Vues

One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year is to take full advantage of where I am right now. I know how easy it is to get sucked into the hum drum of daily activities whether it be work, studying or simply taking care of things around the house. Hence, I want to try to do something different each week and be a tourist in my own city. This is something that we should have done more in Kingston. There are many things we can do right around town, but renting a car with Elise and Aid really helped to show us how much is also right at our doorstep as well. There is so much to see just in an hour or two around us.

One of our day trips took us to the quaint town of Cassis. Cassis is clearly a tourist destination with a sizeable port and glorious beach. There is much to take in and I can only imagine how crazy the seaside cafés are in the summer time. As Elise said, if we win the lottery, Cassis would be an ideal spot for a summer home.

After wandering around Cassis’s port, we hopped back into the car for further adventures. The goal was to get to the top of the cliffs you see in the picture. The road that led us there was called the Route des Crêtes. Literally translated this means the road of crests and yes there were many of them. The view points were continuous and so were the hairpin turns and cutbacks. The road was really one lane with one side dropping away sharply, while the other side allowed for a bit of space next to the rockface to pull over to let another car pass. Keith and Aid seemed exhilarated by the drive, while Elise became somewhat nauseous and I sat biting my tongue and holding on white knuckled to the door.  The problem was every time Keith looked away from the road he tended to veer a bit to the cliff side of the road and completely out of my comfort zone. This will not be a road we take our fathers on, or anyone else who is adverse to heights.

As uncomfortable as the drive itself was, the views from the cliffs were totally worth it. There is an extensive set of trails that run along all the cliffs and I would have much rather have hiked up rather than driven up, even if had resulted in cramps and total exhaustion. Thinking of the drop still makes my stomach turn. This is not somewhere you take curious children or those you care for who insist on looking over the edge from a squatting position, after they stumbled on their way towards the edge. KEITH! Lucky for me Elise was there to let both Aid and Keith know that it would be easy to spread their deceased body parts to the four corners of the earth after a fall from such heights. This left me to take in the sights, from a fair distance back, and take a couple of pictures.  One of these pictures included a climber sitting at the very edge of one of the cliffs. Crazy!

After our stomachs had settled back to normal we finished off the night with a good helping of stew and baguettes. Yes that’s right, I’ve found rice flour baguettes! How exciting is that! Now I can really live like the French.

On Elise and Aid’s last day here we headed out to Carry Le Rouet before we dropped them off at the airport.  This seaside village is connected to others by a path that winds its way right along the coast.  We meandered along looking at all of the grand houses. It was only when we got splashed unexpectedly on a narrower stretch of the path that we decided it was time to turn around. 

It was so nice to have Elise and Aid over for the Christmas break, but now we are definitely suffering from the post-Christmas blues. Our mini-vacations are over and it is now back to work for Keith and French classes for me. The reality of finding a job is also staring me in the face. I love working, but really detest the whole application and interview process. Oh well, who knows what is out there? It is a new year after all.