Bon Jour. Good Day. That's too expensive.

I recently returned home from a four day trip to Provence, France. This was the first trip of (hopefully) many to come while I have lots of girl bonding time. Provence was charming, beautiful and full of wine. The countryside is more barren than I expected, but considering that Provence is in the south of France on the coast of the Mediterranean, I guess it makes sense. All along the road were Cyprus trees, olive trees and, of course, vineyards. Despite very bad experiences in the past with the French people, more specifically with Parisians, I was very pleasantly surprised at the friendliness and overall demeanor of the residents that we met in the Provence region. While I hold steady to my opinion that French people (in general) are a little bit snotty, a little bit condescending and just a little too stuffy for my taste; I was amazed at how many town dwellers helped us to navigate our car (a large Sedan) through the tiny, twisting streets of the Town of Arles. Holly was a champion and did all of the town driving (mostly because I was a big baby and too scared to try). Despite dozens of turns that required Austin-Power turning skills, Holly did a fantastic job and even had some French "ground guides" show her the way.

The food in Provence was disappointing (for me at least). I am a moderately picky eater, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Many menus that we encountered were solely in French. 0 out of the 5 girls on the trip took French in high school, so ordering food was a "close your eyes and point" process. Some nights we were pleasantly surprised, and some nights we got jelly-fied eggplant appetizers, and sour cream with bitter chocolate for dessert. Lunches were great (we ate at little sandwich cafes) and snacks were amazing (chocolate croissants and nutella filled crepes made before your eyes by street vendors). The wine was also phenomenal. We found an old monastery called Chartreuse de Bonpas that featured a tour of its grounds and wine tasting for free if you bought a bottle. Buying a bottle was no problem, for any of us! At Bonpas we met a friendly French-man named Bruce who let us taste more wines than normal and also pointed out some cute towns in the area that we might want to check out. Chartreuse de Bonpas is definitely recommended for anyone in the Avignon (Provence) region.

Here's everywhere that we checked out on our trip:
-Les Baux (a charming medieval town on a hill)
-Arles
-La Isle sur la Sorgue ( a town known for selling Antiquities)
-Aix de Provence (a more modern city, with very charming streets filled with shops)
-Cassis (a beach town)
-Avignon
-Marseille (we only saw Marseille because we were lost trying to find the airport)

Jonathan was excited to hear about the trip, and was happy that my first trip was to a country that he feels no need to visit since he has already been. Thanks for serving J!

Au Revoir!