From Normandy to the Cote D'Azure

Dear readers it has been over a week since I last blogged, this will be painful as a whole week will be hard to do, but here we go. On Sunday 1st of August we were quite sad about having to leave Dominique and Rachel as we had enjoyed our stay with them so much. We went into town for one last look, tomorrow was going to come too soon. Tomorrow did indeed come and Dominique and Rachel took us to Chartres to pick up our hire car for the next part of our journey. It was very quiet in the car to start with as I think we were already missing Dominique and Rachel, however we will see them again soon when they come to Australia.

On our way we stopped at Le Mans to drive the public part of the racetrack, it must concern the drivers that this very fast section of the track is lined with French crash barriers (trees, big ones). On we drove all the way to Bordeaux and spent the night in a little town called Langon.

Of course there is always a funny story and in this town it was how we found the Gite we were to stay in. When we arrived in Langon the town had closed for the evening, the only life we saw was at the Fire Station so we pulled in and asked one of the officers if he knew anywhere we could stay. He promtly did a google search, rang a number and told me that the manager of the Gite (bed & breakfast) would be here in 5 minutes to take us to our lodgings.

This had all been unexpected and gave us much to talk and laugh about that evening.

Tuesday dawned and we were up early for a spectacular breakfast and quick start to our trip. Again we were amazed by the great roads, high speeds and thoughtful driving displayed by the French. In no time at all (7 hours) we were in Aix en Provence.

It wasn't long before we got to meet Laetitia, Jean Pierre and Victoria their daughter. They are lovely people and while Judy caught up with Laetitia, Jean Pierre gave me a flying tour of the old city and introduced me to many of his friends, I was already feeling like a local.

When we returned to the appartment we all enjoyed dinner together before our hosts had to leave for their holiday.

Aix is a beautiful town with a fantstic climate, Jean Pierre tells me that their are 2000 fountains and 4000 restraunts, from what we have seen this would seem conservative. The rest of the week would see us exploring the old city on foot and catching the tourist shuttle to get our bearings. Monday 9th, we took the train to Marseille, walked to the docks a took a ferry ride along the coast as far as Cassis before returning to the Frioul Islands where we had our first swim in the ocean and had a great seafood lunch. After a very full day we took the shuttle ferry back to Marseille and caught our train at about 7.30pm.