Cote d’Azur no. 1 and Marseille no. 3
01/04/06

We have our first guests! Mayan’s parents, Berry and Ioana, have come to see us and perhaps a bit of France. We’re all cosily ensconced chez nous in Aix, and ready to see the sights.

In Aix, tourists come to see the old city. But since we live in it, we have to lift our game and find a few extra interesting spots. Like the cathedral, which is pretty big, and incredibly gothic. The markets are interesting, and the Cours Mirabeau is beautiful. There’s a huge Cezanne exhibition here in the city where he was born to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his death. There’s hundreds of old fountains scattered around the city. Half the shops are restaurants, cafés or salons de thé.

We saw all this, and a bit more. Then we really put on our sightseeing boots and made a few road-trips.

First, we went to the Cote d’Azur, our new Central Coast. Thanks to our hired car and the autoroute, we got there in 1.5 hrs and were some of the first to make our presence felt in Cannes, leaving our mark and strolling down the red carpet in style




































Soon we had to escape the fans, and ducked into a little party the city threw for us:














Soon that got tiresome and we left to see the sights around Cannes. We checked out the beach, cruised past the hotels, went up the hill for a high-flyer’s view,





























been down. It followed the coastline exactly, leaping from cliff to cliff, and charging around blind corners like a mouse in a maze. The water’s really beautiful, a dark blue, and contrasts well with the reddish rocks. Every now and then, nestled in a hairpin turn, is a small idyllic beach, and here and there a sprawling resort town, like the one at St. Tropez. We made a stop here and pulled out the new matelas gonflable for a road-test.















The road trip down the Cote d’Azur over, we then turned our headlights to Marseille, which the two of us can now find our way around map-less.

We had serious business in Marseille. As seasoned and ever-more salty sightseers, we were determined to have a thorough look around.














And with churches like the Notre Dame de la Garde, there’s a hell of a lot to see.















Oh damn, look who’s here, did I say hell? Oh shit I did it again! Merde! (does that count?)
We saw everything around the Vieux Port, the Cathedrals and la Ville Ancienne.

Then sampled the bouillabaisse at a portside resto.

With some of us unable to partake, we had to settle for just fish, or roasted duck.

Thus concluding our little excursions, and having opened pandora’s limitless box of traveling on, we returned to Aix to prepare for another invasion: we were off to shoot our way through Italy.