South of France (23/08/08-30/08/08)

This will be a relatively short post as I am writing on a French keyboard which is incredibly frustrating to use.

On the 23/08/08 Benoit, Kent and I took a train from Paris to Montpellier to visit our friend Laurent. Who in true Laurent style, the moment we arrived he cracked open the beer, wine, pastis and food. Then along with Laurent`s brother, Arnou, we headed to the beach to play music. Essentially very quickly into the night we befriended another group of revellers who had a fire. Generally Laurent and Arnou were able to provide ample entertain,ent for the crowd, but I chipped in a song or two. To break down the language barriers I started by getting the French folk to sing `aussie, aussie, aussie...oi oi oi`, then a couple of lines from Land Down Under and to finish off an improvised song called `I Got Drunk In Melbourne`...all were a smash.

The next day we started heading down south to where we wuld be staying in Bayonne in Basque Country. However on the way we had an extended stop off in Carcassonne to see a 12th century cqstle and eat lunch. We were also lucky enough to see a brief performance of Chico and Gypsy Kings...very famous for spanish guitar a few years ago. We finally arrived in Bayonne at about twelve thirty and after an hour searching fruitlessly for an open bar we called it a day.

Essentially fromhere our days follow a very similar course...wake up at middayish; eat croissants and pain au choclats for breakfast; go somewhere; eat a picnic lunch at about four; ease back to the hotel at about eight; and have dinner at about ten...quite a life.

So teh first three days ahile we were staying in Bayonne; on teh three days we went to Saint jean De Luz and San Sebastian in Spain, the Bidarre beach, and then to the great dunes in Pyla on the way to Arcachon where we spent the next three days. In Arcachon we went an played music on the beach and the following day we went to Saint Emilion for wine tasting. The next day we just hung out in Archachon and went to the beach in teh arvo. This happened because I had to go to the doctor to have a my earlooked at. My ear had been blocked for three days and I couldnt hear anything out of it. It turns out it was just a wax build up and I had to have it flushed by the doctor.

today we got up extremely early to make teh long trip to Lauren`s parents hour in Loire in St Etienne...where we are going to be chilling for a couple of days before heading off to Germany.

Basically we have been doing a hell of a lot of stuff, but also been taking it pretty easy...