EPTOn day 2 the weather was much better than on day 1, there were pretty much no clounds in the sky and it was a lot warmer. After a nice breakfast with tons of Baguette (obviously), fresh eggs, coffee, juice, fruit etc. we were ready for the beach again.
We didn't want to walk for another hour this time, so we took our cars and drove east towards Cassis, where there was supposed to be a beautiful beach. First of all, let me tell you that the landscape of the provence looks amazing, there are close to no cities, just small, old villages here and there and the rest is just nature.
Usually most of the Provence looks like this
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Landscape_Provence_France_1.jpg)
Unfortunately, we arrived after the lavender had been harvested, so most of the lavender fields we got too see were green or empty.
We arrived at the beach after about 30 minutes. It was a nice little bay with an amazing view
![[image loading]](http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/4285/05092008061sma8.jpg)
The beach itsself however, looked like this
![[image loading]](http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4373/05092008059sts9.jpg)
So needles to say, we all left with a few sore feet and other smaller injuries. Some of us even got hurt by a jellyfish, but it wasn't too bad, so we didn't have to pee at one another.
We spent quite a while there, having fun in the sea which was even warmer than the day before and getting a nice tan.
In the evening we went back to the huge supermarket which is called Auchan (actually, they call it hypermarket in France, and with good reason.) The place is fuckin huge, we spent about 90 minutes shopping for food, leaving with 180 euros less in the bank, but it was definitely worth it.
We had a nice barbecue that night, Dreiven would've been proud. Afterwards we had a few beers and went to bed rather early.
day 3:
It was saturday and we drove yet again to another beach. This time we were looking for something with sand near the water, so we planned to drive west this time and just search/ask the locals.
The first beach we found was more like a harbor with a tiny batch of sand next to it, so we decided to ask someone working at a restaurant nearby for a beautiful sand beach.
the two guys working there were very helpful and we eventually found a nice place called "plage le rouet" near Carry. It was rather packed but we found a nice little spot and jumped right into the fresh water.
This was probably the most fun I had in the sea during the 10 days. The waves were much higher and we used airbeds to surf. We also had like 5 different kinds of ballgames with us which we played with on the beach and in the water. We had a little snack there at a place which was ran by a lady in her late 50s or so, who was quite a chatter. She made fresh hamburgers and sandwiches for us and talked about her travelling a lot and even gave us some fries for free to go along with the rest.
(None of us was fluent in french by the way, and the accent down there is even harder to understand, they have a bit of cattalanian or spanish mixed in with their french.)
In the Evening we decided to go out and party.
We had a little guide book called "lonely planet" which had usefull tips on pretty much anything a tourist might want to do, so we settled on taking the metro to the "vieux port" (old harbor), have dinner and then look for a club called "Trolleybus".
There were countless bars and restaurants in the area, all rather expensive and having mostly fish on their cards.
We sat down in a place called Paul's.
In France, when you order in a restaurant, the will usually have so-called "formules", which are basically menus with
starter, main course and dessert. Also, you get free water and bread along with your meal.
We all ordered a menu for 18 euros and two bottles of wine for 15 euros each. The waiter was a grumpy turkish guy in his 50s, who didn't so much as look at us while taking our orders, but still the service was very fast so we didn't have anything to complain about.
I had calamary with a little salad for starter, which tasted pretty good.
My main course was grilled duck, which was alright, but consisted mostly of skin, and icecream as dessert.
All in all not really worth the money, the others felt the same. When we were all finished, it was about 11 pm and the place was about to close.
So when we got up, something very strange happened.
The grumpy old waiter came to us, smiling ear to ear, hugging all of the girls and trying to do some secret handshake with the guys.
Somehow we had made him really happy, and we discussed this scene for quite a while.
In the end we agreed that he had probably had a really long day and was glad to get home to his family, or that he didn't expect a good tip from young people and had been pleasantly surprised.
Anyways, with our stomachs full, most of us felt really tired, but we still decied to try and find this club.
We walked for about an hour, asking several people along the way, but the conversations all went pretty much like this (in french obviously)
we : Do you know a place called Trolleybus?
them: You look for a bus?
we: No, it's a club
them: never heard of it
exhausted as we were, we still didn't want to give up, so we decided to just find a place that would still serve a beer or two and then take a cab home. After another hour of looking, we came to a place that was packed with guys and girls around 16-18 and a LOT of small glasses on the tables, either empty or filled with some weird greenish drink, and lemons everywhere. 80% of them were drunk as fuck, so we assumed it was some kind of "end of high school" party going on. However, it was already 1 am and the bartender refused to give out any more drinks as they were about to close. I asked a guy that looked a little older and less drunk for a place to grab a beer.
The guy was really nice, he called one of the waitresses (who was kinda pretty and named Danielle) and we chatted a little. They told me in French that I could get a beer at the place next to this one, and then something which i coulnd't quite understand, I only heard something like "but, a guy like you". When they realized that my french wasn't that good, they asked where I came from and we started chatting in English. I then understood that the bar nearby was actually a gay club, so after refusing to go there, the waitress said: I know a perfect location for you, it's called Trolleybus! ...
They told me that it was really close and showed me the way,
so our group went back to the harbor, this time going another direction, and passing about 5 pubs (still open) packed with people until we arrived at the trolleybus.
However, the girls were already tired and bitched about paying another 10 bucks for a club in which we wouldn't stay long, so we agreed on having a guiness at one of the irish pubs that we had passed and going to the club some other day. The pub was cool (expensive however) and the music was good, so we stayed there for maybe another 90 minutes before taking a cab home. We had to take 3 cabs for 9 people, and obviously the drivers ripped us off pretty bad, driving way more than they would've had to.
But I already knew that it was going to happen, so I didn't care much. I was just glad to be back home and go to bed, ending day 3 of our trip
