Summer -Sete

Bon Soir mon amies from mon apartment.

33 degrees to day in Montpellier, and I have just spoken to the Girls who are stranded in between Pompei and Rome. Apparently the train broke down. Luckily Sean is with them for the day. He is in Italy for 2 weeks, he won a trip through Uni and after spending a week at a conference he has a week for sight seeing. (Enjoy Sean. xx)

Friday last day at class. The 4 weeks went by quickly. After our goodbyes to the teachers and Lois who is returning to the US. Josh and I caught a train to a town on the Coast called Sete, which is the scene of the famous "joutes nautiques",jousting tournaments! We wandered over some small bridges over the canals and came to a square with a market. We tasted wines from Italy, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If only I could carry some home.

Afterwards we went to see the lookout which is 175m above sea level. The reason I am telling you this is because we climbed the hill via gardens and streets and ten thousand steps to get there! Any other sane tourist would catch a bus. Josh was very patient and encouraging as I thought I would never make it to the top! Voila! A view from the top was tres bien. We could see the acres and acres of oyster farms in the sea, fishing boats galore, the beaches that surround Sete and the buildings and canals. It was well worth the effort in the heat.

We walked down the other side of the hill(MOUNTAIN) HA! to the beach which was lined with holiday apartments and some very large expensive homes. On the beach we found a bar with umbrellas and lazyboys. After a cold beer I slept in the lazy boy (or died, I am not sure which) whilst Josh swam in the crystal clear water.

Another long walk around the rocky coast back into town where the fishing boats were unloading the catch of the day, the smell of the salt water, the breeze, it tempted us to stop at a restaurant and order a plate of oysters to share and 2 wines. I have to say they were the biggest and best oysters I have ever had....time was not on our side, we were running late for the train and had a long walk to get to the Gare (Stn).

We moved very fast along the canals, over the bridges and thought we would never get to the train. On the canal we saw the jousting boats, each with around fifteen men, heading towards each other with lances trying their best to knock a person off of the dragon style boat. People were sitting along the canals with their wines watching the jousting and if ever one did not want to catch the train it was then.

However....there was only one train so on we went only to arrive at the gare too late! Mon Dieu!

You would not believe it but we looked at the board and our train was ten minutes late! How lucky can one get. When the train arrived it broke down. After a long wait another train was used as there were many people waiting and we arrived back in Montpelller tired, hot and exhausted. Monsieur Paul cook a delicious salmon dinner, it was so hard to concentrate on the conversation.

Bon Nuit xxxxRos