More like no news means I have had no time to put together a decent post...so I'm going to make up for it NOW.
I flew into Collioure on Friday morning and swam in the Mediterranean, went spelunking on Saturday, and woke up on Sunday to swim in the sea while the sun was rising.
The traveling was almost as enjoyable as arriving. Let me explain on this lil map with my Paint handiwork...
After staying up all night and listening to Becca play her guitar and sing and just loving life with the Cite folk, Walsh and I went to Orly airport together at 6am where we met up with everyone for our flight to Perpignan---on the map you can see it's almost in Spain. It was a quick flight and we flew right over the Pyrenees mountains.
When we got to Collioure and I walked through the little village to see the Mediterranean.
It was so beautiful and surreal I cried...this post is brimmin with emotion already.
I took off my dress and got in the water and I don't think I've ever felt so content.
I have a list of 44 things I want to accomplish in my life, and swim in the Meditteranean is--nope--was, one of them.
I found a few pieces of sea glass that I have a souvenirs, and I took the rock I used to hold down my dress when I went swimming as a little memento.
The south of France really is just indescribably gorgeous, but I think it's as beautiful as it is because of the atmosphere and the attitude all the people have there. It's nothing like the way of Paris, where everyone is a bit cold. Since we were there in the off-season, the people I met were especially kind I suppose, since we weren't just another tourist group among hundreds.
Ok back to the map...
We went to Carcassonne on Saturday for the day and went through the natural grottos there. The man who owns the grottos actually discovered them in the 80's and now his whole jolly extended Catalan family works there. Here's a lil video I took of the "Cathedral" in the caves where the acousitcs are so fantastic that the owner made a little light and sound show inside...So just so you can get a picture in your head, we were inside a mountain and we were far enough underground that the Eiffel Tower could have fit above us. We all stood in this enormous, underground "Cathedral" of stalactites and stalagmites and then everything and then the lights turned off and music started playing. I was chortling up a storm during this musical part of the spelunkin'...
We were practically the only visitors that day, and after seeing the caves and getting a tour from the man who discovered them, they whole family made us the most delicious lunch. The best part was probably my discovery of "poro" in Catalan or "porrou" in French...I have a video of how it works. It's a Catalan tradition that makes drinking wine about 10 times more fun...
So that's that. I made sure to buy one to bring home. It's sitting on my desk now. So excited to introduce you all too it back home.
I just could go on an on about how much I wish all of you could visit this region of France. I am just in lovelovelove. These are my favorite photos from the trip--including my sunrise swim right before we had to hop on the TGV to go back to Paris. There still might be some salt in my hair.
These picture frames are scattered through out the town. There are placed to show the real life perspective of famous painters, like Matisse, when they painted landscapes of Collioure.
