Excursion à Marseille et Aix-en-Provence

Dimanche, 20 octobre.

Yesterday, Molly's host mom offered to take us to Aix-en-Provence for the day! She used to live there and wanted to visit a friend, so we profited from a free car trip and a great tour guide. Although we didn't spend a ton of time in Aix, we did get to walk along the Cours Mirabeau (the city's main street) and explore the surrounding neighborhoods.

 

Many of the city's buildings have been meticulously renovated to their original appearance. Owners have to be careful to use the same styles and paintcolors as the original buildings, so the process is apparently painstaking and expensive. And in a way, the unaltered appearance is more picturesque -- especially if you're trying to channel the turn-of-the-century-starving-French-artist vibe. But I definitely prefer the renovated buildings. They're just so bright and lively ... like Provence!

Excursion au Château de Montferrand

Dimanche, 13 octobre.

Today I went on a hike with my host family! They've been talking about taking me somewhere for a while, but because I've been so busy, we haven't yet had time. So this weekend, we put on our sneakers and headed the countryside of Montpellier to explore Pic Saint-Loup and the Château de Montferrand.

You can find a little bit more information about the ruins here (in French), but basically they are what remains of a twelfth-century fortress built to overlook and protect the Montferrand Valley.

According to my host mom, a princess once lived here who was loved by three brothers who went off to fight in the Crusades; when they returned, she had died from the plague, so they went off and became hermits on different mountains. Pic Saint-Loup was named after the eldest brother (who naturally got dibs on living alone on the very tallest of mountains).

I had a ton of fun hiking up to the top of the ruins. Although it's almost impossible to tell that there used to be a fortress here (the walls are in total shambles), there are lots of old rooms and cellars to crawl into and explore. It reminded me a lot of the places we used to adventure to in Germany!