliffs of white rock are still in their original, mother nature-made forms since you can only travel to them by boat and by foot. We also learned from the guide that similar stone from Cassis was used as the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty! See for yourself how pretty it is:
We spent the rest of our time lounging by the hotel pool before we had to depart for our final stop, Marseilles.
Stop #6: Marseilles:
We arrived in Marseilles in early afternoon. After finding our hotel, we headed for the Vieux Port (old port). Marseilles was the largest city we visited on our tour, and unfortunately my least favorite. I knew that staying near the main train station would offer little in the way of fun
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