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(HEALTH WARNING:- DUE TO EXCEEDINGLY LONG BLOG YOU ARE ADVISED TO TACKLE IN CHUNKS! DO NOT ATTEMPT THE WHOLE THING IN ONE SITTING!) Evening to all. Finally got round to getting some pictures up on the blog, there will be more to come but can only do so many in a day! The last time i spoke to you we were in St Tropez, we have now moved on and im currently sat in a flat in Lisle Jordain about 20 miles west of Toulouse. St Tropez was, as always, an amazing experience, surrounded by super yachts, amazing cars and the best bakery in Southern France! Our campsite was ten minute bike ride north of the town, a smart little site ran by a Lou Carpenter look-alike called allain. There was a small beach just round the corner which on the odd occasion we wandered down too enjoying the freezing crystal clear waters of the med. Lunch times consisted of either a baquette with pate or if we were in town we would visit a little bakery and sample their delights (particualrly the quiche lorraine), infact over the ten days we sampled pretty much every delight the bakery had to offer! For the car enthusiasts out there we saw countless ferrari's, lambo's and corvettes, the highlight being a black and orange Veyron spotted in the market square. Most evenings were spent watching the mass games of petanque in the market square where everyone from doctors to toilet cleaners come along to hone there ball tossing skills infront of the masses gathered eating and drinking in the nearby cafes. We happend to be in town for the July 14th Bastille celebrations, making sure we got a good view of proceedings we got into town early and made our way to the harbour wall where we could watch the fireworks. The display lasted for nearly 20 minutes and was one of the most impressive either of us have seen, all the fireworks were launched off the back of a boat in the bay making very impressive viewing. One minor issue occured during our stay as the battery on the van died, but with a little help from Alain and a rather pungent Italian we got the van going! Having left St Tropez we went for a drive around the Gorges De Verdon, known as Europes Grand Canyon it really is impressive, although it was my 3rd visit to the Gorges it is always a brathtaking site. Halfway round there was the Latitude challenge, a bungee jump, apparently the biggest in Europe, having been told in was only 25 euros Ash went to sign up only to be told it was infact 95 euros thus scuppering Ash hopes of jumping off the bridge! A note to all potential visitors, make sure you have a full tank of fuel before attempting the drive, the nearest petrol station is no where near the gorges as we found out! 50+ miles in the red, nervy stuff! We left the Gorges heading for Arles, it was a bit of a drive so we stopped for the night in a service station, we hadjust got into out sleeping bags when there was a knock on the window, a french copper telling us to move on as it was not safe, theft is commen! Taking the advice we drove on pulling over at a lorry stop, again we got into our sleeping bags and got some sleep, however about 3.30 am i awoke to see the drivers door open and the silouhette of a couple of men trying to get into the van, seeing me awake they ran, got into a car and drove off, not sure whether what just happend was real i went back to sleep only again to hear someone trying to brake into the side door and the door by my head, i woke Ash and the noise scared the thiefs off, we decided to drive again, this time heading to Narbonne and a shopping centre car park to fianlly get some sleep. Luckily all that went missing was my shorts, baseball bat and my sunglasses, could have been worse! Due to this little issue we decided to go to Toulouse to stay with Ash's mate Dave to recover, we stayed here for a few days before it was time to head to Biarritz. We were staying about 40 minutes north of Biarritz in a small town called Vieux-Boceau on a nice, rather large campsite 300 metres from the sea. After a day getting to know the area we took the hour long drive to Biarritz airport too collect Elliot and Si Mash2008's newest members. Throughout the week we spent many an hour down on the beach. The aim of this leg of the trip was to enjoy the waves and most of the time the waves were there! The campsite had its own resident surf rental dude called Cyril and its fair to say he saw alot of buisness from the 4 of us over the 9 days, Elliot and his surfboard and the rest of us bodyboarding. Alot of fun was had by all concerned although it tended get a tad frustrating at times! The first Friday the boys were out with us it was Ash's birthday so it was decided that we would go into Biarritz to see what alcoholic delights this surfers haven had to offer! Having decided to stay there for the night we got to the aire in Biarritz and wandered into town, the beer flowed rather nicely at the start of the evening and we took a slight break to have some wine with our dinner, then it wasoff to a really good little bar to consume some sangria (at 2.50 euros, it was impossible to say no!) from there it was to the beach where we chilled with some Americaqn exchange students (2 more beers here), we then atempted entry to a club named Playboy but they werent so chuffed with our dress sense so we went to a bar over the road for a while with some more Americans who we met shortly before. This bar was particulalry good as it had various snacks on the bar, having eaten our fill we followed some French girl to a club by the casino and spent the last few hours of the night in there. A rather interesting walk back to the van was followed by pretty shocking hangovers all around the following morning but nothing a quick dip in the sea couldnt sort out! All in all a good night was had by all! All to quickly we were back at the airport having to drop the boys back so they can catch their plane home. We had a further day at the camp where we generally recovered from a rather heavy week (pictures to prove coming soon!!). I know write to you from Toulouse where we are back at Daves flat just about to get ready to go for a night in Toulouse. So far Ash has braved his second European hairdresser of the trip, we ate some Chinese and went into Toulouse for the day questing for an English pub and a pint of Ale, sadly the pub was closed! Well i think thats about it, will try and send another blog after our antics in the Dordogne! Love to all. Mash2008
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