Posted by Sincerely, Alice. When I'm sitting in the car watching the endless fields go by, gazing at the mountains in the distance, the south of France feels like an entirely different world from the busy streets of Paris. It's a place where the time seems to flow like honey, walking lazily in the park and taking breaks only to admire the scenery or small boutiques.
My boyfriend grew up in the south, in a series of smaller and smaller villages, and it always seems to give him a deep sense of calm whenever we stop by, even if it's just for a weekend. I've been to Aix and the surrounding area 4 times since my first voyage to France in , and I wanted to share this experience with my friend Noor before she left to move back home to Jordan.
This post isn't going to be a travel advice-centered post, despite the tags and title, but more some reflection on the south of France in general, my experience there, and the time we spent last weekend. When this trip was originally planned, we knew we had to work with the deadline of Noor's flight the first weekend of December, so planning around that was the idea of 'the last trip'. The word 'last' weighed on me a lot as I thought of things to do, fun places to take photos, what to eat, etc.
I wanted to make it special and show her a glimpse of what I had experienced each time I visited my boyfriends parents, but I also wanted to ensure she had fun and and would leave France with some good memories.
Paris, she says, is her favorite city. When we visited Marseille last year during a particularly windy spring day, she got a glimpse of the energy of the south, the golden color scheme, and the water. Though I wasn't jumping to visit Marseille again, Noor really enjoyed it, and this planted the seed of interest in taking her to other places in the south.
