A continuation

My spring break continued in the south of France with my mom and my sister-We met in the city of Arles (which, despite having stayed there for four days and having numerous people pronounce it for us, we still cannot say correctly).  Our first evening was spent getting a wonderful traditional dinner, and catching up on each others' lives for approximately 3 hours.  It was wonderful to see them both-it had been months since I saw a member of my family!

The next morning, we got up and, after finding the tourist information office, we took a train to Marseille and then a taxi to Cassis, the small bay town I had previously visited and fell in love with.  There wasn't quite as much sun this time around, but we still had a lovely time watching the giant waves and wandering in and out of the little shops. 

 Mom and Katie by the Mediterranean, and Molly and Katie enjoying some gorgeous gelato-in case you can't see it, Katie's gelato looks like a flower.

The next day, we woke to a cloudy day, but that didn't deter us from going and seeing the extensive outdoor market in Arles, and buying ourselves a delicious picnic lunch of baguette, veggies, and cheese, and the best strawberries we'd had in a long time.  We also got our first pain au chocolats, which Mom immediately fell in love with (she went on to eat five or six over the course of three days).   We then took yet another taxi into Les Baux de Provence, an old midieval castle ruin about 20 minutes away.  It sprinkled on us on and off, but nothing unmanageable.  In fact, the rain only served to deter other tourists, so we had the run of the place!

The view from the top of the mountain was incredible... on a clear day, you would be able to see all the way across the harbour to Marseille.

 

Learning archery....and that little blue dot right by the flag in the picture on the right is Katie.  Big surprise, I was too chicken to climb the incredibly steep stairs to the top!

 Mom figuring out how to use the castle-storming thingy (I forget the real name for this contraption.  It's the thing they used to batter down the door.)

The view of the village below the castle, where we bought our beautiful (and very impractical for airplane travel) pottery.  Well, where Mom bought our beautiful pottery as our Easter gifts.

Our last day in Arles just so happened to be Easter, and so we had plenty to entertain us, as the town throws a festival on this weekend.  We started the day at a French mass, then followed it up with seeing the sights around town and eating the tradional paella for lunch. Mom had a day-long search for a particular pattern of cloth she liked, and ended up finding it in just the form she had wanted.  The Provence region is known for its bright fabrics and great pottery.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch our train to Paris, where we managed to squeeze in a couple days' worth of sightseeing into one.  We started with lunch at my host family's house, to let everyone meet everyone else, then headed to the Eiffel Tower.  We then hopped on the metro to one of Molly's favorite places in Paris, the Saint-Michel area, where we got falafel (SO good), saw Notre Dame, the Saint Michel fountain, and Shakespeare and Co, a famous bookstore.  We finished with full French meal at my host family's, then put Mom on a train to her hotel near the airport with an impossibly heavy load of all of my gifts and souvenirs to take back to the States.

Mom perusing at Shakespeare & Co.

Katie then spent her week in Paris seeing all the sights while I was in class.  She spent one day at the Louvre, one day seeing the Arc d'Triomphe, and a day at Versailles with me.  We also got to go to the ballet at the Opera Garnier-a gorgeous building, but a super modern and super weird ballet.

The Grand Trianon in the gardens at Versaille-Katie's favorite palace.

 

 

The "Queen's Hamlet" in the gardens of Versailles.  It was Marie Antoinette's experiment in living like a commoner.  She didn't exactly succeed, but she created a little paradise!  It was our favorite part.

Our week ended with a visit to the Marais to get another falafel, and a trip to Madrid over the weekend. I think that is fodder for another post however...