day 38

tuesday 15 june aix-en-provence to paris

took the afternoon flight to paris and ended where i began 38 days before. it was good to be back with the Bs. at this point, i was incredibly grateful to have had 38 delightful days in europe without any mishap that well-meaning friends had cautioned me. i'd travelled alone for the most part and made it through spain without being pickpocketed, just flashed. haha. i hadn't misplaced anything along the way, i hadn't missed any connections, i'd made friends, and i'd eaten way better than anticipated. did i tell you that i was defensive eating before my solo leg? just in case i wasted away. absolutely unnecessary in retrospect, seeing as to how well-fed i was, but a girl can't be too careful, can she?

a recurring theme this holiday was impeccable, european hospitality. from the Bs in paris, to my friends in stockholm who let me invade their space, to C, grandfatherly lawyer supreme who introduced me to too many contacts to list, to J in valencia - who'd have thought our chance meeting at the nam hai in hoi ann in april would amount to a wonderful visit, and of course, J and her family were top class hosts in aix. 

i was ready to come home, and just in time for my grandfather's 88th.

thanks for reading, and for reliving my graduation trip with me. it's been fun!

p/s stay tuned for the saigon series. while in aix, i'd already planned my next getaway. had gramp's birthday on the 17th of june, and my grandmother's on the 27th. which gave me a 10 day window to play with and i skipped to saigon for a week. 

day 35

saturday 12 june 2010 aix-en-provence

left madrid bright and early and was in southern france in no time. my inner francophile almost imploded with glee. france is beautiful, and i personally am a huge fan of the south, having spent two glorious weeks along the riveria in summer 2008. we began in nice, day tripped to monte carlo for F1, cannes for the film festival then took an overnight ferry to corsica. in corsica, we drove all around (and across!) the island and fell in love with bonifacio. after our island getaway, it was back to the mainland and we made our way from toulon to avignon, marseilles and lyon. but i digress!

aix-en-provence welcomed me in all her summer glory and i was thrilled to finally be in the 'heartbreakingly beautiful' city that i'd heard so much about. J often mentioned her home town while we were in stockholm, and to finally put faces to the names i'd begun to recognise was nothing short of sentimental. provence is so charming it hurts, and aix was no exception. P had once described aix to me as, "a small town trying to be a big city" and he's right, in the kindest sense of the phrase. aix had every modern amenity imaginable (hello? hermes, anyone?) and yet maintained an old world air of majestic nostalgia about it.

spent the afternoon touring the city with J and we visited her friend for pre-dinner drinks that lasted past midnight. the elasticity of time in summer is one of my favourite things about the season. we sat on C's terrace, somehow made our way through 4 bottles of rose, ate a little too much tapenade (so cliche but so good!) and  played silly drinking games as evening turned to night and finally to dusk. long daylight hours. woot!

aix was a dream, and staying with J and being the beneficiary of incredibly warm armenian-french hospitality was a bonus. i was spoilt rotten, and i'm so so grateful :)

day 34

friday 11 june 2010 madrid

finally hit zara after admirable restraint the past week. had recced while in barca but it didn't make sense to lug all my shopping with me as i bus-ed across spain. my patience was rewarded and i shopped till i dropped. thank goodness i was able to detax! and, even without sales (they're at the end of the year), the EUR40 blazers i bought retail for S$130 back home. teeeheehee :)

met friends for lunch at el tigre tapas bar. amazing atmosphere, everyone crammed into this tiny hole in the wall and with orders of sangria, we were plied with plates of complimentary tapas. tapas is great by itself, but free tapas with an order of EUR4 sangria is even better. so for EUR4 (yes, i can't get over it) i'd an entire meal.

after lunch and slightly inebriated, i went in search of iberico to bring as gifts for when i visited J in aix and the Bs whom i was staying with in Paris on my last night.

when i was done, i bought a stack of postcards, sat in the park and wrote to my heart's content. 

aix-en-provence

ripped this beautiful photo off my absolute favourite photographer's blog.

forgive me for failing to mention that after spain i proceed to impose on JM and her gracious provencale hospitality in aix-en-provence. saving the best for the last.

so much for whinging that the level of luxury decreases as the grad trip progresses. incredibly excited and looking forward with such fervour that i might just implode in anticipation :)

back to stockholm

it's a little surreal but i've managed to scheme my way back to stocks. have booked my flights and it's all systems go! looking forward to a week back in my old stomping ground, staying in the room just opposite mine, and seeing the fantastic friends i made last year. how nice that most of them are still in stockholm on one year eramus (lucky them!) and it'll be great to see everyone one more time before they return to their respective hometowns.

psyched.

so the eurotrip never really ended and being back in sg has been just like exchange, only better. have been to the middle east (dubai, bahrain, riyadh, kuwait) since coming home, phuket, another trip to dubai and just this week to hoi ann. pretty awesome to have been able to keep travelling every month at least, and for leisure each time. and now i'm going to be done with school it's back to europe for 5 weeks. 1 week with family, almost 2 with him, and then 3 by myself.

here's the route - please wish me luck and much summer sunshine!

paris

les andelys

rouen

normandy

caudebec (monfleur)

vernon (giverny)

pisa

tuscany

amalfi coast

stockholm

barcelona

valencia

madrid

marseilles

aix-en-provence

paris