The French Riviera

After sleeping a couple of hours, my phone reminded me that it was time to pick up my friend Philippe at CDG. The drive from Ile St-Louis to CDG at 6am only took 15-20 minutes, before the Paris traffic really kicks in. I arrived a bit early so I tried to trade in my Citroen C1 for a category C car, which I was paying for. I got a 307 fioul instead of diesel. Not only did it cost 3 times as much in gas, but it was also significantly less powerful than my 307 gazoil. Philippe was having a coffee when I arrived at his terminal. We quickly dropped his suitcase in the 307 and hit the road. We had a short useless stop at Orly to try to get a diesel car, as the price of fioul in France is unheard of in North America. We first stopped in Fontainebleau so I could show Philippe our house. I broke in a private property for the second time in two days to show Philippe my room and the inside of our house. We had a refreshing drink before taking the A6 down to Dijon, and getting off towards Dijon for the heck of it. Once in Dijon, we decided to head for the Alps, and took the road for Grenoble. We continued past Grenoble until we reached Bourg D’Oisan, a small village in the Mountains which is all about Mountain biking during the summer, and all ski during the winter. The Tour de France was about to pass a couple of days later, so many German and Dutch caravans where parked all along the road where the bikers would pass. We found a reasonably cheap hotel right on the main plaza. We had traditional fare for dinner, and it was ok. Nothing too great… After a quick drink near the hotel, we called it a day.

The next morning, we started driving around 10am, and headed for the Riviera, with a couple of unplanned detours. We had lunch in a Reunionese place, where I broke the back of the chair I was sitting on while leaning back. Another god-sent message to tell me to shape up and lose weight… After lunch, we were stuck in Gap for some time as the Tour was passing nearby. Philippe pulled a nice maneuver and we were able to skip most of the jam. A few hours of driving later, we were pulling into Philippe’s parent’s summer house near Ste-Maxime. It is very nicely decorated, with a pool and a BBQ area. We jumped in the pool as soon as we arrived, while his father fixed some drinks. We had a nice dinner discussing life, work, studies and everything in between. After dessert, Philippe and I went out to see the marina area in Ste-Maxime. We went to the Casino at night, but they didn’t let me in because I had “sport shorts”. If they had pockets, I would have been let in. Sandals and dirty shirts weren’t a problem, however. We turned around, met some guys from Nanterre and chatted with them for a while before going back home.

On the second day sur la Côte d’Azur, we slept quite late and spent almost all day around the pool with Philippe’s parents. We went for a drive in the nearby hills. We had both lunch and dinner at home. We did make it into the casino on this night. Philippe rapidly doubled his money, while I lost half of mine. We agreed that it was a good time to quit, and walked around the boardwalk before going back home.

On Tuesday, we also lazed the day away reading by the pool and enjoying the weather. On Tuesday night, we celebrated Philippe’s birthday (and my graduation). Philippe’s dad prepared very strong sangria before dinner. After a copious dinner accompanied by fantastic local wine, his dad brought out 3 Monte Cristo, which we enjoyed with calvados and cognac while talking about life.

On Wednesday, Philippe and I took the ferry to St-Tropez to check out the weekly market, where they sell everything from ham and cheese to clothes and decorative items. After a stroll through the market, we drove to the Porquerolle Island, which is a natural reserves protected by the government. We took a wrong turn on the highway and ended up in Aix-en-Provence. Philippe asked directions at an Agip gas station but the crazy attendant was absolutely nuts and completely ignored him. Philippe started looking at his maps and he started screaming at him like mad. Philippe told him off and the guy was so angry that he wanted to run out of his booth to fight with us. We drove off laughing our heads off and finally found the Porquerolle island. The island has a few restaurants and hotels, and caters mainly to French tourists. After a pretty bad lunch, we rented mountain bikes and explored the island. We found a beautiful and calm bay where we snorkelled for a while. The water was extremely clear, and I managed to dive to at least 8-10 meters by holding my breath. After returning the bikes and taking the ferry back to land, we drove back to Philippe’s for another delicious BBQ meal. We bought a set of 1000 bornes (1000 miles) cards and played with his dad after dinner. I went to sleep early to catch my 6:10am flight from Nice to Paris. The drive to Nice at 4am was “sporty”, but I had problems finding the rental car return center for Alamo, which is located apart from the others at Terminal 2. I proudly presented my passport to the check-in agent, who responded that I was not registered on the flight. I gave her my reference number, and she started laughing hysterically. I had booked a flight for June 20th, not July 20th! This little mistake cost me another flight ticket, this one for 160 euros! Ouch! The brand new airbus took us to CDG, and I sleep at the Ibis Hotel “by the hour” rooms for 3-4 hours at CDG, before checking in with British Airways for Montreal via Heathrow. The flight was delayed by 1.5 hours, and I only had 2 hours between the flights. I cut the security line at Heathrow, and a bunch of people followed my lead. This lead to total chaos in the security lines, as people started arguing over who should be allowed to cut the line. While security guards attempted to restore order in their line, I was rapidly screened and made my flight. It was nice to be welcomed by my parents in my hometown: Montreal! The funky INSEAD year abroad is now officially OVER.