Careening Karina's Visit 14-22 Juin 2007

Mayan's back from Israel, and that's not all! After two freeloading trips to Valencia to visit Karina (and make the most of her cool apartment), she was finally able to return the favour and came to stay with us for our second last week in Provence.

She said she'd heard a few things about our town before, but like everyone was a little dissapointed at first, then loved it after about 3 hours. The thing is, you come in on the bus, through the industrial outskirts of Marseille, and don't even see the nice centre till you walk in there. Of course, after that you rarely leave it.

So we started off getting her lost in the labyrinth of streets, then taught her how to navigate by boutiques (not hard, she's previously done more than a little study on French brands). Sshe also already knew all the basic French you need to get around, so we just made sure to teach her how to elegantly explain her unsatisfactions if someone didn't understand her Spanish swear words.

Pretty early on, we went on a road trip, with some friends of ours who Mayan helps with English: Henri and Marie. They took us all to the Camargue, the swampy national park in the Rhone delta. We popped in to see the wildlife, over lunch. There's a lot of cool animals. It's like being in an Asterix comic, largely cos of our big friends the wild boars (sanglier):

But there's also a bit of Harry Potter, thanks to the Hibou, which we could appreciate.

The classic inhabiants here are the Punk Flamingoes (flamangues roses), who timeshare between here and East Africa.

Less common are the beavers (castors), but dam they're cute!

After, we went to the coolest beach. At the very end of the Rhone, al the fine sand that's come all the way from central France forms long low sand banks in the Mediterranean. these banks are kilometres and kilometres, dead flat, with some lakes here and there where they farm salt. right next to the water, on these wide banks of flat sand, hundreds of people park their campervans for weeks at a time, and kids and dogs run around between the barbeques and unofficial campings areas (there's a nudist section) like a really rich gypsy camp. So we went there for the afternoon, then took a car-ferry shortcut home again.

Another trip we made was to Bouc Bel Air. Sam was working (and this is the more picturesque of his three villages) so May and Karina joined him on the bus and wandered around the old fortress and town, checking out the great hilltop view. After work, Sam joined them for a drink and a picnic, complete with bread and cheese and some almonds from a nearby tree.

So, we did some nature, some country, a lot of inner city, some cultre (museums, cathedrals), and the food. All that was left to do was Marseille.

So that's where we went, on the first day of Summer, the 21st of June. We walked all three of us through the city, which can give a pretty bad impression of it, to be honest, even with the new tramway, and then popped on a boat to go straight to the Ile Frioul.

After, we hung out in Marseille for the celebrations of la Fete de la Musique, for the beginning of Summer, then got hte last bus back to Aix, arriving around midnight to find the city heaving with people for the same festival. Every corner, every empty spot, even in the middle of the street there were musicians on full volume. It was a really great atmosphere. Shame the music, ncluding the stuff outside our window, was pas terrible (of questionable quality). The next day at work, Sam found out from all his colleagues that EVERYone over the age of 16 from all the villages even up to 20 kms away had come to Aix for the festival (they were complaining about getting calls at 2am to pick up their sons and daughters).

So now she's back in Valencia, we're alone in Aix (our flatmates are at a wedding, or gone home), and pretty well on a full-bllown, no holds barred, nothing pressing holiday. Keep checking for our up-coming adventures.