Sunday, May 06, 2012
Yes…we’re still enjoying the French
Riviera along the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France! Today
we drove for six hours along the coastline from Villafranche-sur-Mer all the
way to Cassis that is just east of Marseille.
When we were passing through
Cannes we saw the banners for the upcoming International Film Festival on May
16-17th. The route was packed all along the coast with
Sunday drivers and bicycle riders…all on a two lane twisting highway. Fifi and Jim worked on the navigation while
Terry skirted around the bicycles between curves. We girls used the paper maps and tour books in
the backseat and constantly offered unsolicited and often unwanted advice!
St. Tropez was packed with
tourists even with the weather…ah yes…weather…our rain finally arrived just as
we were packing the car to leave about 9 am.
For the next six hours we had intermittent sprinkles, heavy downpours
and bright sunshine!
When we took a short trip north
to Gemenos to see where Terry’s mother’s family lived hundreds of years ago…before
they moved to Switzerland and then to the USA…it poured rain. Just as we were leaving…the sun came
out. We would go from pouring rain into
absolutely dry streets!
We arrived in Cassis at 3 pm; the
streets were packed with tourists and nary a parking place was to be had. We finally parked illegally while Terry and
Linda checked in at the Hotel Cassitel and asked about parking lots for the hotel. We were allowed to park in the side street to
unload the luggage and then Terry and Jim headed for a parking lot several
blocks away. They had a map and explicit
directions in French.
Over an hour later they returned
and we learned that they had gotten lost over and over on the one way streets
attempting to find the parking lot!
Linda was so happy to see Terry…she was sure that they’d had an accident…that
she was crying! I reminded her that
Terry and I had waited over an hour when she and Jim climbed the mountain to
see the Chateau Ruins near Vaison la Romain!
All’s well that ends well and
everyone was very happy when we took our walk around the port to see the boats
and the sites. We were too late to take
the boat to see the cliffs that is one of the favorite activities of tourists
in Cassis. But, it’s such a picturesque
place we’re very happy to just spend our evening and night here.
We finally decided on a place for
dinner and started with large beers!
After dinner we walked to a glace shop and enjoyed ice cream cones as we
walked the streets leading down to the port.
One of our favorite streets is paved with marble which must be extremely
slick when wet. There was a market in
one of the squares but the things that looked the best were too big for the
luggage…so we only took photos.
Today is the France election and
it looks like there will be a change of power….we’ll see in the morning if the
exit polls are correct. The television
is showing great crowds of people on the streets in Paris but our little sleepy
port town is already shutting down for the night. Once the tourist leave, about 7 pm, the shops
begin to close.
Tomorrow we’re off to Arles for
two nights. As you can see we again have wonderful free wifi and hope to have the same tomorrow.
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