A wondeful week with my Mom and friends!

The plan was to meet my mom at the bus station here in Aix, but to make things easier for everyone and to surprsie her we decided to go to the train station and wait for them. Kelly waited on ground level and I waited on top of the staircase so we would be able to see them when they got off with the other hundred people. I spotted them on the opposite end of where Kelly was and I yelled for Kelly and ran over there. I knew I missed her a lot, but when I saw her I was surprised how emotional I got. It had been five months since I saw her and I was so excited to see her again!!!!!!!! Once we all hugged and cried a little we got all their bags together and headed to the bus to go to Aix. The bus takes about 20 minutes from the train station to get into Aix. Once we arrived in Aix we hopped in a taxi and went to the hotel. I had a lot jammed into the week they were here so we only had an hour for them to unpack a little and relax before we left to meet Karen and Alexia for dinner in the center of Aix.

We went out to a nice dinner off the Cours Mirabeau, which is the main street in Aix. At most restaurants in France there are formulas you can choose from which includes an hors d'oeuvre, a main dish and a dessert for a certain price. We all chose wonderful yummy dishes and of course, wine!!! All the ladies love the wine:-) After our fabulous dinner we went out for a few drinks and since everyone was so tired we headed back home.

The next morning we met at the Tourist Office early in the morning for a quick breakfast before we headed off to Nice. There was a planned day trip here in Aix going to Nice for the Carnavale. The bus took about two hours and everyone napped except me and since I talked the whole time which means my mom didn't sleep either. I was too excited to sleep! Once we got to Nice we roamed around the city, went to the market, walked along the beach, climbed up the colline de chateau and then walked to the square where the carnavale parade was going on.
From the top of the colline(hill) there was such a beautiful view of Nice. The water was such an amazing color, I really wish I could stay here for the summer! After enjoying the view we walked back down to the carnival. The parade was really exciting, I'm so happy that it worked out to go! There were over twenty HUGE floats that represented this years theme of blue planet. We watched most of the parade from the side of the road and then decided to take the huge ferris wheel so we could get a view from above. From the top the streets looked so packed! After the parade we walked in the direction of our bus and found a nice little restaurant on the promenade des anglais, which is the main street in nice, to get some lunch. After our fabulous we got back on the bus to head back to Aix. When we got back to Aix, we came straight to my host families house. Karen had prepared a wonderful apero for all of us. The ladies were very impressed by her cooking. I'm so lucky to live with her, she is such a great cook! Everyone stayed for a few hours, but we were tired from a long day and had a big day ahead of us so they took a taxi back to their hotel.

The next morning we met at the tourist office and got a bite to eat and then went to Paul Cezannes Studio. Cezanne's studio is so neat because everything is left the way he had left it(well at least most of it). It was cool to see the props he used in his paintings sitting right in front of us. The grounds around his studio are very beautiful, it was a really exciting experience. After our tour of the studio we went to the bus station to go to Marseille. We met my friend Pauline at the Old port in Aix, which took us a lot longer than we thought it would. There was some sort of strike going on, so the bus dropped us off in some random spot so Pauline ended up having to wait for us for over an hour! Once we finally made it we got some lunch on the water at a very classic Marseille restaurant. My mom and I couldn't really enjoy it because she has fish alleriges, and I'm a vegeatarian but everyone else got amazing dishes. Ours was good too though:-) Kelly and Chris got bouillabaise which is the most famous dish from Marseille. They both loved it! After lunch we bought tickets to take a ferry to an island Frioul. We had an hour before the ferry left so we walked around the streets of Marseille so they could get a taste of it. The ferry ride was really fun, a bit cold but beautiful. When we got to the island we had about two hours to walk around which was the perfect amount of time. We climbed around the rocks bordering the sea and got some amazing views. When we took the ferry back the sun was setting and it was absolutly gorgeous! Trying to figure out where to catch the bus back to Aix was a difficult task. It's really overwhelming feeling lost, but we managed to sort everything out after a while. We went out to dinner in Aix and had a few drinks back at the ladies hotel. Again we were all exhausted and had a big day coming up!

The next day we again met at the tourist office and grabbed some breakfast which consisted of a croissant and cafe like always, it's the only proper way to start off a day in France! Our first event of the day was to go to the big Aix market which is every tuesday, thursday and saturday. Everyone was so excited to see all the fun and interesting things being sold at the Market. Everyone bought some soap that is made in Marseille and scarves. Cheryl and I also bought some jewerely from this really nice man. I got a cute teapot from him too:-) We didn't have time to go through the whole market, but they got the feel of it. We all left with all of our purchases and headed back to the bus station to go to Avignon. The bus ride took about an hour/hour an half and dropped us offf right by the center of Avignon. We walked around the town a bit, looking in stores and all the little streets before going to the Palais des Papes(popes palace) which became the residence of Popes in 1309. With our entrance fee there was an audio guide which was really helpful because there is sooo much information on the Palace! The palace took us so long that we only had enough time to hop in an out of a few shops on our walk to the bus. That night we went back to the hotel for about an hour to relax before we met Karen and Laurent and my friend Clarisse for drinks. We end up getting a giraffe of beer to share between us. We stayed and chatted for a while since this was our last night in Aix. Laurent, my host dad, was so nice and bought all of our drinks. I love my host family so much! After our drinks everyone Karen and Laurent headed home, and the rest of us went to get dinner at a creperie. We all got different amazing crepes. I got a ratatouille crepe which was INCREDIBLE! I'm definitly going to have to go back before I leave. After dinner we went our seperate ways to pack and get some sleep before Paris! Paris trip to come....