Marseille!!

Damn French keyboards, they are insanely different, so pardon my spelling mistakes. So Jill has been sick for the past two days. BUMMER. What a jerk eh? haha, only kidding, she's feeling better today and even ingested some food. It's all good!! So I really liked Marseille. Dad, I think you would too. It's dirty and real and awesome. Met some cool people here too. Highlight of the trip so far: Grasse and making our own perfume!! I will post about that later though, but goodness was it ever fun! Tomorrow we are moving on to Aix-en-Provence, Salon-de-Provence, and then staying the night in Avignon, or two. I cannot express enough how badly I want to live here. This summer: learn to read and write. Next summer + forever = LIVE IN FRANCE. It is for me!! Okay, has taken me about 30 min to type out and I NEED to get back to my bottle of 4euro Bordeaux wine. Love to you all, andie.

Nice

Success!! We didn't die in the ash! Nearly died of exhaustion though. 14 hours of travel from Calgary to Nice. Oi. We fell asleep at 7pm after doing a big walk around the city along the Promenade. I finally made it to Alsace-Lorraine. Unfortunately it was just a park in Nice, and not the actual French province that I've wanted to go to for years but never made it. Close!

We WENT TO MONACO TODAY (MY IPOD WONT STOP WITH THE CAPS! SORRY, I'M NOT YELLING) AND THAT WAS A NICE WORK OUT FOR THE OL' CALVES . IT IS VERY STEEP AND CONVOLUTED TO GET DOWN TO THE BEACH.

HAD A WONDERFUL DINNER TONIGHT: SHARED PASTA AND PIZZA AND WINE WITH JILL. AND ALSO HAD AWESOME DELICIOUS GELATO - YOGURT AND BLACKBERRY! JILL WAS AMAZING AT ATTEMPTING TO ORDER IN FRENCH, THE GIRL WAS GIGGLING AT HER. SO FUNNY! BUT I AM VERY PROUD OF HER FOR TRYING! WE GET INTIMIDATED AND SCARED, BUT WE ARE WORKING ON IT.

TOMORROW WE'RE OFF TO VISIT GRASSE AND THEN ON TO MARSEILLE FOR THREE NIGHTS! I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

HOPE EVERYTHING IS GOOD BACK HOME!

LOVE ANDIE.

A New Adventure Awaits in 3 Days!

France! Jill and I decided that since we fell so in love with France and spent entirely too much time there last year, we would devote an entire trip to it. We'll be leaving this Saturday, April 24, flying to London from Calgary and then catching a quick connection to Nice. It'll be a long day of travel, but we'll manage I'm sure! After all, we'll be on the Cote d'Azur. That'll cure a little jet lag and exhaustion pronto!

Two nights in Nice, I'm sure several short of what we'll end up wanting to spend there, and then on to Marseille, which I am so looking forward to! I can't wait to spend three nights in this dirty, hard city. It'll be grand. From there we'll make a few stops in Avignon, Aix en Provence, Salon de Provence, Carcasonne, Toulouse (tentatively overnight there and I'll light a candle for my dear lost cat. And then enjoy the amazing artist!), and then on to Bordeaux. We'll spend two or three nights there enjoying the fruits of the area. And then on to Paris! Paris will be the only place where we have been before. Four glorious nights! We'll stay in the same hostel in my favourite part of town, Montmartre, and visit Versaille, all of the markets we were oblivious to last time, and perhaps go all out for a Moulin Rouge show. Jill's going to read that and say, "Perhaps??" with a fierce scowl. Yes, yes, Jill, we're going. 'Cause there's a discount if you go to the 11pm show, heh... I'm still sneaky.

So yes, my beloved France was calling me back again and I could not refuse! I don't remember being so giddy before.. Maybe it's because we leave in 3 days. That seems completely implausible at the moment.

Not just because of the volcano. I have not mentioned it for a reason! But I was monitoring flights today and there was a flight from Toronto to London! Hoo-rah! I'm not sure if it landed. But I bought cancellation insurance JUST in case. Everyone knock on wood and cross all fingers and toes, please. Until Saturday at 4pm.

Because of the whirlwind 17 day trip, I doubt I'll have much time to write. But when I get back and I'll definitely share the highlights.

love andie.

Ps. Last post we were just making our way to Sevilla and from there we went on to Granada. Those two cities alone I could explore for about three months. I would not hesitate suggesting them to visit and it will not be longer than five years until I revisit them. Amazing cities!