Hello everyone, and I must say it has been awhile (but by this time I’d say most of you would probably be used to it…).

Recently, as in less than a week ago,  myself and my school embarked on a 2 week trip to France starting at the south of France and finishing in Paris. This part one of my journey is all about the first of the most amazing two weeks in France. To get to France you have to travel by plane..duh…but this was my first trip overseas and I have reached a conclusion about flying... I loathe it. I’m sure I would have like it more if we didn't have three 7 hour plane rides which where absolute torture because I felt dizzy, hungry and could not get one ounce of sleep. But nonetheless my excitement to be visiting a country I have been obsessed with since I was little seemed to hide away my annoyance of the flight so that was literally what got me through. 

We left Australia on an early Friday morning and arrived in Paris on the Saturday morning at 7:35am, but due to the time difference and the stop overs, a Saturday morning in Paris was like a Sunday morning in Australia, so you could say the jet lag was messing with my mind. Since we weren't actually staying in Paris in the first week we had to catch the TGV to Marseilles at the south of France, which is a coastal town with the Mediterranean sea in its backyard. As we arrived we were automatically hit by the summers air and a mesmerizing view of the city. I would try and describe it but I though a picture would explain things better.

We only had a second to take in the view as we had to rush to the hotel in order to get refreshed and visit the museum of Marseilles. And I'm not complaining because the view from our hotel was astonishing. But that shower that I took after feeling grubby for two days was heaven. As our group met in the lobby at 3:30, we were ready to embark on our journey through the streets of Marseilles and towards the Musee Mucem.

Now I'm not going to lie, I was feeling dizzy and sick, so while the museum

they strolled past us with their adorable dogs or sometimes crazy folk. The best part of the day would have been the crepes that came after dinner. Nutella is a big thing in France, and you could literally have it with everything, so of course I had Nutella and fresh strawberry crepes which were like an explosion of heaven and flavors in my mouth..mmm

Also, take note that it does not get dark in France till about 9:30pm at night, so we had long days and early mornings. Which to be honest gave me the energy for the day.

On the second day we visited a cute village called Cassis, now tour buses aren't allowed in this coastal town so we had to catch this miniature trains in order to embark on our next journey. As you walk down the tiny alleyway and turn the corner you are hit with the view of the Mediterranean sea, restaurants, boats and beauty. Cassis was beautiful, with delicious foods, and mouthwatering cheese baguettes. The whole point of going to this coastal town was to visit the Calanques which a limestone caves that are caused from glaciers…or something…I should have been paying attention to the tour guide. Anyway, the Calanques were breathtaking with the bluest water that isn't dangerous since you see heaps of people swimming near the rocks and sun-baking. As we returned from the boat ride we were given the option to leave and visit our home stay family earlier or stay for the rest of the afternoon and I think it is pretty obvious that we chose the latter. My friends toured around the small town eating our baguettes and rose designed gelato (which both were delicious), we also visited the beach, and may I say that I have never seen that many topless woman in the same place… wow, my eyes… But the water was so blue that I just sat in the sand and stared at is for a good ten minutes.

As it was time to leave Cassis, the students of the group, like myself were quite nervous to meet our home stay family with whom we would be staying with for the week. But I don’t know why me and my friend were so worried because our home stay family was lovely, and are now my new favorite people. Id have to say the most awkward thing though is the whole French greeting where you have to kiss them on the cheek and you’re not sure if it is three times of just twice. As the home stay mother and daughter picked us up they told us that were were going to some sort of family party… so no wonder they were so dressed up compared to Mikaela and myself togs, ripped shorts and singlets….They let us get changed though, thank god haha. When we met the family we were introduced to so many people including the sister and the dad who was so funny and was always cracking jokes in English since we were horrible at French. My home stay family cooked the most lavish, delicious meals of lasagna, completely homemade pizza, tiramisu, traditional Les Baux De Provence meals and taking us out to a very fancy ice cream place on top of a hill, 20 minutes from where they lived. And we were given a menu to order a sundae from and spent half an hour trying to decide what we wanted because everything looked delicious. These were defiantly the memories I would cherish forever since they welcomed us to their family, their daughters boyfriend who we interrogated, and made new best friends.

That was literally my home stay family in a paragraph rundown because I could go on forever about them.

When we would drive to the place that our “school” was held (yes school, ew), we would drive past this mesmerizing sunflower field where I would just sit in the car in awe and just stare before listening back to the conversation. The area in which we were staying called Provence were famous for sunflower and lavender fields so you would constantly see rows of yellow or rows of purple. On the Monday of the first official week in the south of France we went to school for 3 hours which wasn't anything special, and then toured to the towns toward Pont du Gard which is a Roman aqueduct system to carry the water from the mountains to the village. If you don’t know what I'm talking about maybe these picture should clear up the confusion.

Seems familiar now hey. People would swim in the river below, and me and my friend would watch a group of boys (ooh la la) back-flip of the rock and into the water. Most of the time though, in any town we went to after we had down all the touring and still had an hour to kill, would sit in the cutest café and eat ice cream and just have cute chats which were always the highlights of the day.

On the Tuesday we visited Aix en Provence, which was quite a big city but still very French, which no skyscrapers or all that jazz. We visited the markets there, shopped heaps since they had the sales in France where things were up to 70% off (I KNOW! 70%!). My group consisted of myself, Nadia, Mikaela, her sister and our adult supervision of the group Anika, and Zaitoon. And honestly I'm so glad this was our group because these were all my best friends so there were a lot of laughs. And again, as we finished walking around and looking in the cute shops we sat down and had lunch and by lunch I mean we had Crème Brulee (MMMMMM!) before heading over to the apple store to steal their wifi hehe.

Wednesday consisted on a boring day of school…and by boring I mean we sat for almost 3 hours of a 6 hour lesson doing nothing so Mikaela and myself were pretty grateful when our homestay family picked us up to take us to Arles, a fortified medieval town in the Provence area (I should probably have mentioned this before but the area we were staying and around that area is very medieval so we saw A LOT of castles and fortified cities with a very medieval feel to it). Fun fact, Arles was actually the home to famous impressionist painter Van Gogh, I'm sure you have all heard of him ;). We even visited his house and the view he used to paint one of his famous painting starry night. And because I love impressionist painters such as Van Gogh and Monet, this was a fan girl moment…I know, I'm such a nerd.

Thursday was another beach day, but this time to a cute fishing village…well more like a town witch a massive beach that had a water-slide and Flamingos. I thought it was a very cute fishing village and reflected the south of France pretty well for it had the fisherman, the beach, the cute houses with those fancy balconies, not to mention the packed cobbled streets. By this time we were getting close to the end of the week and definitely not ready to leave. As Friday came around the corner, our last full day with the family before we had to leave early on Saturday, our group was ready to make the most of the South of France. We visited the castle on the hill in the famous area known as Les Baux de Provence and Myself and my friend Nadia climbed to the top and saw a mesmerizing view of the vineyards. We also got a pretty good leg workout but it was totally worth it. But here comes the most memorable part of the day and a definite must see if you ever find yourself in Les Baux de Provence. I cant remember what it is called exactly but I just researched it and it’s called the Carriers de Lumiers 2014. It is only 8 euro, give or take and you basically walking into a pitch black room and then the show begins. So you enter the room and you come across these big stone walls everywhere in random parts of this massive massive room which allows you to walk around all these little pathways…but that’s not even the best part…as music is playing in the background projectors light up the room with pictures everywhere and they are not the same picture they are all different that work together to create a setting. It is actually so mesmerizing, and you will get mesmerized by the beauty.

So as we come to the end of the South of France journey, we were not eager to leave the sites but were were still excited to the next part which is Chamonix which is a snow village at the bottom of the highest mountain in Europe called Mont Blanc which is where we would be spending the weekend. There is only one way for Chamonix to be described is by comparing it to looking similar to Bulgaria villages or Alaska type towns. It is pretty much surrounded by Snow Mountains where even on the other side of the mountain is Italy. On the Saturday when we arrived in Chamonix we were immediately flung into more sightseeing (we literally had no time for break on this trip). We took a cable car to the top of on mountain…which I have no idea what it was called but it was beautiful which a spectacular view of Chamonix and another village on the other side. We also saw snow there which was quite exciting for those that had never seen snow before.  It was quite cold, but not as cold as the next day. Sunday was a last day in Chamonix before Paris and it was a drizzly day as we took a train cart up to the highest mountain to visit the ice caves and the glacier. It was freezing on the top but again what a beautiful view. We had to climb down at least a million steps to get to the even colder ice caves where their was a very attractive French boy working there…so that was the highlight of the ice caves ;) but I also didn't mind having to walk all the way up the million steps because not only did it make me work it gave me buns of steal…haha no I wish, but I did get a good workout. As we returned back down to Chamonix, we went to a beautiful restaurant. Now side not: what I love about the restaurants in France is that as you enter you think your at the end of the restaurant but noooo it just keeps going, upstairs, downstairs, to the sides and around the back..they are massive. Anyway, back on track, at this particular restaurant I had my first traditional French onion soup with the croutons and cheese melted on it which was absolute heaven  and perfect for the cold day.

Chamonix is by far the best place for food and beauty. Mmm J’adore!! This was the final leg of the south of France and as we traveled by bus to Geneva to catch the train to Paris (That’s right, I was in Switzerland for like an hour) I felt overwhelmed by the beauty and the opportunities that I have been granted with…It was a happy overwhelming experience guys don’t worry. All that’s left now was Paris, and boy, I was like a kid in the candy show on the train to Paris…

Thank you for reading!

If you have any questions about where to go in Provence or Chamonix (like the restaurant!) feel free to comment or email me at sophiaxoxlake@gmail.com

I hope you all had an amazing holiday, and those that are still on holiday…lucky! Haha

Love Ya

Sophia!

P.s. Stay tuned for Part 2: Paris adventures which will come out sooner..rather than like the next 3 months like all my other posts..sorry!

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