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| first stop for the night in dijon (the mustard city) is always a formule1 hotel and a dinner at buffalo grill |
| in marseilles, we always visit with nicolas, my old pal from the paris seventies |
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| so what do we usually do on the french riviera? well, mostly we see a lot of skateparks. in between we manage to buy an elephant, go to the beaches at cassis and hyeres, hang out with nicolas and appreciate the city of marseilles' total lack of tourists, due to its bad reputation. actually, nicolas did get mugged while we were staying there because he attempted to take a late night walk while being very drunk on the dutch gin we had brought for him. |
| riding the spine at the bowl in marseilles |
| checking out the montpellier bowl |
| enjoying the skateboardpark in hyeres, which also has a beautiful secret beach called plage des pesquiers at la capte, two years in a row we were surprised no one seems to have discovered it yet. |
| after 5 nights in marseilles, we travelled on towards a region in the southwest called Aveyron, where i planned to see a few medieval places from the Templars era and some prehistoric graves. i had booked a hotel in Laissac, but on the night we arrived there was a very loud country fair. the next night we didn't sleep too good either because the cattle market started at about 4 a.m. |
| the cattle market at laissac is the 4th national market of france and features the best breeds of the country. farmers dress up for the occasion, wearing the traditional costume of the maquignons, a black coat, high boots, and a neck scarf. they carry a long yellow cane to prod at the cows. |
| luckily the hotel pool made up for the lack of sleep... |
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