Provence Home;

The past week has been the most stressful of the trip so far, with my plans changing every few hours. One minute I am hopping on a train to the other side of the country, the next I’m moving to St Tropez to work, whilst awaiting the arrival of my passport. Finally however, the plans are becoming clear; Gryllzy is arriving around the 17th of May, this Wednesday I’m heading to St Tropez to start work for a few weeks and by the 1st of June Matt and I should be well and truly out of Provence and on our way to the pristine shores of San Sebastian in North East Spain. Booyah.

With most of my Mum’s side of the family scattered around Provence, Draguignan has always felt like a second home to me. For this reason the amount of sight-seeing I have done in the area has been fairly limited. The unusually hot weather and access to a car has allowed me to spend a lot of time lazing by the pool or heading to town with Aurelien and wandering around the cafés and bars. My highly active Grandparents usually manage to get us out of bed at around 7:30 for a walk around the hill and up through the forest, and every night ends with a game of ‘escalier’ or ‘stairs’. Just like old times.

Yesterday I caught up with Elizabeth and Hannah, Leah’s mum and sister, who are halfway through their own little ‘Eurotrip’. We caught up for pizza and wine and heard of their stories from Barcelona, London and the unexpected nudist beaches that surrounded their apartment in the south of France. Hannah, Aurelien and I went out last night and caught up with some of Aurelien’s friends, who treated us to a night of listening to The Red Hot Chilli Peppers whilst sitting and talking around the communal ‘shisha’, with almost always makes an appearance gatherings of French teens. We slept until 10 this morning and spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun and Aurelien’s amazing pool and house;

Backflips, frontflips and a lot of skimming helped to relieve my continued craving for the ocean (a little);

Whilst Aurelien’s dogs ran around the pool entranced by our sweet aquatic skills;

The family also got together last Saturday to celebrate my cousin Marjolaine’s 10th birthday, arguably the cutest kid of our family, it wasn’t a surprise to see gift after gift after gift being handed to her.

From pink converses to a pair of roller blades every present was opened with a typical Marjo smile. On the drive home along the freeway we were overtaken at 160km/h by what could be the future of French travel; this weaving, single person car/bike invention,

With the stress of the last two weeks finally behind me, and the next few weeks falling into place I have been able to sit down, relax and enjoy some of the best things this region has to offer. Cheese, bread, wine and the odd conversation in a café with a good looking French girl.

Garrett in Draguignan;