Our hotel was near the ocean, so we took a lovely walk along the rocky shore. It was a bit chilly and windy, but nice and sunny, with the sunbeams sparkling on the water. We had a big adventure through the huge Carrefour grocery store, so the fam got to experience that lovely new aspect of French culture. We had dinner at an adorable little place where we had a big hors d'oeuvre platter of typical provencal
In the morning, we drove through La Camargue Nature Reserve, where we saw flamingos, gulls, gulls, white horses, etc. It was absolutely gorgeous and such neat ecosystem.
We drove through Arles and Avignon a bit, which were very cute little areas. We made our way to Marseille, which was pretty cool to see but
super packed more than usual because it was Easter Sunday. We drove past the pretty marina with all the boats, a smaller version of the Arc de Triomphe type thing, lots of fountains (with creepster dauphin things still ... I think they're following me!), and the beautiful train station in Marseille. We could see the basilica, but never got a chance to park and actually go in, but oh well. We saw another lovely sunset and cooked our own fun pasta dinner in the apartment/hotel. We had family fun night huddling around the portable DVD player to watch a movie together.
Monday, we said our goodbyes to the ocean and went through the lovely Aix-en-Provence. I absolutely
adored this city, which is so typically French (in my opinion). We walked through the colorful flower, fruit, and clothing markets, little cobblestone streets, patiseries, etc. There were several pretty churches,
shutters of all different colors (my new obsession) which really capture the beauty of the light in the South, and fountains. I can definitely see how so many artists throughout history have gotten their inspiration from the lighting and loveliness of the Provence region. Love it, love it, love it!
We stopped at the Chateau de la Barben randomly on our way back to Grenoble... and it was such a great find! I really felt like we were walking into the story of
Beauty and the Beast. First we drove through the tiny village with adorable houses and farms (♬
Little town, it's a quite village: every day like the one before! Little town full of little people waking up to say, "Bonjour!" ♬), then came upon the chateau hidden away in the forest. It had fabulous intricate gardens, a big drawbrigdge, turrets/towers to watch out for invaders, and a big mote wrapping around the backside cutting it off from the creepy forest.
It was sad to send them off on the TGV to Paris, but then it was great to see all their pictures and hear their stories when they came back!
We spend Friday doing a tour of Grenoble, seeing all the main areas of the centre ville, the fountains, churches, Victor Hugo, etc. We got fresh fruit at the St. Claire market and went up to the Bastille for a nice view of the city. We had dinner with my host brothers and some of their friends at the house, so that was quite a fun evening of franglais! My brain just absolutely hurt afterwards from so much exhausting translating, but it was lots of fun! Everything went really well the whole week and I was very sad to see them leave :(
