South of France

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Aix En Provence 27th - 29th Sept 2014
Nice 30th Sept - 3rd Oct 2014
A four hour train trip took us from Barcelona to Aix En Provence in France for 3 nights. It is a picturesque little town with around 100 fountains. Had a great hotel called Renaissance Aix En Provence which was close to the bus stop from the train station and a 10 minute walk into the centre of town. Lots of great cafes and restaurants but we are missing the prices in Spain. Dinner is double to triple the price.


We have chatted to two separate restaurant tables of Americans who have had major issues with the ongoing Air France strike which is in its third week. It is such a socialist country and the people & tourists really suffer. We had our train from Paris to Italy cancelled back in June due to a strike along with both Sandy's sisters who had other trips booked and between us all it cost us heaps. The same week the taxi drivers were on strike and people couldn't get to the airport. Then the air traffic controllers went on strike which they do every year at holiday time.  Train drivers retire at 50 and it wouldn't surprise me if they don't keep striking until they get to retire at 40....  We are actively going to avoid French transport in the future. We are keen to walk the Camino, an 800km pilgrimage route from SW France to NW Spain but have decided to fly into Madrid instead of Paris even though it is more complicated it will be better than risking being in France as it will likely be just when they are in the strike season.

We had a few quiet few days in Aix En Provence and then a few quiet days in Nice for 3 nights. We will then be busy from tomorrow on our 14 day cruise from Monte Carlo to Athens via Italy, Turkey and some Greek Islands and nearly everyday we will be in a port for the day and moving at night. We will mostly do our own thing or with people we meet on the cruise but we have booked a small group official shore excursion to see Gallipoli because the timing is a bit tight. It was $US144pp for 7 1/2 hours. Not sure how the internet will go on the cruise so might not get another blog for 2 weeks.


Nice was not as nice as you might expect. It is covered in dog shit for starters (worse than the rest of France) which is super annoying and it is not like you just have to miss where the dogs owner left it but also where the next person has walked it all up the street in five more places. One thoughtful owner covered it with leaves so I couldn't see it and I needed to sacrifice a toothbrush to sort my walking boots Vibram soles out. We had a great hotel called Excelsior near the train station and then a 15 minute walk down the avenue to the beach with cafes all the way.

Wouldn't be rushing back to France except maybe Paris some time for another day or two at the Louvre and some of the major sights and hope not to be caught in a strike. Overall it is much more expensive (about the same as Australia) and not as friendly as other places. Give us Spain and Croatia anytime.

Could there really be 100 fountains in this little town - this one is on the roundabout on Cours Mirabeau

Fountaine d'eau Chaude was 18 degrees straight from thermal springs (built 1734 called mossy)

Aix En Provence Tribunal De Commerce

The manager of this bar was relaxing

Bit slow to photograph this dog having a drink from the fountain

Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, it has all architectural styles from 5th to 17th centuries

View from our dinner table - the garbage truck came past us, lowered the bollard and turned left, being careful to miss other diners, then right up more small little streets

View out of our Aix En Provence hotel room is a great wall of water covering the walking bridge

Good looking taxis in Aix En Provence

Nice beach is pretty lumpy

Main roundabout where the tram turns

Note the huge waterfall on top of the hill in Nice

A few very noisy protesters accompanied by one policeman per protester

Chapelle de la Misericorde in Nice

Kids playing in the fountain

Note the beach sand carted in especially for these lucky few

Nice yacht race

Very large long park area separates Nice town area from beach area with fountains and misters all the way

Masters Games is on in one year and there is a festival this week promoting it with bands and events. Must be having a footpath spin class later today.

Nice Nice Jazz band

Church in the main avenue. The tram lines spoil the shot - in some places there weren't overhead lines and I wonder whether it was underground in places or whether it had batteries to get it to the next section of overhead lines.

Barcelona

Hope you like our photo blog there are 35+ other posts under 'blog archive' link on the right.

Barcelona 22nd - 26th Sept 2014
We flew from Madrid to Barcelona and settled in for five nights at the centrally located Hotel Principal. The 'La Merce' festival to honor the patron saint of Barcelona was in full swing and our first night we had great seats at a free full classical concert at 10pm in front of the cathedral.

It was absolutely fantastic and the Spanish fire came right through their music. There must have been over 80 musicians on stage, a combination of the Barcelona Symphony and the Catalonia National Orchestra. They received a lengthy standing ovation.

We were super lucky as the website said it started at 9pm and we got there and found 2 great seats when nearly all were gone and then we found it didn't start until 10pm and by then there must have been several thousand people stacked in every aisle, on the steps of every building all around and in front of a separate big screen. Even had 2 NZ's sitting next to us to chat to while we waited.

We visited some of the famous buildings of architect Antoni Gaudi (born 1852) including paying e21.50 to tour Casa Batllo an amazing privately owned apartment style building. Possibly a few too many photos of the Batllo below but the building and its design was so interesting! Gaudi was way ahead of his time.

La Sagrada Familia is one of Gaudí's most famous works in Barcelona. It's a giant Basilica that has been under construction since 1882 (that's not a typing error!) and it's not expected to be completed for some time yet and we are looking forward to returning to view the finished product.

We mastered the metro system to visit markets and highlights of the town and figured out we could buy a T10 ticket for e10.30 and then both use 5 tickets each by passing the ticket back.

We had an early start to watch the mighty Hawks win the AFL grand final made all the earlier as AR has to get up a couple of times in the night to do our Saturday horse bets. The Philharmonic (English Pub) had it on a big screen and 200 lively supporters arrived from 5:30am to see the Tassie Hawks dominate. The entry fee was e5 which included a pint and it seemed weird to be having a beer so early in the morning.

Barcelona is in the Catalonia area and many flags are flying as there is a movement to secede from Spain. Very sad that Barcelona is our last stop in Spain. Goodbye Spain and thanks for a great trip.

View from our hotel balcony - notice the yellow Catalonia flag - on some building there are heaps pushing for a referendum to split from Spain

50 meters to the back door of the huge La Boqueria market meant super fresh fruit for breakfast

Fantastic classical concert in front of the cathedral

Our great concert program

Another of the La Merce festival music acts - a great swing jazz band with hundred of people dancing and sweating in full sun

Architect Antoni Gaudi (born 1852) Casa Batllo building

Staircase like a dinosaur spine

Heating alcove with double 'lovers' seat at one end and 
a single seat opposite to accommodate the chaperone

Not a straight line in the whole building anywhere - notice the skylight just near the stained glass window - natural light channelled in

Great ceiling and light fittings

This folding door was a serious design to join two rooms together

Note the ventilation system under the window

This window and ventilation system opens into the light/stairwell in the centre of the building

Looking at the back from the courtyard

Courtyard art

Dining room opened onto courtyard and strangely had two pillars right in the doorway

Even the pillars are a work of art

The light well and stair well had lighter colored tiles towards the bottom and the effect was that the colour was uniform due to the amount of light and also notice the windows are larger at the bottom as the light is harder to catch

Some of Gaudi's furniture designs

This was a hallway and the natural light made it seem much wider than it actually was

Audiovisual showing the design and explaining some of the dragon scales etc. built into the building

Rooftop - notice the chimneys - Gaudi channeled them to exit in groups to make artworks of them 

Christian cross on the top

View down to the street

Gaudi's Basilica La Sagrada Familia is one of Gaudí's most famous works in Barcelona. It's a giant Basilica that has been under construction since 1882 (that's not a typing error!) and it's not expected to be completed for some time yet.

The Spaniards love having pig legs hanging everywhere in markets, shops & restaurants

The foundations below the History Museum have been excavated to reveal 2000 years of buildings layered on top of each other

Vats used for making Garum (fermented fish sauce) in Roman times

Clothes washing baths

Wine vats from Roman times

Barcelona was a walled town that then had two wall extensions and recently has reclaimed a large area from the sea

Didn't know New York was once New Amsterdam

Barcelona's Gothic cathedral 

Even some birdlife in the cathedral

And a drinking fountain

Crypt

Palace of Music another magnificent building

Neat marketing to make a bottle stand out and stop the drips as well

Another day another concert

Didn't know what these are in the fish market and found this story via Google - We ordered navalles, or razor clams. I really like these. Fat, fleshy tubes of shellfish, fresh as you like, slathered in garlicky olive oil, which I mop up with a slice of pa amb tomàquet. This, a simple preparation of bread rubbed with ripe tomato, drizzled with oil and sprinkled with sea salt, is emblematically Catalan.

Erotic museum had a live Marilyn

Front entrance to the market

Lots of these selfie sticks are popular - they hold your phone while you pose in front of everything

A whole street of artists to paint your picture

Footbridge spins open to allow access to the marina

Restaurant had a thong artwork

Gothic cathedral now the festival has finished and stage removed

Cool light fitting

AFL Grand Final on the big screen - that is our table right in the middle with Sandy and my new best friend from Perth who shared his table with us

Massive flee market Els Encants - this was just the ground floor part then long walkways went up a few levels with gradual inclines so no need for lifts/escalators

Our local bar - it has 8 tables over the road near a fountain for light meals too

Not sure what these guys were up to in the metro - we had watched similar guys running from police earlier in the day - they set up shop on a sheet selling handbags, sunglasses or t-shirts and then if the police approach they roll it all up in the sheet and run away - maybe they are going back to the Mr Big on the metro or maybe they are hiding.