le début des vacances

This is without doubt a daunting task, catching up on nearly 2 weeks of adventures, but I know you all have been very patient so here goes!

*I will be posting on day at a time otherwise the post would be massive!

Friday afternoon I took the train down to Montpellier to meet Asia – trekked to her place with all my bags & her bike, did some more trip organizing, and went to see Britney Spears in concert! It was fun, though definitely a different experience seeing American singers in France…most of the audience did not understand the “How are you tonight?!” or “Put your hands in the air!”. Quite amusing for those of us that understand English. Also, she completely butchered the word “Montpellier”, you’d think she’d have an assistant teach her how to pronounce the town she’s performing in! All in all it was still a great time  :)

[Italics are what I wrote at the time in my travel journal, additions are normal font]

DAY 1

Montpellier, France to Vigonovo, Italy

Wake up at the crack of dawn, trek down to the tram & take it to the train station where we meet S & M to pick up our car!

And the road trip has commenced! We’re all in the car, which, btw, is an AUDI!

Can’t believe we got such a sweet car, excited to learn manual in it! [Disclaimer – tried once, stalled the car a few times, got frustrated, need to learn with only A or M in the car] Getting all the car stuff in order was a bit of a pain, but we were off the lot at 10:30am. Named the car Wilhelm. Driving between Verona & Asia’s friend’s place now. 9:30pm, it’s dark so every 20km or so there’s a castle or church on a hill all lit up…gorgeous. Stopped for dinner in Verona, I got tortellini with prosciutto and we shared melon wrapped in prosciutto. 

Delicious! I do really want to go to Venice, yet another place on my to-go list! The drive today was beautiful, a great deal of it being along the Mediterranean. But I was also finishing The Help, so I was engrossed in my Kindle for a few hours. We stopped in Eze too! The places we go back to J Got a perfume at Galimar, last time it was Fragonard. [I went to Eze 2 years ago while I studied abroad in England]

Asia took this panoramic picture of the port of Ezes

Eze, France

Another one of Asia's - at the parfumerie