Wine Tasting, Fete Nationale and the beach!?

After school on Tuesday we had a winetasting - well actually we tasted about five local wines after listening for an hour about the region, the process, the taste, the smell, and many other interesting aspects of wine tasting. Of course all this was in French, so it gets a bit hard to concentrate and understand after a long day. It was very interesting and I’ve decided I like the white and the rose the best - maybe just because it is the height of summer over here, but they are delish!
Wednesday, 14 Juliet
La Fete Nationale was a lovely day for me, very quiet in the morning just hanging around at home, and then a few quiet drinks in town with some friends. I had a dinner as a part of the “Discover Provence” course which was at the home of one of the families who hosts students. The meal was delicious, featuring pizza, olives, hommus, salads, fromage (cheese) and beaucoup de Rose! we finished with a home made cherry tart - amazing!
A few of us headed into town for the celebrations and ran into... about 20 million people!! As much as I wanted to be able to say I’d been there, it really wasn’t my scene, so given my lovely abode some 20minutes out of town, and the likelihood of getting a taxi after the fireworks - I hightailed it out of there!!
Friday brought the last of my excursions with the “Discover Provence” group, and my first visit to the “beach” in Provence... It has been incredibly hot over here (35-37 degrees C) and sadly our bus had no air con... But the trip was great, we stopped a few times to see the view over Marseilles, some lovely beaches west of there (amongst the Calangues). Finally we stopped for a swim at a tiny little beach of stones near a port at a tiny village. The water was lovely!!! crystal clear and cool. I even taught one of the other students, a young dutch girl how to swim properly - its silly, but it surprises me a little that while they can mostly swim, ie keep afloat, not many of the europeans can swim properly - laps etc. It makes me feel like a champion swimmer!! She’s a lovely girl, and she picked it up in no time at all! Another funny swimming story is that we went to the pool the other day... and the men and boys all have to wear speedos or tight shorts - basically budgie smugglers of some sort. (Try explaining that concept in French!!). My friend who was wearing normal board shorts was told to get out of the pool!?!? weird!