Mont Faron - Mourillon - Giens

Mont Faron with Markus (Thursday)
Mont Faron is the big mountain in Toulon that I went to before Christmas, although we didnt go very far up because it went dark. However, on Thursday me and Markus made it to the summit! It took us about 1 3/4 hours to get to the top and I'm proud to say I climbed the 581m at a fairly brisk pace! The panoramic views from the summit were fantastic, even the weather was nice for us. Going up we took the 'off the beaten track' route through the forest, and worryingly someone had graffiti-ed a sign saying "Masacre Forest - turn back now", fortunately however we weren't masacred and it was a very pleasant hike. On the way down we took the 'off the beaten track' thing one step further and attempted to shimmy down the mountainside over the rocks and shrubbery. In hindsight this was probably rather dangerous as the rocks/shale were loose and I fell on my arse twice. We made it down in one piece and were exhausted afterwards, my buttocks are feeling more toned already!


At the summit :)

Beach day in January with Markus, Debbie & Paul (Saturday)
The weather was gorgeous this weekend, 18°C! So we made the most of it and went to the beach. We went to Le Mourillion, which is a nice part of Toulon with nice beaches and seafront bars & cafes. We sat and watched the sunset then went for a beer. I even paddled a little bit!


Sunset at le Mourillion

Giens with Markus & Debbie (Sunday)
Sunday was yet again a gorgeous day, and we went to a place called Giens. It's about 45minutes away, you head south from Hyeres and drive past all these salt 'lagunas' and on either side is the ocean. Then there's the village of Giens, which naturally was deserted as it was a Sunday (I'm determined to find where all the French go on a Sunday, it's like they all disappear!) We checked out the views and went for a stroll, and ended up at La Tour Fondue, literally 'The Melted Tour'. It's an old fort/military lookout and port overlooking Les Iles des Porquerolles. We sat next to the fort and watched yet another stunning sunset, and I provided much amusement to my friends and passers-by by getting stuck up a wall! I decided I wanted to climb the fortress walls, and did so with the help of a leg-up from Markus. It was an anticlimax to say the least and once I was up there I was too scared to get down! It was really high and I couldn't exactly get down the same way I'd gotten up; you can't get a leg-up-down!? I started shaking and decided I'd better get down before they had to send for the fire brigade, so I ended up jumping down, with Markus kindly catching me/breaking my fall! DOH!


Sunset at Giens

Mont Faron - Belgentier - Sollies - Ile Gaou

I've been a busy lady. Let's recap:

Friday I went to La Villa Bivona with all my international amigos, it's a big club at La Seyne. We danced until 5am and we bought a €70 bottle of vodka (to share, naturally). I was verrrrry drunk and wandered around a lot on my own making friends with random French firemen. One guy even thought I was French, this made me very happy!

Saturday I woke up at the boys house and got served breakfast/lunch in bed - YES! I love those little Germans. Then in the afternoon I climbed a mountain. Great hangover cure! Me Giulia, Sophia and Thuy climbed the big mountain in Toulon, it's called Mont Faron and it overlooks all of Toulon and the port and all the islands just off the coast. We went up pretty high and watched the sunset. It was stunning, and absolutely silent.

Sunday Giulia, Melissa and I went to visit Mary, she's an American au pair who lives East of Toulon (whereas we all live west). She lives in a village in the mountains called Belgentier and she showed us round. Its really small and quaint, it's famous for a door that Louis XIV walked through when he stayed there one night (woo big deal) and it also has a baseball team!! We were sat in a tiny little bar (there are only two bars in the whole village and one doubles as a burger joint the other doubles as a news agents) and we were having a coffee when the entire baseball team came in, one guy was even wearing the whole uniform, tight white pants and everything. I found it highly amusing that this little village in the mountains, with a population of little more the 1500 inhabitants, has its own American baseball team!! That's the French for ya!

Mary also took us to Sollies, another little town east of Toulon. It's high up a mountain (like so many places in this part of the world) and had really nice views.

Today, (Monday) Sophia and I skipped French class (again) to go on one of our romantic walks. We went to Ile Gaou, an island/nature reserve further along the coast from Sanary. It was lovely. Afterwards we met Melissa and Debbie and went for coffee at the port at Sanary, sat outside in the sun.

The weather has been brilliant lately, I can hardly believe its mid December, it's more like a good day in July by England standards. Haven't worn my coat all week and its been getting up to 17° during the day! Nice. Think I'm going to get a shock when I get home next weekend.

I'm still having a great time here, this weekend's been amazing, and I still get a buzz from going off exploring, visiting new places and hanging out with my friends here. However it's been 4 months since I saw any of my friends or family back home, so I'm SO excited to go home for Christmas!! 5 days to go. I'm even missing crummy old Salford now too!

Le Château d'Evenos

Havent 'blogged' all week because literally nothing has happened!

Tuesday we went out for Thuy's birthday, the bar staff in Sanary are starting to recognise me (speaks volumes) and we even got a free plate of food in one bar for being such charming young ladies.

Wednesday I went on a massive bike ride with Barnabe and was so tired by the end of the day I went to bed at 9 o'clock!

Thursday I over slept and did not get up for work! Then had a pretty disastrous day!

And today, Friday, I went to visit the Château d'Evenos. It's a 10th century castle on top of the mountain close to where I live, and I see it every day because I have to drive through the mountains to get anywhere close to civilisation! I drove right to the top of the mountain - it was high, my even ears popped. At the top there's a tiny little village and the castle and it's the most amazing view I have seen since I got here, even beats the Beausset Vieux and Cassis mountains!! It was beautiful, you can see all of the towns and villages along the coast. Here are some pictures...

Tonight we're having a 'party' because my beloved Lisa is leaving tomorrow! So gutted, she's crazy and I love her and I'm going to miss her!!!