THREE WEEKS IN FRANCE!

Our first three weeks in France have flown by, nothing too bad has happened and we are all still having a great time.



We spent the first week travelling from Calais to the first game in Marseilles. In that time so much happened that the rest of the time has been a bit of a blur. On our second night we were staying in a campground in Chateau Renault which was like a ghost town and we became friends with a couple from Newcastle. We spent the night drinking with them listening to folk music (their favourite!) and hearing their life story. By the end of the night the wife had her hand constantly on Mark's leg and the husband on Shaun's - I was feeling very left out! The wife thought the boys were in very good shape and wanted to hear about their exercise routine!!



We then made our way down through the Loire Valley and the Massif Central. It was amazing to see how the landscape changed as we travelled further south from sunflowers and dry open fields to a lush green countryside with vineyards that would definitely put NZ to shame. Not to mention the weather was a lot warmer.



Until we arrived in Aix-on-Provence we hadn't seen any kiwis. We were sitting by the pool at our campground when we heard a guy say "we could do some bombs aye" we all turned around and there was this huge Maori guy called Kramer from Te Puke, from then on in they were everywhere. Kramer was with his father-in-law who had been travelling along the Spice Route for six months with seven other men. Their stories were amazing and they had helped so many people along the way with health and dental care and building a school.



Marseilles and I didn't get along so well. In brief, I didn't get to the game and Shaun only got to the second half. It is a very long story but it involves massive miscommunication, a flat phone and a very angry female! I sat outside listening to the haka and the first half while Shaun ran around Nice looking for me. Along with that I managed to leave a small bag in the hotel room and when I phone up they said nothing had been handed in. I rang a few days later and they said they had no record of us even staying. I wasn't so gutted about the clothes I lost but it had some jewellery from my 21st but these things happen. All in all I thought Marseilles was a much prettier place than people said and I given the circumstances I would still go back.



We then hit the South of France and beautiful weather. We went to St Tropez, Cannes, Monaco and Antibes before hitting Nice where all we did for three days was drink and lay in the sun and it was just what we all needed. A friend of Shaun and Mark's owns a bar in Nice so we were looked after very well. I loved Nice so much I was trying to convince Shaun that we should move there but after day the third hangover in a row and very little sleep I was ready to leave.



We both made it to the second game in Lyon and some people Shaun was sitting next to at the first game were congratulating Shaun for finally finding me. Lyon was a much more low key weekend compared to Marseilles and we were much more civilised mainly spending our nights having long dinners - the food was even better this time.



After Lyon we were in Chamonix which was freezing. We caught the gondola to the top of Mont-Blanc but unfortunately it was clouded over. We saw crazy people climbing up the side and I couldn't possibly think of anything worse. We were meant to make our way back to Nice so Shaun and I could go to Cinque Terre but Sav Nav took us across the border to Italy and so we spent two days in Genova instead.



We left Mark with LB and Shaun and I took the train to Cinque Terre. We didn't realise how lucky we had been avoiding all of the "tourists" but when we arrived we were struck by Americans. It was still a beautiful place but it was so overrun by tourists that it was sometimes hard to enjoy. We caught the train to Riomaggiore and walked through the other four villages. Vernazza was most definitely my favourite although Montorosso had an amazing beach. Once we had passed all the Americans we were then just about pushed off the track by Germans and their walking poles coming the other direction - all part of the fun though.