Au revoir

One of the last things I did for work was visit a homeless shelter with Kathryn and Miroslav in Bormes-les-Mimosas. And the following is not an understatement: Bormes-les-Mimosas is the most beautiful place I have ever been. My photos don’t do it justice at all. You should google it right now. 

This was the homeless shelter. It was on top of this mountain with an ocean view that would take your breath away. The view was unbelievable. Everything was so green. Sadly, I only got to meet one homeless person because we were there pretty early in the morning and then we left again. On our way home we picked up my first hitchhiker. She was super nice. 

Here I am, still in Bormes-les-Mimosas. It was so windy. You can sort of see the beautiful village behind me, but again, just google it. This place had great beaches too. The only downside was there were so many tourists. But can you blame them?

And all too soon it was time to say goodbye to beaches like this…

and beachside attractions like this…

and commutes to work like this…
and sunsets like this.

Goodbye, Toulon! Thanks for the memories!

La Garde, Part 2

After the evening at the medieval festival, Kathryn and I went back for round two. (By the way, that festival was a lot more interesting than I led on my last post. That evening began with a drunk man lecturing me on faith for about twenty minutes and ended with a near-kidnapping. But if you want that whole story, you’re going to have to buy me dinner.)

Here are the pictures from round two.

This is the outside of my favorite shop in the South of France. It’s called Bois d’Olivier. It has hand crafted items. Everything is made by the man and wife who own the place and they work exclusively with olive wood that is over 400 years old. We got pretty friendly with the man and woman who owned this place. The old man kind of reminded me of my grandpa.
This is the inside of Bois d’Olivier. You can see some of their items they have for sale here. You can also see the shop itself, which used to be part of a canal system before something happened and it was turned into this shop. 

We found the castle!

Fit for a princess. 

Storming the castle.

After we stormed the castle, we crashed a wedding downtown.

The third time I went back to La Garde, I didn’t bring my camera and I met the most magical artist and his wife in their shop. He was working in his shop sculpting. He had art all around. He and his wife invited all of us in and talked to us for close to an hour. He was a very interesting man and had worked with Mother Theresa in India when he was younger. Before we left, he gave us all prints of his calligraphy.

La Garde is kind of magical.

La Garde

Perhaps my favorite little town in the South of France is La Garde. I was introduced to it at a medieval festival that I went to for work and then went back a couple of times on my own to explore further. It’s about as picturesque as it gets. Allow me to demonstrate:

Now is that a medieval festival or is that a medieval festival? These are all photos from the parade and it was so much fun! After the parade, we explored the city for a bit.

And we weren’t disappointed. If I ever own a tandem bike, I will definitely grow flowers all over it.

Please take note of the castle in the background.
“The Little German Tavern” It’s unclear whether this was part of the medieval festival or is always there. I think it might always be there.

14 juillet

Haaaaaappy Bastille Day! Vive la France! Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité!

I got to spend Bastille Day in France, which is sort of funny because I have this really vivid memory of being in French 102 learning about Bastille day and thinking, “How cool would it be to be in France on the 14 juillet?” And then, boom! A year later, there I was! In France, on 14 juillet. And it really was so cool.

We woke up to find French flags everywhere! These ones are strung across the street. Aren’t they cute?

It was pretty quiet on the streets of Toulon that day. Later there would be a parade on this street. It was in the afternoon, probably around 2:00 or 3:00, during what was probably the hottest part of the day. It was all very serious, there was no throwing of candy or anything. There were, however, a lot of military trucks and people fainting from the heat. Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of the parade. 😦
These are the flags on the port. Usually those flag poles have the flags of every country in the EU, but not today! Today is all about France. I took this picture while I was waiting for the ferry to take me to the next city over, La Seyne. On the ferry we ran into our very best friends, the sister missionaries! You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. It was their day off, and Kathryn and I were overjoyed to have a couple of buds to hang out with.

It was even quieter in La Seyne than it was in Toulon. Makes sense. It’s considerably smaller. So, we just walked around the city instead. We stumbled upon this odd street art, even though it is rather high up. I remember saying that this looked like something I would have made when I was little only to have my mom be like, “Cool. Can I throw it away now?”

Umbrellas! Also, you’ll notice that man in the background is not dressed in France’s colors. Apparently that’s only an American thing? Who knew. After walking around La Seyne for a little while, we caught the ferry back, grabbed some grub, watched the parade and then watched the fireworks from Mont Faron with my buddy Miroslav from work and the sister missionaries. It was a good day.

Tinder in Toulon

Not long after I got to Toulon, I joined Tinder. 

I was, in a word, bored. And on top of that, I had developed a slightly unhealthy obsession with cats.

So, I turned to technology to help get me out of the rut I was in. Kathryn and I were hoping to make American friends. We didn’t realize it, and we didn’t know how to name it, but what we were actually going through was probably some mild culture shock. We were the only two Americans we knew, and we were just looking for others like us out there. When we didn’t find any, I got off Tinder. Thankfully, I never met up with any of those weirdos and Kathryn and I adjusted to a slower-paced life in the South of France just fine without them.