I just posted yesterday, so because I feel very much caught up on my blogging obligations, this entry won’t display the same level of effort as yesterday’s. So here’s the deal: Chris and I took two days and did a whirlwind tour of the south of France. We drove to Aix-en-Provence — where Patrick studied abroad for a semester — and stayed overnight in a hostel; got up the next morning and drove to and around and through Marseilles; then on to a beach near Saint Tropez called Saint Aygulf where we swam at a beautiful beach for 5 hours (sorry, didn’t bring camera down to the beach); drove on to Nice, hung out (see below) until 11:00 and stayed overnight at another hostel; got up the next day and drove the coastline road along the Cote d’Azur as far as Monaco. Then we drove all the way home which was a very long drive that took us fairly close to the town of Grenoble (host city of the 1968 Winter Olympics – the Peggy Fleming / Jean-Claude Killy Olympics.)

So the pictures below show some sites from our stops in Aix en Provence and Nice. Before you get to those however; I did manage to apply some effort in composing the following original poem, inspired by our visit to the beautiful city of Nice, France. I dedicate this poem to John W. with whom I share an appreciation for this literary art form, and with a nod to Dr. Seuss:

Ahem…
Nice
Chris and I just went to Nice.
What’d we think? Nice is nice.
One thing to know, Nice has no gneiss.
So if you like rocks, Nice isn’t as nice.
My neice likes gneiss, so she’s down on Nice.
Yep, my nice neice’ll find no gneiss in Nice.

By: Swiss Sojourner

Now for the pictures…

Aix en Provence

The obligatory selfie: Chris and me in Aix en Provence

I love the narrow European “streets”. Aix’s version.

Nice

Cool looking LRT we took from our hostel to the old city and beach in Nice

Another cool European thing are plazas where everyone eats outside.

Nighttime in front of the Justice Building