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Published: July 15th 2008
We are sorry that us wayward travellers have been unable to update all of our readers. We do have a good excuse, we have been very busy, and internet in southern France is quite expensive.
We left off in Italy. We had left Genoa, which was of not much consequence mostly because we spent most of our time on the beautiful coasts of Cinque Terre. Two words Stuning Beauty! But backt to getting to France. We were trying to leave on July 7, which was a Monday. We woke up that mourning bright and early to catch the earliest train to France. To our great surprise we were informed that there was a National Italian transit strike, for both trains and city transit starting at Monday at 9 am shape..... Great, so our early train to France (we were going to Orange, near Avignon) did not run because it had a transfer in Italy, so we were forced to wait 4 hours at the train statio for the 12:55 train, which was the only train leaving the station, all day, to Nice. Since it was international apparenlty it was not affected by the strike thank god. On we got with no problem. We got to Nice to find out that the last train to Orange had already left.... Great. So we were stranded in Nice, which actually turned out to not be such a bad thing. Our faithful guidebook got us a cheap and very chearful hotel for the night, and the next day, July 8th, we moved out of the hotel to a hostel just outside of town. It had a beautiful view of the city and a great kitchen that we could use, which made up for the bus ride to get there. That day we wandered the busy streets of Nice and saw all that the French Rivera had to offer. You could get anything here if you had the money including a hotel room looking over the main crowded beach. The best part was that the water was crystal clear and had this amazingly beautiful turquoise color.
July 9th we headed to Monaco, we had thought that Nice was ritzy.... Wow, I have never seen so many Porsches or Ferrari's in one place. The country tiny, and afterseeing the palace and casino we were done. Oh and the yatchs there were epic! The rest of the day was spent basking in the sun on a tiny beach just outside of Nice. All in all a good day.
July 10th, we headed over to Cannes for a night. We got there during the day and walked around before heading to the beach. Cannes, overall received a big thumbs down from the both of us. Besides seeing the film festival red carpet, yatchs, and over priced cafes, there is nothing to do. We did make the best of it and had a good time at the beach. At the beach we were at, there were platforms anchored in the bay where you could swim to and jump off. These made great destinations to swim to and enjoy the refreshingly cool water.
July 11th We were intending to go to Andorra for my birthday and tried to get there as early as possible. However, it was the begining of the long weekend in France and all the of direct trains to Toulouse were booked up. This was quite a shock, as this never happened in Itlay. But we made it to Toulouse, but there after asking information about Andorra, we found out that the buses would stop running by the time we would reach there. So for those that don't know, Andorra is a land locked nation between Spain and France, and like San Marino it does not have trains actually running to the country proper, so you have to bus in. Still not disuaded we then tried to go to Paris, but we found out that all the trains to Paris were booked up untill the next afternoon.... Great! So we decided to go to Bordeaux and make the best of it. There we found a room for us in the only hostel, which was booked up for the rest of the week.
July 12th. Jan's Birthday! We jumped ship to a nicer hotel, though by no means expensive. After our accomodation was arranged we began the festivities. We wandered the wide boulvards of Bordeaux for the day and looked at restuarants that appealed to me which Danielle would take me to for my Birthday dinner. We found a nice Morocan place of all things which served huge portions and really tasty food, which was just exaclty what the I wanted.
July 13th Today we decided to explore what Bordeaux had to offer. It was a sunday and we figured that we could go see some of the free sights and just wander at a lovely sunday pace. We saw some monuments, public gardens which were gorgeous, some bridges, some churches (cause they are always open), some towers and a town hall. Mostly though we walked along the river that runs through Bordeaux. There was a lovely market open at the very end of the walk way and we stopped to wander with the locals seeing, smelling, and tasting what Bordeaux's fresh (overpriced) markets had to offer. It was a great day, even though we didn't reall do too much.
July 14th. Today was the day we had stayed in Frace for - Bastille Day. This is the day that the French celebrate the starting of the Revolution - which began by chopping off the head of the mayor of Bastille in 1789. Ya! Only in France! Any ways we had already seen Bordeaux so until the festivities were to begin we wanted to go do something. We ended up going to Arcachon for the day. There were miles and miles of sandy beaches - a rarity for France. After walking for a ways we decided to find a spot, sit for a while. We spent the day at the beach, tanning and building sand castles. That's right, sand castles. It was fun, and there was actually space and sand to do so. We took pictures. Any ways by the time we were leaving many other people were also leaving. So the train was packed like a tin full of sardines but we made it. After a much needed shower we headed out for dinner and festivities. We waited on one of Bordeaux's banks to watch the fireworks show that was launched over the river. It was beautiful. We didn't think Bordeaux had that many people, but there were thousands. It took us a while to get home through the crowds, but it was part of the experience. There were alot of French people looking a bit under the weather this morning, but we knew that they had had a good time last night! Happy Bastille Day!
Today, the 15th, we are going to go see what we couldn't the day before here in Bordeaux. Tomorrow, we are heading to Spain. Our first stop in Pamplona - we will have missed the running of the bulls by a couple of days, but it will be neat to visit the place anyways.
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Marianne
non-member comment
Birthday Fun
Happy Birthday again Jan. Glad it all worked out in the end. Yeah holidays do strange things to your plans. Good to have the blog up again. Love, Mør