Blogs from Fréjus, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe

We left the comfort blanket that is Italy through its paddy fields. An odd landscape. At odds a touch with its environment. Paddy fields in Asia feel right. Paddy fields in Italy look odd. Instead of acres of green fields or ripening corn there are acres of wet mud, acres of water . Small banks of dried mud surround the field keeping the water in. Sluice gates made of plastic can be opened to let in or let out the water. Some fields were green as the rice had been planted and was in a various stage of growth. Herons were everywhere. They stood in each field guarding their own water filled field. There must have been rich pickings for them in the water. Snakes, lizards who knows what is in the water. From Biella to ... read more

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Hello to all families and friends. Yesterday we spent a beautiful but hot day in Lyon...the gastronomic captial of France. It added about five lbs to my hips. Breakfast was croissants, baguettes, jam, butter, fresh fruit, yogart, sliced ham and a delicious cheese (don't know what kind, but it was rich); We took a sightseeing ride through Lyon, stopping at a beautiful church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. We saw the combination of old and new architecture and crossed over the Rhoan and Soane rivers. Please excuse my spelling of these as it is difficult to spell because French does not spell easily phonetically; Then stopped at an amazing indoor market that puts Whole Foods to shame! We sampled various meats, duck pate surrounded in a pastry, herbed cheese,. too much to mention. Some of us ... read more

Okay you guys brace yourselves, its been a while since I've written (wither that or so much has happened recently that it seems like weeks since I last wrote) and this is going to be a long one I think. The sunshine is screaming come soak me up right now on the beaches of the French Riviera where I am in Cannes (the site of the an annual International Film Festival) and its costing me 3 euro to type for an hour but I simply have to share wverything that has happened in the past few days. I split from Mel, Blair and Alyssa on the 13th and headed further east to Portugal. I have to admit, although I pretended that I was excited about traveling alone I was really scared and nervous not to have ... read more

Fréjus: arrived Friday 15, wedding Sat 16 The train ride south across France was just as beautiful and thrilling as I remembered. We took the TGV which stands for Train Grand Vitesse. I like how it sounds when translated badly: Train Big Speed. The countryside really is spectacular and I am always happy to leave a big city. We were actually going so fast that I didn’t notice how far we had gone until we passed Valence, which is south of where I lived. My host family, the Montalons, live near some towns that can be recognized from the train, or at least, the spires of the town churches can be recognized, since the TGV tracks are down in a kind of ditch through a good portion of the area I lived in. The people who ... read more