Blogs from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 210

Hi Everybody, How's things? Hope everything is fine and/or dandy. From Berlin, I've headed south to Munich, but not before a short stopover in the small town of Wiemar. Weimar was an unscheduled stop, but one I'm very glad I did. Weimar ended up being a stop for a bit of inspiration and reflection. Weimar was inspiration because it was one of the cultural centres of Germany, which boasts former residents such as Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt. I visited the Goethe house and museum (Goethe wrote 'Faust' and 'the sorrows of young Werther'), and judging from the residence I think it's becoming obvious you need to be a little eccentric in order to be great. That and you have to hang out with intellectual friends and talk and argue about art all the time. It ... read more

Leaving Nice to go to Berlin today. Been looking around for an easy way to get to Riga which is where I wanted my next stop to be, but it turned out to be either too expensive, or take too long time (spending time in London waiting for another plane). So I booked a flight to Berlin, plan is to stay there for a few days and then catch a bus back to Sweden. It's been a few days since my last blog, I havn't really done much, just taking it easy here, meeting people at the hostel. Went out with a nice australian couple one of the nights. They had a guidebook mentioning a pub called Jonathan's - just had to go there! After a few other stops and lots of walking around the same ... read more

Today started with a trip to the St. Remy-de-Provence market. It was fantastic. We thought the vats of olive oil, wine, cheese, tapenades, bread, fruits and veg were great at Aix-en-Provence but St. Remy's was beautiful. From what we could see the town was so-so compared to Gordes, Menerbes, Lourmarin and Avignon but perhaps we've just been spoiled by those hill-top villages. The droves of lookey-loos made our decision to leave at 11am and after pondering if the Pont du Gard, Les Baux-en-Provence or Arles were our best option on our last afternoon in Provence, we chose Arles. En route to Van Gogh's town, we passed the clinic where he self-committed himself after severing his earlobe following an argument with his then-friend Gaughin. The clinic is still in use today but they have left Van Gogh's ... read more

K. We're done with the French! For the most part we've been positive and optimistic, after all we're visitors to France but we're ready to move on. Tonight we went off the beaten track - away, again, from the restaurants with menus that are both french/english and laminated with pictures of the food they serve. Yes, once again, we moved away from the tourist trap restaurants and ordered in french - after all we are guests of the country so the most we could do was show some respect and order in their language. But you know, you just can't win with the french. If you don't speak french at all they say "I speak english in your country" (we witnessed this first hand with a poor british couple) and if you do speak french they ... read more

We had a wonderful 2 year anniversary celebratory dinner at Le Cours de Louvre which we just happened upon while walking one of the side streets. It was so great - from the Kir Royale apperitif to the foie gras appetizer (yep! 2 nights in a row of foie gras for lil' di) and fillet of boeuf seasoned with sea salt from the region and wine to match. John spoiled me and I appreciated every minute of it! On top of the great food and ambiance, we met a couple from Canada who came over to our table to ask US for advice about what to do and see in the area. I was so elated that a) we were being asked; b) we could talk to a cool couple in english at length; and, c) ... read more