Heathrow - London

Well, I haven't written anything in a while, and you may be wondering why. Well, it's a long story, but unfortunately, every piece of electronic equipment that I brought along on the trip was stolen. That includes even ipod and cell phone! Briefly, Gaffer and I had just arrived in the middle of Barcalona with the intention of returning the rental car when this guy on a moped told us at a stoplight that our tire was flat. Strange, we thought, but rolled up the window and decided to ignore him. Low and behold, our car started to clunk after the next light and there we were stranded on a major avenue of the city, wondering how to get hold of Avis, who's office was not far away. While doing this, another guy on a moped stopped and tried to get us to go to a nearby garage, but we cheefully told him that we would not need his services. While my attention was diverted, one of his collegues and snuck behind my back and stole the backpack holding all of my electronic equipment. Computer, all my backup photos, all the video I had taken, the video camera, the digital camera, cell phone, ipod...even my car keys and passport. He was long gone within the 60 seconds it took for me to realize that all was lost. A cop was over after a short while, but what could he do? Anyway, I'm over it now. We check into the hotel in Barcalona and on Monday I got a temporary passport. The one bit of good news is that much of the photo data of the trip is on a separate hard drive I brought along, which is kind of malfunctioning and which I hope to at least recover most of our trip. No one injured, no one hurt. I'm here at Heathrow, and will be stopping here for a couple of hours before getting back home.

Last day in Aix

Tomorrow is our last day in Aix. We have been here almost a week and what a week it has been. Yesterday, I had some internet trouble and couldn't post anything. But I will try to get some video up tomorrow. I have quite a bit of stuff on tape which I need to organize. Yesterday, we went to a town called Isle sur la Sorgue, Fontaine de Vercluse and saw the Abbey de Senanque. The Abby of Senanque is the abby which the Gaffer has a painting of on his living room wall with the fields of lavender in front of it. It is a working abbey of Cistertian monks, and you can get a tour of the place. Very nice. Today, we discovered a terrific seaside town of Cassis. it is on the south coast, fairly close to Marseille. It's like a miniature Nice, with a nice harbor and lots of cafes and restaurants. The ocean is a kind of turqoise color and all around are terrific cliffs, which you can see from the coast on boat trips. Quite honestly, we have done so much, and I have so much video which I just can't fit on You Tube, I feel as if I am not giving a true representation of all that we are seeing. I plan on putting many more photos and video on the blog when I get home, so don't quit checking the blog even after we have returned home.

Tomorrow, it is a day to relax and kind of recover, at least for me. It is our last day in Aix, and we are just going to hang around town and visit a museum or two. I have been doing all of the driving on the trip, and I can tell you there have been some quite hair-raising incidents for me. It's not so much that the drivers here are rude or aggressive, if fact I have found the drivers in Europe to have become decidedly less aggressive in recent years. it's just that we have been forced to park and drive into spaces so tight that the side of one's car is literally on inch away from one's left or right side panel. The garage in this hotel, for example, is so small and the spaces so tight, that it is required to back into the garage and park your car in reverse! Thank God we have a small Opel Corsa. Needless to say, my nerves are a bit frazzeled at the end of the day, and I really look forward to a cold beer or a nice glass of wine.

I'll try to get some video up, but if you don't see any, it is because of internet trouble here in the hotel. The rest of our trip is as follows: Tomorrow - last day in Aix. Saturday - mad dash back to Barcalona. Sunday and Monday are just hanging out in Barcalona and Tuesday we head home.

Please feel free to comment on this blog, or email me at josephweir@mac.com as I really have no ideo if anyone, except a few are even looking at any of this.

Marseille

Yesterday, the Gaffer and I decided to take a bus to Marseille from Aix instead of driving to avoid parking hassels, etc. Marseille is a much more interesting place than any of us had expected. There is a definite Arab feel to the town, but it was not nearly as menacing as we thought it would be. As French cities go, I would say that it is definitely underrated.

The Luberon Mountains

The Gaffer and I explored the region of Provence known as The Luberon, which is a mountain range about 25 minutes drive from Aix. Notice how much better shape the Gaffer is than me......I must be a real lard ass....

It's Asaragus Week!!!

After breakfast, let's walk around the market.....

Aix-en-Provence - Video

Toward the end of this video, you will notice that I lose my train of thought.....that is because I was ever so slightly drunk, I think.....too much wine toward the end of the night.....I actually forgot which town I was in as I was filming....sorry to sound like an idiot!

Aix-en-Provence

Yesterday we left Nimes and drove about 100km to the town of Aix-en-Provence. Aix is a town which Gaffer had been to around 10 yrs ago while he was attending painting classes in Provence. Although he had only visited for one day, he was quite impressed by it. We arrived at around noon, having had a fairly uneventful journey from Nimes. The only difficulty comes when just arriving in the town and not knowing where to go or where to park or where we are going to stay. Driving in French cities can get very frustrating when you don't know where you're going. It's a miracle I haven't damaged this rental car already. Anyway, we parked in a parking garage and found a hotel with the help of the tourist information office in town. The hotel is called St. Christophe, and although rated only a 2 star hotel, has quite a chi-chi feel to the place. There is a restaurant which you need to kind of walk through before getting to the lobby, where all the guys where their sweaters casually wrapped around their necks, and they all wear creamed-colored slacks. They all look so Euro. However the place is quite reasonable. The only unreasonable thing is the parking situation. There is a parking garage underneath the hotel, and you wouldn't believe how tightly all of the cars fit inside. It's so tight, that you literally need another person outside so they can guide you in and out. Also, you are required to back into the parking space because otherwise, you will not be able to remove your car. I've never seen anything like it and will try go get it on video tape. The town of Aix is beautiful and lively. To me, it's like a miniature Paris in the south with more restaurants per square mile than I have even seen in Paris! You wonder that they can all stay in business. The weather is almost cleared up completely now. Well, must run, but I'll try to get some video and photos up later today.

Arles video

Gaffer and I walk around Arles and see the ancient Roman sights!

Walking around Arles

We are still headquartered in Nimes, but we drove today to the town of Arles (video to follow soon). Fortunately, the rain has considerably cleared up.....still cloudy, and we even had a few sprinkles, but nothing like it has been for the past few days. Arles is a beautiful, ancient city which features a Roman theater as well as a stadium. As in most of these French cities from the middle ages, there are the charming narrow streets and the feeling of antiquity. Having spent most of the morning in Arles, we decided to head to the town of Aigues Mortes which lies about 35km south of Arles among the "swamp land" of France known as Les Camargues area. The area is known for their "cowboys" and the town itself is surrounded by an old stone wall where one enters the town through giant ports in the wall. The town is nice, but doesn't have the charm of Arles. This is our last night in Nimes, and tomorrow we head to Aix en Provence.

Nimes - part deux.....

Well, another rainy day here in Nimes.....I don't know when this rain will end.....it's one of those endless rains without any end in sight, unfortunately....maybe tomorrow it will be better. Gaffer and I had breakfast here in the hotel, and decided that the best bet was to get in the car and spend the day touring the countryside, rain or no rain. Our first stop was the big roman bridge at Pont du Gard. Very nice, very impressive and in great condition, considering it was built around 2000 years ago. (We took some photos, but haven't had a chance to get them off of the camera yet as we just got back to the hotel) It was belting down rain, and we both got soaked. I held the umbrella while the Gaffer took photos, and he held the umbrella while I took video. I do hope the photos came out. It would have been so much better if the skies were clear. But you have to make the best of it. From the Pont du Gard, we had coffee in a little town down the road from the bridge called Remoulins, where there was a nicely stuffed bull's head on the wall and a couple of old locals who looked at us like we were from Mars. From there, we went to the town of St. Remy, which, again was terrific, but the shine was dulled by the constant rain. We had a great meal in a little brasserie there and walked around the ancient town where all of the streets are narrow and crooked. Lots of little shops selling artwork and crafts. Back in car and on the road back to Nimes. On the way, we passed an absolutely enormous monastery called Montmajour. Nobody was there accept us, yet one can imagine that on a fine day, hords of people would be crawling around the place. The place was enormous, and built around 1000 years ago. Yet it all looked like brand new, and like something out of a picture book or fairy tale.....amazing. I'm going to check it out on Wikipedia when I get a chance to find out more about it. We found our way back to the hotel in Nimes fairly well and are now here in the comfort of the hotel lobby, enjoying dry surroundings and a glass of Cointreau, watching endless news coverage of the French presidential election which will be held Sunday. More photos later......

Images of Barcelona

This is a little video I did from Barcelona. Hope you like it.

Photos

Collioure, France




From press room at Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona



Gaffer in press room of Barcelona Stadium tour

Nimes, France

I'm going to start with just a written account of what has gone on for the past couple of days and will try to post some photos and stuff after this....I'm finally in a hotel with a pretty good wireless internet service (and free - yeah!) and may be able to actually post some photos....but first things first. We are currently in Nimes, a city which is about 75 km from the border with Spain. However, last night was our last night in Collioure, and boy what a night it was. This beautiful coastal town, which was bathed in sunshine on our first day, was pouring down rain all day yesterday. Nevertheless, we managed to get in the car and drive to some of the nearby towns along the coast and check them out between rain showers. It didn't help that yesterday was May 1st, which in Europe is a kind of Labor Day, and most of the businesses and markets are closed. After a meal in an outdoor restaurant where we were covered from the pouring rain (the poor waiters were hearty souls carrying out the food to our table, there being no indoor seating in this establishment) we decided to have a rest in our hotel while we wait for the "big match" to come on TV. The big match was the UEFA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Chelsea which the Gaffer and I have been anticipating watching for quite a while. This cup semifinal is for the "European Cup", so there may or may not have been a French interest in the match, despite the fact that it was between two English clubs. Anyway, we made our way to a cafe in town which the day before had advertised the game on a big screen TV. The cafe/bar looked pretty lively, and we spent some time chatting with the owner, who happened to have atteneded the same Barcelona match which we had the day prior. When we got to this cafe, walking for about 15 minutes in pouring rain down the road from our hotel, we were very dissapointed to find that the place was closed! It seems that the rain kept the tourists crowd away, so I suppose the owner decided to close up shop. Anyway, as we were deciding what we were going to do, we passed by a bar not far away, and saw in the corner television which was not turned on. So we decided to go in and ask the bartender if it would be O.K. to watch the match just starting. Thankfully, he gladly turned on the TV and we sat down to watch the match with a couple of beers. At first, none of the regular patrons seemed too interested in the match, but within 15 minutes, several Irish people and a couple of Americans came in and started to watch the match. Then more of the regulars started to get interested. Everyone seemed to be rooting for Liverpool (as we were), and when Liverpool scored the first goal, the crowd in the bar gave a great cheer. There was even a very drunk guy at the bar who spontaneously broke out a trumpet, and started blasting away at the bar to the delight of everyone. More and more locals got interested in the match and the noise and excitement got greater and greater. At a couple of points, this very drunk middle aged women came up to the Gaffer and me and wanted to know who we were rooting for, and what the score was. She then began dancing in front of Gaffer, grabbed his head and kissed him on the cheek! The Gaffer took it all in good stride, and was enjoying himself immensely. From time to time, another drunk Frenchman, dressed in jeans with no shirt, but wearing a red apron, would stagger over to the TV and mockingly threaten to turn the TV off, elliciting cries of "Piss off, will you!" from the Irish viewers in front of us. The game ended in penalty kicks and Liverpool won the match, to great cheers at the end. It's experiences like this that make travelling great. Gaffer and I, after the game, made our way back up the hill to our hotel, laughing at what a bizarre evening it ended up being.....

Today, we're in Nimes. I'll write more tomorrow. For now, I want to try to get some photos up to show you what things are like....