after a long day of travel (no strikes, but my train was delayed over a half an hour...) stepping out of the venice train station onto the canal was... breathtaking. venice is so un-like anywhere else i've been so far, and it's so beautiful.

had a little bit of trouble finding a place to stay last night (and trouble finding things in general... maps aren't much help in venice) but eventually found a place that had room for the evening, but after that they were full because of a group coming. so i dropped my stuff and went out to find an internet cafe to try and book the HI hostel (which was only *not* available on the first night i was going to be here - how perfect, huh?) for my next two nights.

so a good nights sleep - and a great free breakfast.... CEREAL!!! i haven't had cereal in forever! so it was only rice krispies and corn flakes, i was still really excited. then i took a water taxi over to the hostel to see if i could leave my stuff. the hostel is on an island and can only be reached by vaporetto, it's right on the water with an amazing view of the main part of venice.

so today i've been wandering around the city, not worrying so much when i didn't know where i was (the beauty of having to take a vaporetto to the hostel is as long as i can find a vaporetto stop, i can find my hostel, unlike my first night when i didn't venture farther than a couple hundred feet from the place so i wouldn't get lost!) and now my feet are pretty tired. i was only truly lost at one point where i ended up back in the very same spot two or three times before i found a vaporetto to somewhere else.

no sights today, or at least not the insides. this is just such an amazing city, i love it. :) and can you say.... shopping? i haven't bought anything yet, but i think i might. (obviously something not too big, since i have to carry it with me for another month)

i was sad to hear that we have actually escalated to a war, but i am not coming home and i am just as safe now as i was last week. i'm continuing to be careful and safe, so no worries. :)

it was a beautiful day to explore bergamo today. and with all the hill walking - i didn't even have to wear my coat most of the day!

bergamo is divided into the "citta bassa" (the lower city) and the "citta alta". the prices of hotels and restaurants go up with the altitude, so obviously i'm staying in the citta bassa and shopping at the supermarket. some traditional bergamese dishes are horse and donkey with a side of polenta. so i got a little polenta from the grocery store - don't think i'm quite brave enough for the horse or donkey...

there isn't really a whole lot to do in bergamo, but it is beautiful and it was a great day for sitting around and people watching... a couple of things worth mentioning are these awful backpacks that are for some reason "cool". they are big and flourescent with giant buckles. and they are hideous. and everyone carries them. everyone. even adults. to me they just look like something someone in second grade would carry. and then there are the beautiful girls walking around with guys who are wearing these backpacks. call me shallow, but i would not date a man who carried a bag like this.

also a lot of the men who consider themselves "well dressed" look strikingly similar to the women. and that's a little frightening. of course not all italians are this weird, but there are enough of them to let me know that this is at least exceptable. i'm scared.

tomorrow i leave for venice, and hopefully the strike on the damn trains is over!!!!!!

how do you say "oy vay!" in italian? i wish i knew... very long morning today.

i got to sleep in a little this morning, leisurely breakfast, checked out and headed to the train station. the train i planned to take to bergamo was at 11:25, i looked up at the departures list and there it was, so i stood in line to buy my ticket. when i got to the front the woman at the desk told me that there was a strike on the trains, and she didn't know if the train would actually be going, so i should go check with information on the second floor.

so at "information" (imagine me making quotes with my fingers there) the womans says she doesn't know... there's supposed to be a train at 11:25 (i know) and the next one is supposed to be at 11:55, but there might not be any trains until after 5 because of the strike. so basically what i had to do was sit and wait to see if a track number showed up next to the train time on the schedule. 11:25, no. 11:55, no. so i decided i should maybe look for a bus instead of waiting until 5 o'clock to get a train.

well, according to my guidebook there are buses that leave right outside the train station and there's a schedule posted there. well i walked all around the station and i didn't see any bus schedules. so back to "information". she sends me to tourist information and they actually tell me where i need to go to get a bus to bergamo. (the same place i arrived in milan). so off i go, buy a ticket and i'm on my way. but this bus was packed! plus you'd think this was a city bus, there were so many people that some had to stand in the isle - you'd think it was a city bus or something. it was an hours ride.... glad i wasn't standing!

so i've finally arrived, i'm here. went to my first hotel choice and was able to get a room, though it was a little more than listed in my guidebook, i don't really care at this point. so hopefully by the time i leave for venice the strike will be over and there won't be as much confusion.

at first glance bergamo looks lovely. it's a nice day out and i'm going to explore a little bit and find a grocery store to stock up for some dinner.

tried to post yesterday... but there were some issues at the internet cafe i was at.... and then internet explorer ate my post and i didn't feel like re-writing it. mi diaspace.

so where to begin... the bus ride to milan was 13 hours long... and i was one of 2 people on the entire bus who did NOT have their own 2 seat row to stretch out it. some large, annoying boy decided he was going to sit with me. so ugh. needless to say got hardly any sleep, at least not for more than 30 minutes at a time... i arrived in milan around 8am and was able to manage the subway ride to my hotel (though i kept saying "merci" and "oui"... still mentally in france). and though reception was open at 9, i couldn't actually check in until 2 o'clock. though they did let me leave my bag, which was nice.

so i walked around the city a little bit, got a coffee at mcdonalds and sat there for nearly two hours writing in my journal and reading my guidebook. there was a big rally going on in the main piazza, which was for sure a peace rally - all the flags people were carrying said "pace", which means peace in italian, but what kind of peace i'm a little fuzzy on still.... see the flags were the rainbow gay pride sort, so i'm not sure what kind of peace exactly they were looking for. although, perhaps the flag doesn't have the same meaning in italy. who knows, i don't speak enough italian to ask any questions beyond "how much does it cost?".

needless to say i went to sleep rather early saturday. after checking in at two and the frustration of trying to figure out how to make a phone call i napped for the afternoon, then had a little dinner and went to sleep again.

sunday was a sunny, but cold day (as is today as well) and i walked around some and sat in the public garden for a while, looking in my guidebook and getting a little sun, despite the chill. though i suppose milan is sort of close to the alps and all that... i'll be moving south soon, though. :)

so tonight i'm going to make myself (there's a lovely, completely stocked kitchen in the hostel) an instant version of the local specialty - risotto alla milanese - which is risotto flavored with beef shank and saffron. and a bottle of cheap italian wine. should be good.

today is my last day of exploring milan, and frankly, that's fine with me. i'm not all that impressed with it here, it's just a city, with a coupla old things in it. tomorrow i move on to bergamo, which is a little smaller and, i think, a little cuter.

today is my last day in paris... and in france as well. it's been beautiful here, but a little bit cool. i've seen a lot of stuff here, as well as taking some time to just absorb it all.

i've been thinking of maybe publishing a sort of superlatives list for france, like best/worst hotel, worst toilet, best beach, best meal... etc. but i thought i'd open up the catagories to the public, so if you can think of anything that you think would be funny or something you're genuinely curious about use the "comments/feedback" link at the top right of the page.

i was thrilled to be able to do my laundry in the hostel today, and also to be able to leave my bag here when i was done, so i didn't have to drag it around with me all day.

and it is a sunny, beautiful day. i've spent most of it sitting by st. martin's canal and reading. walked around my "home" area in paris for the last time (near the place de la republique) and wrote some postcards.

in a couple of hours i'll be on my way to italy on a long, and most likely uncomfortable, bus ride. then the real struggle comes in communicating. though my french is nowhere near fluent i at least know a lot of basics, numbers, i can pose simple questions "do you have?" "can i?" "i'd like" "where is?" so we'll see how much italian i can beat into my brain on the bus.

wish me luck.

have i mentioned that my current hostel has free breakfast? (well, included in the price of the room anyway) and while i love this, because it means i don't have to buy a coffee somewhere, i get a little something to tide me over so that i'm not hungry for lunch by 11 (most places don't serve lunch until noon), there is one part i hate - they always have it early in the morning! at least this place serves breakfast from 7-9, the place in arles was from 7:30-8:30. but they're also very strict on the one cup of coffee per person rule. there's a woman who stands up there and gets you a cup of coffee and a cup of juice. no seconds whatsoever. also i have still not managed to get a cup of black coffee.

a little aside about coffee in france. when you ask for a "cafe" (coffee) you will most likely get an espresso. i think if you say "cafe americain" you'll get a regular black coffee (though i tried this once and ended up getting exactly what i wanted, for the price 3.40 euro). your standard coffee is pretty much going to be a cafe au lait

so the first morning she said "cafe au lait?" and i said "no 'au lait'". and she gave me a cafe au lait. this morning she said "cafe au lait?" and i said "cafe noir" (that means black coffee). and i *still* got a cafe au lait. oh well. i guess it's like they say "when in rome, be like the romans" or something. i'll get over it.

went to another picasso museum this morning, and this one was way better and bigger than the one i went to in antibes. it also had lots more of the picasso stuff that i like. after i went to a medieval museum, which was pretty cool. lots of stained glass windows, sculptures and illuminated manuscripts.

had lunch in chinatown. at a japanese place. oh well. actually there was probably more vietnamese restaurants there than chinese. france has a lot of vietnamese people. and since then i've been cruising around saint germain des pres and the latin quarter. bought a couple of grocery type things for my dinner and am thinking about heading back to the hostel soon.

i had more planned for today, but after a pretty full day yesterday i decided to take a few things off the schedule and just chill a little bit. and that's been good. tomorrow i'll have another full day to explore.

a fab first day in paris. and guess what?!?! i finally got all the way to the top of the eiffel tower!! can you believe it? was very exciting, and it really is so much higher up than the 2nd level, there are things you can't see from the 2nd that you can from the top. good times. but - i have a question for everyone: have you ever known someone who has gone to paris, more specifically the eiffel tower and after leaving they say "you know what? the one souvenir i *really* wanted to buy was a small metal eiffel tower/eiffel tower keychain - and i just couldn't find them anywhere!" i mean really! not only does every shop near the eiffel tower (hell, probably every shop in paris) have them, but in case you missed them in the shop, at least 50 men will approach you to offer them up for sale. i think if i really wanted a cheesy souvenir (but let's be honest, sometimes you do - but i don't) i think you would go out and find one in a shop, or up to some street vendor who had them - do you really need to be pestered every 5 feet???????

did a little museum hopping this afternoon. went to the musee rodin and the musee d'orsay. but alas, monsieur "le penseur" was not present at musee rodin. and musee d'orsay is HUGE, so now my little feet are pretty tired, i'm looking forward to getting some dinner and getting back to the hostel to put my feet up! then i do it all over again tomorrow. :)

thinking about having a falafel sandwich for dinner. yum. maybe with fries on the side!

so the cleaning woman definitely hated me in bordeaux. she only came the first morning i was there. the second morning she left a bag of towels on my door handle (my sink was quite leaky) and she didn't come at all any other day. i think my desire to sleep late mucked up her whole schedule, and so she decided i could manage on my own. which wouldn't be that big of a deal, i don't really need my bed made every day, but taking the trash would have been nice.... anyhow...

had the *best* sunday so far yesterday. i got up, had a coffee in a sunny cafe. first of all - the sun - i think for as long as i've been here sunday is always cloudy, cold and/or rainy... i took myself out to a great and cheap lunch at a chinese place. they had a menu for 8 euros that included a starter, an entree with white rice, a dessert, and a 1/4 picther of wine. very good. :) and then i walked for a little while in the sunny pedestrian zone and went to the fine arts museum. after the museum i sat in the garden out front - wearing only a t-shirt! - and read and people watched for like 2 hours. then i went home, had my take-away salad and soup for dinner, read some more, a little tube and then bed. just about a perfect day!

got up super-early today (8 am can you believe it!) and got myself down to the train station for my my very long, but very first TGV journey. and so now here i am, in paris. got myself a bed and a subway pass for the week and i'm ready to see some sights, sip some coffee and finally make it to the top of the eiffel tower!!!

so tomorrow i'll hopefully have something interesting to write about...

super easy going day yesterday. i slept late, then walked around bordeaux a little bit. it's actually not that exciting. treated myself to a fashion magazine in english (it was ELLE) and went back to my room with some groceries. pretty much kicked back, did some travel planning, read my magazine, read my book and watched some tube. i haven't had a true "down day" like that since i got here, so it was nice.

was feeling pretty lazy again this morning, and around 10:30 the cleaning woman was knocking on my door. i didn't really understand her, but i tried to tell her that i wasn't ready for her to clean my room yet. and she went away. i'm sure i'm ruining this woman's whole schedule by sleeping late. but oh well. this is like my vacation from vacation, i'm taking it easy.

so good news though! got an e-mail today from Snapfish! (they're developing my film and putting it online) that my photos are ready, and i've had a little peak, but this computer and the internet connection here are both deathly slow, and so i'm going to wait until i am somewhere else to try to share the albums and put a few photos on the site. soon, though, soon. i also had about half a roll leftover from home, which consists of mostly my pets. :) they are soooo cute.

well, i've got to get some more bread to make a sandwich from my leftover fillings and then at 1:15 i'm meeting at the tourist office to leave for my chateaux tour. should be fun.

i am now settled in to my lovely little room in bordeaux. and it's great, i spent last night watching tv! it's been a very long time since i've done that. there are two channels in english, the BBC and Mtv, which is only partly in english (it's subtitled in french), but they only show videos (mostly american videos) and "making the video" (but only for videos that have been out a while in the US). i still watched it. :) my room also has it's *own* toilet, shower and sink, which is very exciting. a lot of single rooms will have only a sink or if you're lucky a sink and a shower, with the toilet down the hall. so this is real luxury. and for only 16 euros a night!

spent most of yesterday trying to find a grocery store to get a couple things and also get my bearings a little around my hotel. took forever to find the grocery store, but they have something that i could make in my room (with no kitchen equipment) - it's like "cup of noodle" kind of stuff, only they also have different things like a shepard's pie kind of one and pastas with sauce, as opposed to soup. and all i have to do is put hot tap water in, cover it up and set it on my heater for 5 minutes and voila! a non-sandwich meal!

today i'm going to explore some of the sights in bordeaux. tomorrow i'm going with a tour group from the tourist office to the chateaux in Medoc, which should be a good time. (wine tasting is always a good time) sunday i may take a trip out to St. Emilion, which is another chateaux, but also a cool little medieval city.

so i'm not really sure yet what i'm going to be seeing today (i was watching tv instead of planning my day last night) but i think i'll start with a coffee in a sunny cafe while i flick through my guidebook.

my last day in toulouse today, and i'm treating myself pretty well. :)

there was an open air market in the main place this morning, so i wandered through. haven't picked up any souvenirs for myself yet, mostly because the things i want are all like clothes i don't need right now or want to carry with me or dishes, ceramic things and such that would get broken and be too heavy to carry for another month and a half. might mail some stuff home at some point, but i have a feeling it will be pretty expensive... so don't want to have too much stuff sent.

seen some sights today, and some museums. after i finish typing this i'm taking myself to a movie, in english, and then i'm taking myself out to the sushi restaurant near my hotel and possibly to another museum near the hotel that is open late on wednesday nights.

tomorrow i'll be off again, to bordeaux this time, to another single room! this one possibly with TV, so come sunday when everything shuts down i'll have something to do.

not much to say today, oh well.

well, "ugh" again. it wasn't until i was on the train to albi that i noticed that the toulouse-lautrec museum isn't open on tuesday!!!!!!!!!! i'm quite upset, as i am a fan of the silly little man's posters. (if anyone ever saw my living room in cambridge...)

so i got there and walked around a bit and not even the tourist office was open during lunch, so without a map i parked it on some bench and ate my lunch. (brown bagging it for a few days after my expensive misunderstanding meal yesterday).

when things finally started to open a bit after 2 i realized the only other thing i wanted to see in albi was the cathedrale de st..... st somebody, can't remember. but it was absolutely magnificent (i'm not being facetius, i just can't remember the name of the saint) the stonework was so unbelievable, extremely delicate, it looked almost like silk in some places, and of course beaucoup de gargoyles, which i loved. the inside was pretty cool as well, there are some amazing paintings on the walls, the big one at the altar (no, that's no the right word.... is it? you know what i mean) depicted the last judgement, which was quite cool. talk about trying to scare people out of sinning... how catholic. ;P

so after that i really had nothing else to do in albi and caught the early train back here. but the sun is shining finally, which is great.

so time to pop into the grocery store for another loaf of bread and maybe some sort of vegetable (in an attempt to be healthy). tomorrow i'm planning a lovely day in toulouse, and possibly treating myself to a movie, in version originale, chicago! v. exciting.

what could have been a great day has not really been.

i'm spending the day in carcassonne today, which is this amazing walled castle - story book kind of city. it really is amazing. but it's also raining. and so exploring the city and soaking up the beauty of it all on a park bench are not what they could be. also my travel umbrella is of a low quality and so after too much time in the rain it starts to seep through to the underneath part and drip onto my head and shoulders. no fun. the parks in this city are so nice and filled with flowers and beautiful fountains and stuff, i would have loved to spend the afternoon there. but no, but no.

also i wanted to get cassoulet while i was here, it's the local speciality. basically it's a stew with white beans, sausage and duck. so i found a restaurant with an 11 euro menu which included a salad, the cassoulet, and a dessert. but there was some confusion about the dessert bit, i wanted fromage blanc (which i wrote about a few days ago) but somehow it wasn't an option or i was misunderstood and instead had a plate of different cheeses, more like a cheese tray, that put an extra 4 euros on my bloody bill. so was feeling a bit cheated. c'est la vie.

did have a pretty pleasant sunday for once, despite the rain (it is always bad weather on sunday, i don't understand). found a small family run kind of grocery store and was able to pick up some wine and cookies to go with my sandwich and spent a pleasant evening in a warm room (the whole hostel in arles was quite chilly) reading.

i think the rain is finally supposed to let up tomorrow, and i'll be going to albi for the day, which was the home of toulouse lautrec before he ran off to paris to poster the moulin rouge. should be good.

seems like i've had a very long day traveling... and it's only 3pm! my train left arles at 10 and by 1:30 i was in toulouse. there was a breif period of sun while i was on the train, so i had hopes of heading into sunnier territory. but no. it's is raining here.

despite the rain, my first impression of toulouse is that i think i'll like it here. i was able to find my hotel without much trouble. though my room is pretty hilarious. it is a single room (not a dorm) so there's a little single bed, a sink, a table and chair, and a closet. with about 3 square feet of carpet in the middle. but i'm not complaining, it's only 17.50 *and* it has a window. (the window looks over the "hall" which seems that it was previously a courtyard which is now covered on the top). the hotel itself is quite neat, little hallways leading all around and lots of stairs leading every which way. and even more i'm thrilled to not have a lockout during the day! that is truly miserable when it rains and you have to stay out until 5pm.

so i've walked around some, found the internet at what i think is quite cheap prices. it is filled with pre-adolescents playing 1st person shooters, but at least they're not taking up the entire place like in nimes.

would love to find an open grocery store so i could get a few supplies (wine, bread, cheese, some sort of cookies...) but i'm pretty sure no grocery stores are open in france on sunday, so i'll have to settle for a sandwich from a street vendor. i'll live, though.

tomorrow my plan is to go to carcassonne, which is a city with a castle at it's center, surrounded by a fortress. should be fun. hope it doesn't rain!!!!

sur le pont d'avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse....

am in avignon today which is really great. it's completely walled in with little entrances all over the city. saw the famous bridge, though decided against going on it, which cost 3 euros. i just took some photos from the river bank. it actually doesn't go all the way across the river anymore, and they still charge you 3 euros! at least your $2 on the tobin lets you go all the way across!

also visited the palais de papes, which is where the papacy was run from for like a hundred years in the 14th century and they built a gigantic palace. quite an amazing place. there's also tons of little museums here.... but i'm not in a museum mood today, it's sunny out. and even now i'm sitting in a sunny window looking out onto a "place" filled with people.

and all this is a vast improvement over yesterday, when i visited nimes. it rained _all day_. and i was so miserable. i decided to treat myself to a *real* lunch at an actual restaurant with wine and dessert. i'm not normally a big dessert person, but they have this thing in like every restaurant in france which is called "fromage blanc" (means "white chees") which is essentially a cheese with the consistency of yogurt, and they put a fruit sauce on it (everytime i've had it, it's been raspberry) and it is so good.... like dannon (or whatever yogurt that is... maybe yoplait?) it is sooo goooood....

was unable to kill time during the day of rain in the internet cafe in nimes, because it was filled with teenage boys playing QUAKE!!!! i was so angry. stupid boys. ended up spending a lot of time at the train station waiting for my train....

today is a much nicer day, and i don't mind just sitting outside and people watching.

slow, boring day tomorrow, my last day in arles and it is also going to be laundry day. then sunday morning i'll head off to toulouse. so until sunday... :)

it was a very long day yesterday, killing time until 5pm. sat for a very long time in a cafe. first had a coffee and sat for a while (that in itself earns me the right to sit there all afternoon). but i was hungry and it was lunchtime so a little later i had a croque monsieur and salad (to counteract the croque monsieur - which for those who don't know is like a grilled ham & cheese, but with cheese also melted all over the outside - to be eaten with fork and knife. this one was especially cheezy, with an almost welsh rabbit-y sauce under the outer cheese.). then a little while later, another coffee.

after that it was a little harder to kill time with my giant bag. didn't want to go in any shops (too bulky) and it was a little chilly out.... so sitting outside was not as nice as it could have been. eventually took a walk to see where exactly the hostel was, and then time how long it took me to walk to the train station from there (about 25 minutes with a full pack).

it was eventually time and i could put down my bag. sigh of relief. wandered off feeling 50 lbs. lighter (well, let's be honest - at start the bag was 13 lbs, can't have put too much more in there.... some papers, one new sweater - that's all). got myself a sandwich and went back to the hostel to tuck in for the night.

today i had my very first FREE breakfast (it's included in the price of this hostel) which was fantastic. my first breakfast to include something besides coffee in weeks. :) plus, not only a coffee, but a big cup which i could refill. the bottomless cup of coffee is unheard of in france.

have been seeing the sights in arles today, it has quite a lot of roman ruins and some museums, also the hospital that van gogh was put in after he cut off his ear (like mental hospital).

tomorrow i'll make a day trip to nimes, which also has some roman ruins. i might get roman ruin-ed out by the time i really get to rome, eh? well, probably not. i imagine the colleseum will blow away what is left over in france.

till tomorrow.

a sad end to my sad sunday (when i last posted). i wanted so badly to get some chinese take-away to soothe my crappy afternoon, which i have been able to find in every city so far. but not in marseille. instead i ate at MCDONALDS and had "le chicken mcnuggets" and "frites". was comforting at any rate.

yesterday spent the day in aix-en-provence, which restored my hopes for provence in general. it was charming and quaint and clean (well, apart from the obvious dog doo and cigarettes that are everywhere, but no real trash like marseille) and i was able to get chinese take-away before i went back to marseille. mmmm..... made me quite happy.

and i finally sent my film in! though i think i must have air-mailed it or something... was a little more expensive than i imagined. so soon (depending on when it arrives in the US) i'll have some pictures to share.

was up very early this morning to catch a 8:48 train to arles. so i am here now. but i'll have to lug my big bag all over this city with me today, as the hostel i plan to stay at is closed from 10-5. blah, i hate lock-outs! but it's nearly lunch time now, and it's sunny out and not too cold, so i'll have some lunch and maybe find a place to park myself near the river and read for a little bit. i picked up a new book in aix yesterday "angle of repose" by wallace stegner, something i meant to read ages ago when i was thinking of being part of an online reading group but didn't.

alas, i don't know how much this is costing me here, but hopefully not too much. i'll be 4 nights here in arles, which is home to some of the best preserverd roman ruins in france.

j'ai arrivee en marseille hier.

and apart from being quite expensive to stay here (25 euros a night) i do have my own room, which is an exciting change. even my own shower (which was cold this morning) and sink. toilet is down the hall. still it's kind of nice to be lazy and just kind of lounging around with no one to bother me....

oh, don't think i wrote about the crazy inconsiderate girls in cannes - was finally asleep the first night of my wretched cold when at about 12:30 these two girls came into the room and clambered up into their beds and continued to chit chat as if they were still at the pub, and their mobile phones buzzing with text messages..... and the same in the morning, at 7:30 when they got up, no thought for the three other people who didn't want or need to be awake at that time. oy vay. actually talked to them on my last night in cannes, they were sort of crashing the 3GSM World Congress and trying to sell their business idea.

spent the afternoon yesterday cruising around the port in marseille and enjoying the sunshine. am thinking of trying out my wedding band here, there seem to be a lot of guys who think if a girl is sitting/walking/standing alone that she wants to be picked up. it's a little annoying. was sitting on a bench yesterday when some guy started to chat with me, so i made an attempt, he didn't really speak english, i was trying to speak some french. then he said i had a nice smile, and could he see my eyes? he wanted to see the color... (danto: a bit like those crazy egyptians) which i declined.

today saw a couple of the sights (the ones that interested me) and then was going to walk around in "le panier" which is a section of marseille that's supposed to be quaint and cute streets and shops and such... not so much. i've seen cute and quaint. this was just a little grungy. and marseille on the whole is sort of a dirty place. but the port is nice.

anyhoo- tomorrow i'll go to aix-en-provence for the day, which is a small town, and hopefully a little cleaner than marseille.

have finished enough film to send in to the developer, but haven't been able to find an envelope to mail it in (and "la poste" is closed today). but soon, hopefully, i'll have some pictures!

bonjour tout le monde!

yes, i haven't written for a while... cannes has been a little wierd and hectic - PLUS i've come down with a miserable cold.

first of all, wasn't able to find any cyber cafes with english keyboards (on french keyboards, the letters and punctuation are mostly in different places) and it was very, very frustrating, but today someone showed me that i can change the language of the keyboard - which of course only works if you can type without actually looking at the keys - so i'd like to thank my crazy high school typing teacher....

second - SICK. yuck. nose was running out of control and i was sneezy and miserable. luckily had befriended a german girl in my hostel, who was working in france and could speak french very well, so she could explain to the pharmacy chic what i needed. of course what i really *wanted* was dayquil, that stuff is the best ever, but you can't just peruse the shelves in france, you have to ask for the hard stuff (like cold medicine). but anyway, am starting to feel better.

not really enjoying cannes as much as the other cities i've been to so far, but the hostel has a kitchen, so i can like heat up some soup to go with my sandwich and open a bottle of wine with the hostel corkscrew. so had a lovely dinner last night.

went to grasse yesterday, the perfume capital of the world, which was nice (though not as nice as it could have been if my nose wasn't running the whole time). i bought myself a fancy-shmancy french "parfum". :) which the woman told me would last for 3 months "if i use it every day, as i should" don't think i'll do that. but also, they put the stuff in aluminum bottles, which along with being safer and lighter for me to travel with, actually keeps the perfume potent for 7 years, unlike glass bottles which only keep it fresh for like a year.

today i'm catching up on bunches of e-mail and posting here for the first time in days. then i'll wander around cannes for a bit and take the ferry to ile st. marguerite, which is where the "man in the iron mask" was imprisoned. it's also supposed to be a lovely place to walk around.

tomorrow i leave the cote d'azur for provence, my first stop is marseille.

my last day in antibes... and not a very interesting day.

went in search of a laundrymat, it's been two weeks now, it's time. the one listed in my guide book was closed, so i wandered around and eventually found another one. quite boring.

had a lovely sandwich for lunch, goat chees with tomato, lettuce and olive oil. yum... sandwich... tonight is 1 euro curry night, which i'm very excited about.

sat in the courtyard for a while today to try to soak up some sun while avoiding the wind, not easy to do and i wasn't very successful. i've finished reading "the celestine prophecy" which i thought was amazing and i highly reccomend. i've traded in my copy at the hotels book exchange for something called "sushi for beginners", a sort of comedic novel, i gather. been reading a lot in antibes, which is strange. not something i usually have a whole lot of time for.

a lot of chit-chat today with various residents here, which i quite enjoy. it is still a little early for most of them to have secured work yet, so there's a lot of people hanging around. i feel that i might be getting a little comfortable here, it's time to move on.

tomorrow morning i leave for cannes.