First Taste of France

This was our first weekend trip to Europe and highlights a major plus for living in London. We scored some cheap flights with Ryanair. 5 pound each, each way inc taxes, but then they slug a fee of 5 pound for paying with a debit card (or credit card or any other form of payment). Regardless, we flew return to France for 40 quid.

Our destination was Marseille. On the Mediterranean, about in the middle. Obviously French, but also with influences of the sea and Northern Africa. The Greeks arrived in 600BC and kind of took over from the Celts currently living there.
Our first view of Marseille from the Metro Station of Friday afternoon.

I left work at 1pm on Friday and Bella had a flexi day. We had touched down in a foreign country by 5:30pm. Our first taste of France. We jumped on a bus, a Metro and then another bus, and we were out in the suburbs where our accomodation was. We sheltered under a bus shelter, while a torrential thunderstorm poured rain down for 5 minutes. We found our 'hostel' and were a little unenthused to find it was more of a one bedroom flat that they head crammed three double beds into. We had the main bed, that was right next to the kitchen and bathroom. We are unsure if this was better or worse then the other beds, which were crammed between the ceiling of the garage and apartment ceiling, in a kind of loft style, but with not much room. Both of them had about 30cms height above the mattress to ensure no sitting up in bed. Well, I guess what do you expect for 30 Euro in the suburbs. Unperturbed and hungry, we dumped a bag and headed out for dinner. Again, we were a little worried when everything seemed to be closed at 8pm on a Friday night, except for pizza places. As tempting as it was, this was France, not Italy and we resolved to find something a little more authentic. We stumbled upon a middle-aged couple heading into some doors, with lace curtains that looked about 20 years old. We followed them in with the hope of finding an alternative to pizza. It was perfect. Again, another apartment, but this one converted into a restaurant. They had about 6 tables in the living room and it was about half full. An elderly gentlemen was our host and put up with our bad French. He looked a little frail but this may have been extenuated by some thick framed glasses and fish bowl lenses. We ordered up some local wine and pointed at things that looked good on the menu. It was a Couscousierre (A shop/seller of couscous) and the meals were served in Tagines. I had a set menu with a soup, couscous with vegatables and lamb, and some other spiced lamb meatballs and little sausages. Bella had a whole chicken (smallish) with citrus and olives. Topped off by a plate of pastries at the end, which we nearly didn't get because the man was tapping his watch saying it's too late at 10pm, but the pastries didn't take too long to disappear. I think we spent more on dinner than the room, but it was a great first taste of France.

We awoke and headed out for some coffee and croissants. We followed the trail of people walking away from us with baguettes. We ordered up some croissants and coffee and got another bargain for under 5 euro. The coffee was an espresso in a plastic cup but it was kind of cool. And the chocolate croissant more than made up for it. Not that there was anything to make up for.
And then began our walking and eating tour of Marseille. The city centre is built around the port, which was especially busy because there was some regatta on. Lots of people wandering around in their team shirts and jackets.
The view from the Notre Dame de la Garde. The church on the hill in the first photo. The inside was impressive too. Have a look at the album below for more photos.
Moules Frites for lunch. Mussels and Fries. The mussels were marinated in a typical creamy herby way that the French do so well. With a couple of beers.Chocolate Fondant with cream is perfectly acceptable as afternoon tea. And it was delicious.
And one more coffee.
We stayed closer to the city on the Saturday night. We flew out on Sunday lunchtime, so we stocked up on a few biscuits and pieces of nougat and headed back to airport.

It was short but was great. Lots of good food. Learnt to be careful when ordering a steak, had a pretty red piece of meat, but it was still amazing. Bella grew in confidence with her French. And had a good dose of sunshine. Bring on Paris in 2 months time.

Click below for some more photos.

Marseille

Got my walking shoes on again

The Entree

After being in the city for near on 4 months it was time to get walking and head to the hills. We bought a bunch of camping gear and strapped on the same pair of hiking shoes that served us so well in the Americas, and off we went.

The first trip was to Sussex in Southern England. Just a short trip to test out our gear and walking stamina. We boarded a train in London and headed south for an hour and a bit which took us to Eastbourne. Our first taste of English beaches. It was everything I expected it to be. Deserted and stony. But it was a beautiful sunny day and there were plenty of retirees strolling along the foreshore. It also had an uncountable number of wooden walls that are obviously necessary to prevent the precious stones from being swept away.
We managed to find some hills. But also realised how densely populated this corner of England is and how hard to is to get away from the masses. Some nice rolling hills below.
We headed to this area to see some of England's famous white cliffs. No, it's not Dover. Dover is about an hour or so East of here. They go for quite some length.
This area is known as the Seven Sisters Country Park, sort of a national park but not quite. It is actually privately owned farm land, but the owners just let people explore it at their leisure as long as you leave the sheep alone. The cliffs are actually quite stunning, especially on a nice sunny day. However, they are eroding at about 30-40cm a year, so some of the houses in this tiny hamlet are in trouble in a decade or two. The erosion explains why the water is discoloured for the first 20m. After that, it actually looks quite blue.Bella climbing the last of the seven sisters. The rolling hills actually made for quite an energetic walk.
Our campsite for the night. Just on a local farm for 3 quid per person. We had such a warm day, we even used the cold water shower. Never thought I would do that in England.

The Main Course

After testing our gear, it was time to tackle to the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. We planned on doing 3 days out of an 8 day walk that takes you from one side of the park to the other. This park contains the highest mountain in Wales, towering in at 832m.

It started out well, with all our public transport coming together so we were starting our walk at 8:30am. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a slight chill to the air as you'd expect in Wales, but all was looking good. Now, all we had to do was find the path. Again, it's all farmland, so all the markings you get is a gate with a marker on it. Then a slight track leading up the hill. So with map in hand, off we set.

However it wasn't long before the clouds came in and the wind picked up. But it was still ok. The views were great.
However, we soon realised the path was a little less refined then we were expecting. More of a case of following the mud trail. We soon realised why the old guys on the bus had big chunky boots and gators. Our trusty shoes would soon fall victim to the Welsh countryside, which I will forever remember as a giant wet sponge. What looks like dry firm ground, turns to a puddle around your foot as soon as you put any weight on it.
So soon we were swimming in our shoes, but nevertheless we persisted along. The mountain tops were OK, but the valleys and sides of the mountains, literally just had water running out of them. The views were quite spectatcular though, and this time we did manage to be on our own. We had a few guys ahead of us when we started but they turned off on a different trail. We then literally didn't see any one for a few hours. The hike was much more of a test then the previous week. Following contours on a map to work out which slightly trampled track to follow and hoping it wasn't just the sheep trail.The terrain varied from wet grasses and reeds to wet grasses and these purply plants. This was our first day, that was about 20km's and we were definitely feeling it at the end.

Our second day was to take us to some even more remote places, with higher peaks. However, we awoke to much more adverse conditions and had to re-think our plans. The clouds were low and the rain was coming in sideways. Some great Welsh weather to be sure, but not ideal for hiking remote mountains with the hope of getting some great views. So we decided to abandon our plans and change our route. We decided to stick to the valleys and found some waterfalls and caught a few buses and made our way to Brecon, the main town in the NP. We were happy with our decision when we saw a weather report which said it was about 8 degrees on the mountain tops, with wind, rain and cloud. And conditions not improving for the next day. And this is a Welsh Summer.

So we made it to some waterfalls through some more mud.And decided that Wales wouldn't ever really have any water problems.Eventually we made it to our campsite, again, another cool little farm on a creek on the outskirts of the town. A cool old barn with apple trees in the foreground. And most importantly, it was drier than we had been all day.From Brecon, we walked along the canal, that was built during the Industrial Revolution. It's about 80kms long and was built to transport lime and coal. After 2 days of swimming in our shoes, we abandoned them and put on our trusty pluggers and hiked it along the nice flat path. Sure it was muddy as well, but at least our feet could breath.
It was something different again. A nice stroll along with the canal boats and countryside, oh, and the rain as well.
Like all hiking in the UK, you are never that far from a pub and you get to reward yourself with a pint and a meal at the finish point. Here are some nice amber ales from a local brewery. So, Wales, the giant wet sponge. But it is still a great place to explore. There aren't too many places in the world where you can cross a country border without a passport and hear some of the people speak their own language.
Click below for some more photos.

Summer Walking

Next up, heading back to the continent.