The South of France

I am now in Lacoste, France in Provence but I will give a run down and some photos of my trip since Belgium. On Tuesday September 7th my mom and I left Paris. We were lucky. All of France was experiencing a public service worker strike. No one could buy tickets for any train that day. Yes we freaked out. We just wanted to get to Marseilles.  Sarcozy (french president) wants to push the retirement age to receive pension from 60 to 62. I mean really? I honestly don't think that is so terrible. But I'm not french and I don't know much about this subject. I just wanted to leave Paris. We talked through a few people and finally got on a train with just our Eurail pass and made it to Marseilles. And Marseilles was ok. Only worth seeing for a day. It was dirty and we knew there is better in the south of France. So we made Marseilles our base for the day and took trips day trips to Nice and Cannes. Now those are places to visit. The beaches were beautiful and the days were warm.

The French Riviera is where it's at! Old Nice displayed remnants of the dying language Occitan on old street signs. It was almost like being in a French Italy with some Catalan touches. So incredible. Fenocchio is the best place for ice cream! There are over 100 flavors that range from rose bud or thyme, to grapefruit or watermelon. I had a scoop of rosemary and a scoop of rhubarb. It tasted perfect. I'm sure all of the flavors there were close behind. 

Old Nice in the foreground and Nice in the mid ground, and The foothills of the Apls in the background.

some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen.

Cannes is the land of the rich and famous. We were there during the yacht festival. The harbor was filled with yachts and mega yachts. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Gucci, Louis. The old town gave us a view of it all. This day we took a 30min boat ride out to an island called St. Honorat which is home to a monastery that has been on this island since the 1100s. It was abandoned in the early 1800s but was reused in the later part of that century. It is fully functioning today and is surrounded in vineyards and Mediterranean sea. The old monastery juts out into the water on a tiny peninsula that gives great views of the new monastery and the french coast from Monaco to Cannes. The monks there run a small hotel and winery. The island was quiet and serene. Quite a contrast of life from the French Riviera.

A boat decked out in Gucci

Presented by Gucci models.

Cannes from the water

St. Honorat Monastery

Boats around the islands

After our fun excursions, Friday Sept 10th we arrived at the Marseilles Airport. Mom left for Atlanta and I left for Lacoste. I met up Emily and then the other students and we took a bus into the Luberon valley. Lacoste is beautiful and SCAD has done such an awesome job renovating this medieval town. I have my own room with a view of the vineyard covered Luberon valley and Bonnieux, the hill town over. Our first full day here we took a very short 12 km trip to the town Apt which is the closes "modernized" town. We went for a couple hours to the massive town wide market to grab anything we might need. I am excited to learn about travel photography and life in Provence. I can tell that Christ has so much to teach me about so many things. My heart is open and ready to be consumed by His Spirit.

Lacoste, My home for next couple of months

The view from my window. What I wake up to every morning.

My room's four little windows

in Apt Market

In Apt Market

Apt store front