Kelly Stonebock- Mountain Climber Extraordinaire

Alright, maybe that's a slight exaguration. But I have climbed two mountains in two days, so I've gotten some climbing in.

Yesterday, Guillaume, Ashley and I climbed Saint Victoire, the BEAUTIFUL mountain near Aix. It was an absolutely perfect day- the sun was out and it was clear. Ashley and I asked Guillaume earlier in the week if it was hard to climb the mountain. He asked "Just you two?!" and after we nodded he laughed and told us he would go with us. So off we went. It was a very scenic (and short) drive there. Quaint country cottages, blooming trees and the greenest grass I've ever seen. We started our hike- Ashley and I had to walk fairly fast to keep up with Guillaume- he has the longest legs! We laughed when Guillaume pulled out a cigarette to smoke as he hiked. Oh, the French! It was a fairly difficult hike. The higher we got, the more slippery the rocks got. The little rocks kept sliding out under our feet and I didn't have hiking boots like Ashley and Guillaume (I put my faith in my Nikes) so it was a challenge. It took at least 2 hours for us to get to the top. There was a chapel and a cross at the top of the mountain. We had a really calm moment where we sat on the base of the cross and overlooked Aix and the countryside. It was one of my favorite moments thus far on my trip overseas. Gorgeous. Please check out the pictures- I think you'll get a good idea of what it was like.

Ashley and I plan on going to St. Victoire as much as possible.

"Today" (I am finishing this post at a later time then when it was started- so on Sunday) I went with a group from my school to a village called La Ciotat that was is fairly near Cassis. When I signed up for the excursion, I was under the impression that I would get to go to Cassis. Unfortunantly, I was slightly mislead as we did not get to see Cassis except from a high cliff. Oh well. Ciotat was charming. It's a small costal village. It's claim to fame is its being the site of the first showing of an animated film. The film was by the Lumiere brothers. Luckily I had taken a film class at U of I so I knew a little bit about them. They were pioneers in film- and one of their first films was filmed in La Ciotat. The film shows a train pulling into the station and people getting on and off the train. Simple by our standards but incredible by theirs. The train station is in Ciotat and as you enter the town you see a bush in the middle of a cirlce drive shaped in the form of a train in honor of the film. Ciotat also has the oldest movie theater in France. We didn't stay in Ciotat very long. We grabbed food to picnic with and then went to a pretty park along the coast (still in Ciotat I believe) and ate. Very nice. There were the Mediterannean palm trees and a very unusual mountain by the water- our tour guide George described it to us. George spoke to us soley in French. It was a great way for me to measure my French. Safe to say, it has improved. I had no trouble understanding what he was saying. He cracked a joke on the bus that Ciotat was reknown for another reason- it was his hometown. I was very proud that I could follow along.

After we ate, we boarded the bus and went to the highest cliff in Europe. lol- yes. We had a great view of Ciotat and (I believe, on the other side) Cassis. The landscape was beautiful. We hiked up a while. It was easy in comparison with St. Victoire, though Ashley's and my muscles were considerably sore from the day before. We got to what Ashley and I believed to be the top. Whew, what a drop. Terrified (because I am a coward and afraid of heights) but still wanting to get the full effect, I layed down on the rock and looked over the edge. Needless to say, it would have been a long and painful fall. Ash and I took a few pictures and then climbed a bit further up. We could see our bus so we figured we were almost done. Tired from yesterday, we went and sat by the bus. haha Little did we know, the cliff followed up for longer than we thought. Oops. We didn't really regret it and didn't mind taking the bus to the top of it. We fell asleep on the ride back.

Did I mention it was a windy day? Made walking along the highest cliff in Europe seem slightly undesirable.

It was a long weekend. Long, but great. I cannot tell you how much I loved our day at St. Victoire. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

A bientot!