flashback friday!

our guide freeing us from the sea of boats at the evening aarti in varanasi, india.

south o' france

Frenchie was kind enough to invite us home with him this past weekend- home for his is near Marseilles, in the south of France. Obviously, just a wee bit better than one of us inviting him to Cumming or Albany, Georgia although we promised a return favor if he ever got the inclination to tour either.

Our flight arrived that evening and we went into Marseilles to walk around the beautiful harbor and eventually have dinner. I can say without a doubt our French dining experience was improved tremendously with the addition of a local.




His family was gracious enough to host us at their home which is just about a half hour or so from Marseilles proper, although we arrived too late that evening to actually meet them.

We had breakfast and coffee the next morning and then took a little tour of the land, got to see the future site of our summer vacations otherwise known as the house Frenchie is building, and got to officially meet the family. Who, by the way, are incredibly lovely people. Like the kind of lovely that translates even when you actually need a translator to talk to one another.

Afterwards we set off for a drive along the coast, stopping in different little villages/towns I don’t know what they call them, but they were small little towns by the sea- disgustingly charming little towns by the sea and eventually went up to the cathedral high above Marseilles…










We then headed back for a delicious meal cooked by Frenchie’s mom. It was a great meal and even though our poor friend had his brain ping-ponging between French and English all night I think it was a successful dinner.

Sunday morning we visited a weekly market in a neighboring town. Wow, all I can say is it made we want to weep to think of coming back to American grocery stores and shops. Urgh, I don’t even want to think of it. I want to somehow transplant all that wonderfulness into Grant Park every Sunday. The bread, pastries, seafood, sausages, cheese- God, all the glorious cheese, the pottery, the fresh produce, the flowers, the fabrics, the crafts…





Can someone please make this happen before we move back?? I’ll even be happy for it to be a monthly thing instead of weekly. Where did America go so wrong? Why would we rather go to these huge cold faceless stores to get our food? Why do we want food from God knows where instead of from our neighbors? Okay, so maybe that’s a blog for another day.

Anyway…

Sunday was Mother’s Day in France and in conjunction with the recent birthday of Frenchie’s nephew his sister-in-law had prepared a family lunch and was sweet enough to invite us. Another incredible meal- I am talking incredible. As in: in-cred-i-ble.

We had time to meet another branch of Frenchie’s family tree and a short walk down to the sea before having to head to the airport.

We can’t thank Frenchie and his family enough for having us. They might be rethinking how kind they were to us when we show up on their doorsteps every year.

flashback friday!

from our trip to sabi sands in south africa.

he's sleepy...

i heart carville

i keep seeing all these facebook posts with all this anger towards bp. i agree- they suck.

but, bp is a company- a company that cares only about their bottom line. not about our environment, not about the livelihoods of our citizens, not about the health of our wildlife.

where is all the anger for the obama administration for their lack of action?? why aren't they holding bp more accountable?? i don't want to hear obama voice his frustrations anymore. i want to see him act like the president of the united states of america and get things done.




also- just something to think about- i totally get banning bp. however, the gas stations are owned by franchisees, not the company itself. so when you stop going to these stations you're really just hurting the small business owner. maybe you could still stop in for a pack of gum or a cup of coffee?

Tozeur

We took a late flight out of Tunis to the southern town of Tozeur. Our goal- the Sahara and a Star Wars set thrown in for good measure.

We arrived at our hotel to find a very rowdy group of tourists living it up with the keyboardist and vocalist they had playing in the lounge. They were pretty entertaining, but it was a relief when the "band" left and we got to finish our nightcaps without having to scream to each other to be heard.

We started out after breakfast for our 8 hour tour with Michael. I don’t know what his real name was, he originally told us his name was Michael something and he and Frenchie had a good laugh. Apparently this Michael something is a famous Formula 1 driver. Obviously this joke was more than lost on us.

We first went to an oasis called Chebika. After touching my arm while showing me postcards that I could obviously see myself without his aid I told Frenchie he was going to need to be my husband or we were going to have to start talking about my husband, because ol’ Michael was getting a little too close for comfort.

When we told him Frenchie and I were married he proceeded to offer 100 camels for me. Quickly realizing that a Frenchman may not have such a great need for so many camels, he threw in a Ferrari to sweeten the deal.

After a quick Google search I’ve estimated this offer to be worth anywhere from $300k to $500k, depending on the model of Ferrari and general health of the camels. Nothing to sneeze at, but needless to say I wasn’t flattered. It wasn’t until we really convinced him we were married by showing him my wedding ring that he stopped leering at me through the rearview mirror.

Aside from Stary McStarison grossing me out our day was pretty cool. We got to see the landscape go from the oasis on the other side of the Atlas Mountains to the salt lakes to the dry and sandy desert terrain…















We also got to see where the English Patient was filmed as well as Phantom Menace. This is the set where Darth Maul dukes it out with Quin-ion and also used for the background of the pod race…






I was really hoping they would have costume rentals for pictures and if they were smart they would get some. They did have a bathroom and I have to admit that was the best part for me. Mint tea after lunch and dune bashing do not mix, people.

We were exhausted after 8 hours of running around the desert and all took naps before heading to dinner at the hotel. After dinner we were still too exhausted to do anything but go back up to our rooms for an early night.

We spend Sunday in the medina shopping. The sales guys were much more aggressive than in Tunis, but we did finally buy a couple of things.

Our flight was delayed and delayed some more. We had planned on arriving back in Tunis late afternoon, but instead arrived in time for dinner.

This weekend we’re headed home with Frenchie to the south of France! He’s still finishing up his house and we want to make sure the guest room is to our liking since we plan on visiting him as much as humanly possible ;)

(the return of) flashback friday!

i love this peaceful soul just ignoring us gawking tourists. ignoring even the guide who was mocking his powerful howl...



from our trip to manuel antonio in costa rica.

1460 days and counting...

happy 4th wedding anniversary to us!

2 mouths...

yes, i actually updated our foodie blog twice in one month! check it out.

it is right over there. look to your right. there it is.

just want to make sure everyone remembers it still exists.

especially now that i seem to have finally remembered.

Sidi Bou Said, Dougga, Bulla Regia (“What are places I’ve never heard of before, Alex?”)

We had planned to stay in Tunis this weekend and check out the neighboring city of Carthage. We usually favor low key for the first weekend, especially when we are dealing with the demon known as jet lag. Then we decided to go ahead and do a road trip weekend out to some Roman ruins in Dougga and Bulla Regia. Then we realized they weren’t that far away and there weren’t any hotels out there even if they had been. So, we did technically stay in Tunis, but we also did a ton of sightseeing.

Friday night we went out to an area called Sidi Bou Said. It seems this country is going to continue to surprise me over and over. Sidi Bou Said has been the best surprise so far…



Whitewashed houses with incredibly ornate blue doors, I thought we somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in Santorini.

We walked around, dipping in and out of shops while I fretted over exactly how I’m going to get the 14 tons of pottery I plan on buying back home to the U.S. and eventually had dinner at a lovely restaurant …dinner that included a bottle of wine. It seems that the area where we live is dry and that is due to the very conservative developer who invested his millions or billions with that stipulation. Again, another happy surprise.

Saturday morning we went to check out the medina and souk. I was a bit worried about the hassle of haggling with what my book and a lot of reviews have called fairly aggressive vendors. I’m guessing the person who wrote my travel book as well as the reviewers on Tripadvisor have never been to India or to Egypt or maybe nowhere outside of Europe. These were the least aggressive vendors I’ve ever seen. I get more harassed and annoyed at the Ann Taylor at Atlantic Station.

That said, the shopping gods weren’t smiling upon me and I ended up buying nothing. Nothing! Unbelievable. I guess I'm still trying to work out how to get it home.

We wandered, almost aimlessly, through the medina’s winding narrow streets, had a coffee, saw the courtyard (as far as we could go) of a mosque, visited an interesting mausoleum and wandered around for a couple more hours.









We eventually found our way out of the medina and in front of some government building where we caught a cab to Carthage. We scrounged up some lunch and even went to the gates of the ruins before admitting we were all too tired to give it the proper attention so saved it for another day. We headed back to Sidi Bou Said instead. It had been pretty late in the day when we had arrived there on Friday and we wanted to see it in the sun...







Obviously we’re thrilled to have this area so close to us and are already planning on at least a weekly dinner there.

Our driver picked us up on Sunday morning for our trip out to Dougga and Bulla Regia. Dougga was probably the best ruins I’ve ever seen. Still high with walls it was so easy to how the city was laid out and operated. The beauty was actually pretty surreal...







Bulla Regia was not as well preserved or I suppose as well excavated, at least for the above ground levels. This is however, the only Roman town ever found where the Romans built underground rooms. Used for the summer to escape the heat these levels were incredibly preserved under hundreds of years of earth. The mosaics that were found on each and every floor were just fantastic...



The drive to and from Tunis was a charming one and made it very clear that this is a Mediterranean country…



Next weekend we’re headed south to take our first steps in the Sahara. Cannot wait!