This morning we drove through the French Alps, which was absolutely beautiful. The only mountains I’ve ever seen before were in Quebec, Vermont and New Hampshire and they definitely don’t compare to the Alps. At first the mountains weren’t very big and it was rather disappointing, but as we continued driving and increasing in elevation slowly, they started growing. The snow was on the peaks of them, and some had cliffs of pinky beige rock. It was evident where the tree line ended due to the cold temperatures at the top of them, and all the trees that were high on them were covered in snow, which was pretty. As we drove through the sides of the mountains we would pass by traditional bridges for trains and cars with the arches under them holding them up. They reminded me of aqueducts that were in old Roman villages in the past. Large valleys were off the sides of the mountains with villages scattered throughout them. There were villages along the sides of the mountains as well. It would be gorgeous to wake up everyday looking at the beautiful mountain scenery. As we continued driving upwards in elevation the snow became more prevalent. There was probably half a foot of snow at the most at one point, and there were icicles hanging from the walls of rock at the side of the road.
We then stopped at a cute restaurant near the top of a mountain for lunch. It was a cafeteria type place owned by a husband and wife. Most of the people on this tour are Australian, and were very fascinated by the snow. My mom and I happen to be the only Canadians. After lunch, most of the tour group went outside and had a giant snowball fight, and I made a snowman, which was super fun! I hadn’t made a snowman in years and to do that in France in the Alps with people who don’t normally see that much snow was certainly an amazing experience. When I started rolling a snowball for the base of the snowman one Australian said, “Here comes the Canadian truly showing us how to make a snowball.” It was pretty funny because they were all fascinated in how you could make large snowballs just by rolling them in the snow. It was like it had never occurred to them that you could do that. As we continued along, we saw the Chartreuse massif mountain (where the Chartreuse liqueur was made).
After we played in the snow it was then time to continue on to Aix-En-Provence. We arrived there in the mid afternoon and there were palm trees there! We did a bus and walking tour of the city, which took a couple of hours. We saw the famous Mont Sainte-Victoire, which is a large mountain that Paul Cezanne painted multiple times in his life in Aix-En-Provence. During the bus tour we were pulling out of a driveway to continue on and we heard a loud scratching sound from the front of the bus, which sounded like we hit something. It ended up that there was just a bump in the road that scraped on the bottom of the bus and the driver just had to back up slowly and turn at a different angle. We were stopped there for a fair amount of time trying to get back from the bump though. Aix-En-Provence was a nice city with narrow one-way cobblestone streets and very old buildings and churches, but I still liked Annecy better. Most of the shops were closed because it was a Sunday, and there were tacky antique markets where nothing looked good enough to buy, even if it did fit in your suitcase. After our tour we went back to the hotel, and had dinner. It has been a pretty relaxing evening after a few days of constantly being on the go. Tomorrow we are off to Grasse, St. Paul de Vence, Monte Carlo, and then Nice for two nights. Busy day tomorrow!
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