This weekend, I took a trip to Paris with my parents! Such a fun time and even though we were only there for a weekend, we were able to see a lot! I took a train from the Aix-en-Provence TGV station (which is about 20 minutes outside of the city center so I needed to take a bus to get there) and then went from the Aix TGV to Paris Gare-de-Lyon station, which is the biggest train station in Paris. It’s basically New York Penn Station times five! We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel which was so beautiful. For dinner our first night, we went to a restaurant called Le Petit Retro which was so cool- all of the decor is retro-themed but the food, plates, glasses, and silverware were all very modern! They also played retro French music which was really fun. Saturday, we bought a day-long boat pass for the Bateau Bus which is a boat that takes you to major sites on the Seine River and you can get on and off as many times throughout the day as you want. We started off at the Notre Dame, stopped for lunch at an awesome sushi restaurant, went to the famous lock bridge (and of course put a lock on the bridge), went to the Musee D’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, and then ended the day with a great dinner right in the hotel. Then I made the trip back to Aix early Sunday! It was a fun and fast-paced weekend with my two favorite people in the world.

This Sunday, we went to Monaco! It is about two hours away from Aix-en-Provence. Our first stop was just a small town in the heart of Monaco (not sure if it had a name, oops!) and there, we just walked around and explored. We went inside the Saint Nicholas Cathedral which was so beautiful and is the church where Prince Rainier married Grace Kelly and where Prince Charles and his wife, Charlene, were married also. Then, we drove to Monte Carlo and walked around there. Lots of fancy stores, hotels, and restaurants! We went inside The Monte Carlo Casino- it was so beautiful and really cool to experience. It was a fun day trip to a very famous place!

I took a day-trip to Cassis this Saturday with my friends! We took a train from Aix-en-Provence to Marseille and then Marseille to Cassis. In total, the travel time was about two hours. The train ticket one-way was only 10 euro! We spent the day hiking and exploring “les colonques,” which are inlets of water surrounded by amazing mountains and cliffs. We were absolutely in awe of the beauty! The hike was pretty difficult at parts- the rocks are sharp and very slick from dust, but it was worth it! Plus, we found a nice spot on some smoother rocks to lay down and do some reading while listening to the waves crash on the rocks. Doesn’t get much better than that! We ended the day with a dinner of les moules frites, which is steamed mussels with a side of French fries. It was to die for! It was an amazing day and I am so happy we went.