La Tour de (Sud) France...
... without doping, no worries :)
Who:
Nici and I
Transportation:
Nici's Smart.
Kilometers driven:
About 2000.
Places visited:
- Lyon
- Grambois and la Tour d'Aigues in the Luberon
- Avignon
- La Couronne (plage)
- Marseille (for about an hour, before we found that there was no place to sleep or pitch up our tent)
- Aix-en-Provence
- Setes
- Frontignan (plage)
- The Camargues
- Grenoble
- Annnecy
Soundtrack:
- Amelie OST, by Yann Tiersen
- KYO
- Wir Sind Helden
- Bueno Vista Social Club
- Coldplay, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Jamie Cullum, Jet, and others
How we avoided having to sleep in the car:
- Youth Hostels
- Camping
- Staying with friends
- Couchsurfing
Things packed that turned out to be very useful indeed:
- Bikini, sarong, beach towel and Suntan Lotion
- iPod, Camera, and phone
- Tent and sleeping bags
- A rain jacket
- Some band aids
- Salt pretzel sticks
- German beer (Becks)
- The Lonely Planet guide to France
- A lemon
Things packed which turned out to be absolutely useless:
- Biology textbook (affectionately referred to as Birbaumer, after the author)
- High heels
- A gas cooker
Returned with:
- Lots of lavender
- Herbes de Provence
- A tan
- Cheese, salami (wild boar), marmalade (rhubarb), wine, olive paste, lavender honey
- Sand and seashells from Frontignan
- 472 pictures
- Improved French skills
Returned to find:
- Sunshine in Freiburg
- 41 emails in my Gmail inbox alone
- All my plants still alive (including my annoyingly fickle Thai Basil)
Some impressions of the French:
- They can't drive
- They can't make decent road signs (if any)
- But they make great food and wine
Some French impressions of the Germans:
- We can't drive.
- But we have fantastic Autobahns.
- We make excellent beer, but not much else.
A more thorough story of our adventure is to come, as well as some fantastic pictures of the towns, the beaches and the Alps. Also, more background on why a lemon was the hero of the day, and how Couchsurfing and crazy coincidences led to us taking the trip in the first place.
In other news - my broken wrist is all healed (I fell of my bike, embarrassing, I know - but I. Was. Not. Drunk. The street was wet and my bike slipped. Hmph.) Going to Ikea later with Nici to get some furniture and other stuff - we're making as much use of the Smart as possible, before she has to give it to her sister. Then dinner with Michael, a birthday party on Saturday, driving to my Grandmother's on Monday for a week, and somewhere a long the way, trying to meet up with my old schoolfriend Jack, who's currently in Germany.
Busy, busy Ella. But first I'm going to eat something.
Who:
Nici and I
Transportation:
Nici's Smart.
Kilometers driven:
About 2000.
Places visited:
- Lyon
- Grambois and la Tour d'Aigues in the Luberon
- Avignon
- La Couronne (plage)
- Marseille (for about an hour, before we found that there was no place to sleep or pitch up our tent)
- Aix-en-Provence
- Setes
- Frontignan (plage)
- The Camargues
- Grenoble
- Annnecy
Soundtrack:
- Amelie OST, by Yann Tiersen
- KYO
- Wir Sind Helden
- Bueno Vista Social Club
- Coldplay, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Jamie Cullum, Jet, and others
How we avoided having to sleep in the car:
- Youth Hostels
- Camping
- Staying with friends
- Couchsurfing
Things packed that turned out to be very useful indeed:
- Bikini, sarong, beach towel and Suntan Lotion
- iPod, Camera, and phone
- Tent and sleeping bags
- A rain jacket
- Some band aids
- Salt pretzel sticks
- German beer (Becks)
- The Lonely Planet guide to France
- A lemon
Things packed which turned out to be absolutely useless:
- Biology textbook (affectionately referred to as Birbaumer, after the author)
- High heels
- A gas cooker
Returned with:
- Lots of lavender
- Herbes de Provence
- A tan
- Cheese, salami (wild boar), marmalade (rhubarb), wine, olive paste, lavender honey
- Sand and seashells from Frontignan
- 472 pictures
- Improved French skills
Returned to find:
- Sunshine in Freiburg
- 41 emails in my Gmail inbox alone
- All my plants still alive (including my annoyingly fickle Thai Basil)
Some impressions of the French:
- They can't drive
- They can't make decent road signs (if any)
- But they make great food and wine
Some French impressions of the Germans:
- We can't drive.
- But we have fantastic Autobahns.
- We make excellent beer, but not much else.
A more thorough story of our adventure is to come, as well as some fantastic pictures of the towns, the beaches and the Alps. Also, more background on why a lemon was the hero of the day, and how Couchsurfing and crazy coincidences led to us taking the trip in the first place.
In other news - my broken wrist is all healed (I fell of my bike, embarrassing, I know - but I. Was. Not. Drunk. The street was wet and my bike slipped. Hmph.) Going to Ikea later with Nici to get some furniture and other stuff - we're making as much use of the Smart as possible, before she has to give it to her sister. Then dinner with Michael, a birthday party on Saturday, driving to my Grandmother's on Monday for a week, and somewhere a long the way, trying to meet up with my old schoolfriend Jack, who's currently in Germany.
Busy, busy Ella. But first I'm going to eat something.