Blogs from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 209

We're sure Marseille must have been a beautiful city years ago, but unfortunately it looked like it was having a hard time keeping up with its population. The rumor is that the city has a lot of crime, although better than it used to be. Interesting because, right outside the train station on some massive flights of stairs there were men in camo with huge machine guns slung on their shoulders! We walked through the city to the Vieux Port to take a 10 euro boat to a nearby island where the Chateau d'If, fortress turned prison that is famous by the Count of Monte Cristo story resides. The funny thing was that the boat passed the island giving us a nice view of the famous prison and then continued on to another island farther out ... read more

Sooo, I have been in France for nearly a week now ;) Take a look at the pics I have up so far... I might be changing them somewhat frequently since I have a limit of 50 pics, which I will exhaust eventually. Anyway, I think I will keep it pithy for now. Some random things: Good food is pretty cheap here, which is a plus! The toilets have been hard to master. The French teachers have been out of this world! They are very understanding and entertaining. My civ prof calls us mes amis américains, which means my american friends, in light of ww2. Alors, à la prochaine!... read more

How now brown cow (from Nice), Life is tough on the French Riviera. We caught the fast train from Paris, passing through the French countryside (Lyon, Provence) arriving in Nice late on Saturday night. The hot sea air hit us like a smack in the face and we headed off to locate our 2-star hotel (summertime in Niice is very expensive). The Hotel Comfort Azur Riviera was NOT a sight for sore travel-weary eyes and upon finding our designated room unvisited by housekeeping, I started to picture Jon and myself sharing a bed with rats and cockroaches and suffering a Norman Bates experience (I am slightly princess-like when it comes to hotel rooms). After charming the hotel manager's son with our broken French (I'm not sure where the manager was - talking to mother???), we scored ... read more

hey guys! we are now in barcelona and we are enjoying it here but first we would like to update you on on our stay in the Cote d´ azur which is a coastal area on the mediteranian in the south of france. Nice (pronounced Neece) is a relatively small town in on the coast and this is where we stayed for three nights and traveled from there to neighbouring areas. we stayed at a hostel which was a bit far away from town which was a pain but public transport was relatively good so we managed to survive. on the first day we did some sight seeing and the city is really beautiful! we went and visited the old part of the city which is where the city started and then expanded. the old part ... read more

Lazily woke up at 10am and headed to Italy for lunch. Yep. Drove to Italy for lunch. It's only a half hour from Gio's to the bordertown, Ventimiglia, so we let our trusty Italian tour guide lead the way. Naturally, the food was great and after lunch we went to an Italian outlet mall where I picked up 2 pairs of Italian leather shoes for 60 euro! Amazing. Plus, they threw in a cute pair of flip flops too! On our way to Gio's place in Villefranche sur mer we stopped in Monte Carlo, Monaco to walk along the piers of big boats. We thought there was money in Portofino but its small fortunes compared to Monte Carlo. The boats were insanely large, the stores were of the Gucci and Hermes level, the hotels were stunning ... read more