Marseille was extremely disappointing. We paid for a nice hotel room with a balcony overlooking the well known and supposedly beautiful 'Vieux Port' (old port). In reality it is an oversized pond overcrowded with private boats, the water is stagnant and full of litter and there is construction going on EVERYWHERE. We wandered around the town and about 10 minutes away from where we were staying, we came across some local markets in a back street...strewn with begging women and newborn/young children, food stalls rife with flies and shops selling manual working clothes. Very poor. Very sad and uncomfortable to witness. James managed to get a picture of the port from our balcony that makes it look favourable...
Carnon is lovely. The hotel was set right in the middle of a little harbour and we were a 10 minute walk away from a large, sandy beach. There were no tourists around, just locals...men playing 'petanque' (French bowls), women chatting together on benches by the water, families walking along the row of eateries and hotels. James and I sat on a bench watching the sun go down in the harbour, eating pizza accompanied by baby monitor...made a lovely change from lying silently in the room with Jude sleeping in the evenings. We had a lovely time at the beach...sitting in a warm little sea pool while Jude enjoyed the sensation of scooping wet sand up in his hands and trying to eat it! One of our favourite moments of the trip. The only downside was how hot the room was at night - air con doesn't seem to have the same priority status in Europe on the whole!
Toulouse is an inland city, South-West of France where my cousin, Hannah lives with her boyfriend Howard. It is a lovely city and Hannah was our tour guide for 2 days, walking around the cobbled streets and bustling cafe culture. She found a nice outside cafe called 'Flowers' that sold the only iced coffee that James has liked since he left Aus (we had to go back there both days as a result), a great bookstore where we bought French musical baby books and a really good burger place. It was lovely to be able to catch up with her and see her little set up there - they live in a spacious appartment just 10 mins walk outside of town, overlooking the river and a park offering free table tennis, badminton, volleyball and petanque. I don't think much will tempt her to move!
Last stop was San Sebastien. Just a beautiful coastline and beach where you can swim out to little islands and chill out. Again, a spot full of locals rather than tourists - well looked after area with nice gardens to walk through. By this point in the trip we didn't want to do much so we hung out at the hotel a lot (I treated myself to a facial and James got stuck into the gym) but we did enjoy a couple of walks in the local town and down to the beach.
The drives between Marseille and Santandar (where we got the ferry from) revealed very industrial towns - fairly sad examples of man ruining nature - lovely coastlines marred by billowing smoke and built up construction. However the sun was shining as with the rest of the trip and we enjoyed seeing more new sights.
The highlights...
for James - being back on white sandy beaches, daily family walks, Monte Carlo, drinking an iced coffee in Toulouse, dinner and water taxi ride in Venice, eating chinese on the balcony in Grenoble and swimming with Jude.
for Nic - catching up with Han in Toulouse, dinner and drinks in Tuscany with James, walking around Venice, Compiegne, Carnon, Grenoble and Toulouse and playing in the sea with Jude.
for Jude - everything...he was the only one that got to wash everyday, always wear clean clothes and never miss a meal. He lived like a king. :-)
The things we won't miss? James hated packing and unpacking the car over and over and I won't miss sterilising bottles in a hotel bathroom!
Now our attentions turn to planning our America trip to see Sam in Sep and the wedding in Nov! So quiet times. :-)
Speak soon.
Nic x
