A town on a Hill.
In between day working and looking for a job, there is a little time to do other things. I have to click out of work mode often and remind myself that I am in a foreign place with so many beautiful things to see and a history that is richer than my mom’s cheesecake. So much happens in one week here that it is incredibly difficult to set it out in chronological order. It’s all just a big blur of happiness in my mind. I have been trying to keep a running diary on my iPhone but even that is a challenge, so please excuse me if I jump around a bit, but for your sake, I will try my best not to.
As of today I have exactly four weeks until I have to return to my home in Deben. On one hand, I am glad to be coming home to close friends and family and my surfboard and guitar, but on the other, I have come to love France, the local culture and the new friends that I have made here. So it’ll no doubt be bitter-sweet. In the mean time, I will make the most of every opportunity to see and do everything I can.
This past week I have worked on two boats – Marflow and Fathom, both have a great crew and were a pleasure to work for. Dan, my new friend from Marflow and I decided to do a ‘mystery tour’ this weekend. The plan was to take a random bus to a random place and explore, just for fun. So we rallied up our two friends from Kenya, Sarah and Ashley and began our ‘mystery’ journey yesterday morning. However, in the end we decided to follow a friends recommendation and go to Saint-Paul-De-Vence. I tried to get there last weekend but ended up in Nice. Thats what happens when you don’t pay attention. Anyway, after two bus trips and a stupid amount of sour worms and doughnuts we arrived at the walls of town on a bit of a sugar high and were greeted by a cannon. Yes, a cannon. Thats the kind of welcome you get when you visit these places.
The town is one of the oldest medeival towns in the French Riviera and truly is a town on a hill. It is surrounded by a magnificant wall and overlooks deep green countryside and mist bearded mountains. We ate lunch and drank red wine at a quant little French restaurant on the edge of the town and explored the streets, gallery’s, wine cellers and shops. Unfortunately we did not make it to the museam which is a pity because I really love history. But the trip was still really worth while. The rain was unfortunate but didn’t ruin the experience, only the view which my cellphone camera was not quite able to capture anyway. I think a camera is the next thing I will buy. Never the less, here are some of the sights:
They used to have a sign that read ‘Welcome to Saint-Paul-De-Vence’, but they decided that the cannon was more tourist friendly.
I can’t help but imagine how dirty these streets would have been back when the city was new (it was built about 1500 years ago we were told), and as far I understand, the streets weren’t the cleanest places. Don’t drop your buttered toast outside.
The view from the wall. It is a steep dropoff on the other side. If you accidently jumped really high in the air and then accidently tripped on the wall and accidently fell over, you would definately die.
I always like the idea of having a house in a wall. Little bit narrow maybe, some people might have to walk sideways.
A horse made out of horse shoes. There are plenty arty statues and things around the town, like peoples legs hanging from cealings and naked people standing on roofs and stuff like that.
A witch made out of… metal.
Ash and Sarah were trying to see what the tall guy was looking at.
This was in the town chapel. I got a lot of dirty looks from some people in the pews while I was getting this photo taken but I don’t think the statue minded.
Finally…
I got in trouble for taking this photo. It was in an art gallery but so so good.
For the more curious of you out there, here is a little more history about the town.
Thats all for now. Happy Easter.
A journey of a thousand miles... 