French it Up!

May 14, 2007

I know it's been a long time since our last blog, but there wasn't anything really exciting to report. Ben's been working hard at school and we've been hanging out with friends. My dance company has been wishy washy about things, but I have a show tomorrow with them and maybe one in early June.
We went to Southern France this past weekend, be the real fun began the day before, when Ben was given free tickets to Beyonce's concert here in Milan. It turns out his school gave Beyonce on honorary masters. Why?? We don't know, but her dad came to ben's school to talk to the students and gave them all free tickets. The show was great and it was fun to go with all of Ben's classmates.

So, the next day we rented a car and drove to France. We stopped by San Remo for a little while and then got really lost. There were a lot of tolls and 124 (we counted) tunnels between Milan and Nice. But we finally got to our bed and breakfast in a town called Ventabrens, outside of Aix-en-Provence. It was a beautiful house and the hosts were really friendly and helpful. We went in to Aix for dinner and had an elaborate meal. The weird part about the town was that, walking down the street, there were so many americans speaking english. We guessed that since it has a big university there, they were studying abroad or something.

The next day we drove to the Luberon Valley and to a town called Gordes. This town is really spectacular and unique. It is built into a giant rock and the buildings are the same color as the rock. It was really pretty and overlooked the whole valley with vineyards, lavender fields, poppy fields and more. This land was really amazing and we were blown away by the beauty. We then drove to Rousillion, which is a town that is built on these bright red and yellow rocks. A lot of pigment for paints are harvested from these rocks.

After that we decided to take the scenic route to our next town which was Nice. That turned out to be a bad idea, as it took us through the French Alps and took forever. The drive was really fantastic, scenery-wise, but it was very tiresome.
We got to Nice and had a great dinner on these picnic tables in a little square. I had Moules Frites (mussels and fries) and a local dish called socca which is chickpea flour and olive oil tortillas. Nice also has a lot of tourists, but it was still fun because the night life is really exciting.

The next day we spent on the beach, which is so beautiful. It has no sand, just rocks, which is pretty uncomfortable. And there were a lot of topless ladies! The water is so blue and clear and wasn't that cold for so early in the year.

All in all, it was great. We really liked Provence and the Riviera and they are places we hope to come back to. We could really tell a change when we got into France. It felt less hectic, more calm and relaxed. Apparently, France and Italy have the same population, but 
France has double the land. I am really glad we got to see the country side and get a good rest from the cities.

Up next, we go to Paris. Au revoir!