Me Write Blog

Today was a day to get out and enjoy nature. Rebecca had found out information about the "calanques" that are found along the Southern coast of France. Calanques are natural formations in the rocks along the coast. Basically, they are narrow inlets that formed when the roofs of sea caves collapsed into the sea. The result is these beautiful rock formations and incredible beach and rocky shores. Some of these calanques can only be reached by hiking through the woods or by boat. We chose to see them by boat. To get to our boat tour, we had a drive through the countryside as we headed South to Sanary-sur-Mer. Along the way we saw beautiful rolling hills and landscapes. We rolled into Sanary and headed straight to the harbour, where we parked the car and walked the rest of the time. We grabbed a few things at the market there and found ourselves a bench to have our lunch/snack while we waited for our boat tour to start.   We piled on to the boat with the other sight seers and gra...

Day Six: Into the Mountains Again We started our day with some breakfast in the local fresh market. There has been a fresh food market in this square since the fourteenth century. We found a nice cafe in a corner of Richelme Square next to a fountain featuring a wild boar made of bronze. The giant bronze boar is is one of many that are fashioned after a seventeenth century statue in Florence, Italy. Around the base of the fountain are details like lizards, frogs, and turtles. There is a tradition of rubbing the boar's snout to signify that you hope to return to it one day in the future. After eating our breakfast in a cafe literally right next to the fountain, we rubbed the boar's snout and walked around the market, picking up some bread, fruit, and cheese for our planned picnic lunch later that day. Our original plan for the day had us travelling to Arles to visit the Foundation de Van Gogh but it turns out they are not open on Mondays so we opted instead to go check out a scu...

Day Five: Aix Gon’ Give It To Ya “How can a grocery store croissant be better than any I’ve ever had at home?,” Rebecca asked aloud as we started our journey to our next stop. The baked goods here are on a different level. Today we left Biot, the small town North West of Nice where our hotel was located, and headed toward wine country. Our next stop was four nights in Aix-en-Provence (Aix is pronounced “X”). To get to Aix-en-Provence, we decided to take the toll highways, an experience we had struggled with on day 1. Our first attempt had me pull into a lane, avoiding the lanes clearly marked “no cash” and ended up pulling into a lane that was designated for transponders only (unbeknownst to us). As cars started lining up behind us, panic set in and I pushed the help button. Luckily, the lady who answered spoke English and had me shouting credit card numbers at her. Today would be different. We studied up (google) on how to use the toll system and, while anxious, were ready to give it ...

Day Four: A Nice Final Day in Nice We started our day by heading down to Antibes, which we had passed on our travels to and from Nice. We had noticed there is a Picasso museum there so we wanted to check it out. Today was the day that we learned that we should be mapping our journeys to parking lots and not the destinations themselves. Our GPS took us directly to the museum, which, it turns out, is in the old fort that stands on edge of the sea. Not a problem except that we found ourselves on the very narrow one-way road that wraps around the area, which is a very popular spot for pedestrians and cyclists. We slowly navigated our way around and eventually found parking. The museum itself (the building) was quite interesting. Like I said, it’s housed inside the old stone fort, so the layout, windows, doorways, etc. were all incredible to look at/be around. As for the art, there were some pieces that were beautiful but many of the Picassos were pencil drawings and sketches he had done wh...

 Day Three: Into the Mountains We woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed and ready to explore. Today we had planned to head up into the hills of Vence and see the chapel that was designed in collaboration with one of Rebecca's favourite artists, Henri Matisse.  It's here that I want to tell you about our rental car. We were given the option of a Mazda something or other or a Peugeot 208. We opted for the Peugeot. It's a peppy little thing but the layout of the car is not something I was prepared for. It seems the folks at Peugeot like to design all their cars, even their little compacts, like they are race cars. Being a North American born after the 1960s, I never really learned to drive a stick shift (I also do not know how to send a telegram or use a slide-rule) since that technology has largely been left behind, so we made sure to get a car that is an automatic, kinda. The car is some kind of a hybrid of standard and automatic where I can shift gears myself by using...

I'm dusting off this old blog in order to record some thoughts about our trip to France in 2023. Feel free to read along. Some of the entries will be quite long, like this one, and others will be shorter. I'll try to include photos as well. Apologies for any typos and spelling mistakes; turns out French keyboards are arranged differently. Thanks for reading! Back in 2019, Rebecca and I started discussing/planning for our upcoming tenth wedding anniversary in 2020. After some ideas were bandied about, we landed on a trip to France. We had developed a pattern in our travels of going to various cities and trying to find the art and the nature in those cities, (sometimes just the art; sorry Buffalo), so France struck as an opportunity to turn that up to eleven, so we started planning. We mapped out a two week itinerary that would take us around the country that would let us explore and celebrate. In early 2020 there was a record scratch heard round the world that, let's say, in...