Sunday, January 31, 2010

En Provence

Last weekend my friends Casey, Mary, and I decided to go to Aix-en-Provence to visit our friend Tim.  The province of Provence is in the south, so it's warmer and has lots of sunshine.  It's just north of the riviera.  

We arrived Thursday evening, and Friday during the day Tim had to go to school, so Mary, Casey, and I spent our time wandering around town and hanging out in a café.
View of Aix from the top of the theatre.  You can see the mountain in the background.
 
  
Mary and Casey, at the café. 

Friday night we hung out with a bunch of Tim's friends.  A lot of them had come to Lyon for the lights festival in December, so it was fun to see them again.  We stayed up pretty late that night, but Mary, Ilikaa, a friend of Tim's, her boyfriend (also named Tim), and I had to get up early to catch a bus to go to Ilikaa's house.  I wasn't really sure what was going on, or why we were going to Ilikaa's house, but I just kind of went along with it.  Well, we got up late, not surprisingly.  So we had run all the way to the bus station, but thankfully we made it.  Tim and the others were going to drive down later, so they didn't need to rush.  So Mary and I were on this bus, not really sure where we're going, but the scenery was gorgeous.  About an hour later, we stopped in town where Ilikaa's mom would pick us up.  There was a market, of course.
  
  
Ilikaa and her boyfriend Tim.

Her mom picked us up in the town (Riez) and drove us to their house.  Which, by the way, is a 13th century monastery at the foot of the Alps.  No big deal.
  
  
There's even a chapel attached.  It became a dumping ground while the monastery was abandoned, but if you climb up a ladder (there's a false ceiling) you can still see the original painted ceiling.
  
  
  
And they are a 5 minute walk away from lavender fields.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
We might have been having a little too much fun...
  
  
In case you wanted proof that I was actually there.
  
The others arrived later that afternoon, and we all stayed the night at Ilikaa's.  The next day, her dad drove us to a little mountain village called Moustier.  It was so beautiful!
  
We ended up hiking up a path that led to a little chapel.
  
  
  
We then drove to a nearby lake named Verdon.  It reminded me a little of Table Rock except that the water is bright blue!
  
 

1 comment: