Dreaming of France -- On the Water

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

As the summer wanes here, I figure the same thing must be happening in the South of France. The cicadas are buzzing and people are squeezing every bit of sun out of the days of August.
When Earl and I visited the South of France in March, people had already taken to the water to enjoy life on the Mediterranean.

We visited the Calanques, like fjords except located in the South of France rather than in Norway, and they aren't icy. The calanques are located between Cassis and Marseille.  

As we hiked along the stone formations, we came up on a marina protected by high, rocky walls. 

And we saw a young woman getting an early start on her tan. Earl took this picture so it would artfully hide the parts that many in the South of France have no problem exposing. 

Hope everyone else in the Northern Hemisphere enjoys a warm and peaceful end to their summer. 

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs, too, so you can get your fix of France dreams.

Dreaming of France -- No, Really, Dreaming of France

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
This morning as I listened to Marketplace Money on my local NPR station, I heard a story about how anticipating a vacation is almost better than the vacation itself.
A study in the Netherlands found that people were happier right before a vacation than right after. The promise of the reprieve might be better than the actual trip! Nothing can go wrong as you are dreaming about it, but in actual travel, many things can go wrong, explained the author of the study who was attacked by a shark in Hawaii.
I don't fear shark attacks on our next trip to France, and I am enjoying the joy that comes with contemplating walking off the plan in Paris and traveling by train down to Aix en Provence.
I  Skyped last week with a blog friend in Aix en Provence, Delana (who hasn't been blogging much but who runs Travel Solo Bootcamp, was full of fun ideas for me and Earl.
One of the things she told us was that the Calanques, between Marseille and Cassis are open to cars during March. That means that we can drive our rental car on the calanques, a kind of Mediterranean fjord. Most of the time, people visit them by boat or they have to park and hike in to see them.

This photo comes from the Alaric English Speakers website. 

Delana explained that the roads are twisty through the steep landscape. Other articles explain that creeks cut into the stone leaving these dramatic shapes. Then the creeks pour into the Mediterranean, leaving the water pure and fresh. I wonder if we'll get any photos as dramatic as this.
I'm really dreaming of France and looking forward to our adventures.
What are you dreaming about this week?
Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs to see what others are posting about.