Super Nel and I chose this part of our honeymoon because we loved our time in Tuscany last time we came to Europe and we hoped Provence would have the same feel. Plus, our bodies were ready for a relaxing break.
The train ride to Marseille was pretty uneventful-with one small exception. When our train arrived in Marseille, we had to transfer onto another train that would take us to Vitrolles-where the airport is located. When we hopped on that train we knew it was a short ride of 20 minutes but we all fell asleep. At one point we all woke up and I asked "Is this our stop?" I sat up and started to frantically look out the windows for the name of the station on a sign but couldn't find any. I asked the man behind me if he knew if this was Vitrolles. By asking the man, I mean trying to use what little French I know to ask (me point outside and say "Vee-troll-ssssss?!?" and scratch head like gorilla). The man nodded his head "yes" as Super Nel says "I see an airport out the window." So we grabbed our bags as fast as we could and desperately try to get off the train....as it starts moving again. Now we were wide awake.
At the next stop, which luckily was only about 2 minutes away, we got off. We tried to buy a train ticket to go back to Vitrolles since our tickets technically expired at the last stop. Yet, the ticket machine was broken. We are now in some teeny tiny town in the south of France. There aren't any buildings nearby-just a construction crane and a parking lot. Nobody we attempt to talk to "Parle Ingles" (speaks English). So we have no choice but to get on the train going in the opposite direction and pray we don't get in trouble. Not even 1 minute after boarding the train a ticket agent comes into our car and stands near the exit doors. I immediately put on what I call my "acting face." This is the face I've perfected working with preschoolers at the rec center-when they fall down and it looks really bad and they look at me my face says "it's ok. Nothing bad just happened." I've perfected this look working at Junior Theatre when there is something seriously wrong with a skit or a play but my face says "we planned for this to happen. This is normal. Go with it." And now as a nurse I use that face when I do wound care and a patient asks "how does it look?" My brain is saying "Ewww this looks really bad." But my face says "We have some work to do, but I think this is going to heal just fine."
That's what my face looked like on this train. I causally glance over to Dana and Super Nel (casually because if you do it with eyes wide open and quick glances that screams "I DON'T HAVE A TICKET!!!") and try to say with my eyes "relax, pretend everything is ok." If you've watched How I Met Your Mother you know what I mean by a conversation with your eyes. All this happens in the span of a minute. The train comes to a complete stop at Vitrolles and the ticket agent gets off first and as the rest of the people start getting off the train the agent starts scanning tickets of the people getting ON the train. Crisis averted-whew!!!
At the airport, we picked up our rental car. We sprung for the full coverage (which I never do) mainly because all my research said that when abroad it's best not to take any chances. They only had manual cars so Super Nel graciously volunteered to drive (not really-he joked about making us drive) since his car back home is stick shift. I would gladly have driven but I don't have a license (lost wallet remember?) and I haven't driven manual since I was 16 years old (which we all know wasn't too long ago but no one wanted to take any chances).
The 4 of us packed into a little car with our 4 bags and set off for our town. We found out right away that France, like Germany, has a gazillion round abouts. I like these because you don't have to come to a complete stop and seem more efficient. As we start driving, right away we notice that the scenery is gorgeous. We're talking postcard beautiful.
We stayed at a bed and breakfast that's about 1 hour away from Marseille called Une Siesta en Luberon. Of course we got lost and we were all starving. We ended up in this little town and decided to pull over and eat and ask for directions. It was about 1400 at this point and every eating place we found was closed for a siesta. We ended up at the worlds smallest bar run by this older woman. She spoke NO English and her lunch menu was scribbled on the wall. We pointed to the menu to order our food and she started cooking it behind the bar on what was probably a hot plate. The food was delicious or we were just too hungry to care. I called our bed and breakfast and asked for directions and off we went.
It was about 1530 at this point and we were on a very narrow road going up the mountain in a small car with no horse power. However, at every turn in the road you could look down the mountain and were rewarded with the most breathtaking view.
On our way, we came to a little fruit stand and stopped to buy some local produce. The older gentleman who was working was really funny and nice. We asked him if he spoke English or Spanish and he said no but that his wife spoke Spanish. We pointed to the woman working with him and we think he said that was not his wife-she was dead. When we asked if they sold any bread he yells for the older woman working a different stand next door and asks if we can eat some of the bread pieces she left on the table. We promptly responded with "No, no that's ok!" We had a blast buying food and cookies from these two and I truly felt that the people in these small towns are some of the nicest I've met.
When we finally pulled up to our destination we were so happy to get out of the car and take in the scenery. We were met by Barbra, the owner of the B and B. She is originally from Belgium and moved to open the B and B 5 years ago. She speaks fluent English (yea!!), French and Belgian. I think she knows a handful of other languages too. She showed us around the property and took us into this huge kitchen with a fridge stocked with beer and wine. She has a paper in the kitchen where you can write your name down and add a tally mark next to the item you drink (beer, wine, bottle of wine or soda). Total trust system. She also said you can use the kitchen to cook your own meals and that in the mornings she sets out breakfast on the long table. I looked around the room and knew my friend Miss Jenny would love the way the room was decorated. It made me wish she was here. The view was pretty nice too.
Next, Barbra walked us to our rooms. Each couple had a room with a loft upstairs and the view out the windows was of the mountainside. Out our bathroom window you could see Barbra's donkey and hear him in the mornings.
The view from the bathroom looking out towards the door.
We all fell asleep for a much needed nap and when we woke up this is what we saw:
Read more about our time in Provence later today. Doing my best to catch up on blogging whole exploring Iceland.
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