Joie de Privas!: Casino in Cannes

I have officially gone into power mode. With approximately 96 hours left of my exchange, I am crazily packing, throwing things together, planning my last couple blogs, uploading pictures, thinking of saying goodbyes, doing my last minute shopping, sifting through the hundreds of sheets of papers that I've collected this year, planning out the details of my going away party Friday, doing all the things I told myself I would do this year, but forgot, unpacking from a vacation to the Côte d'Azur and repacking for Helene's house and the beach tomorrow. Just to mention a few things. I've been sweating away like crazy in my pigsty of a room, but I'm glad I'm busy because it's a good way to get my mind off that end-of-the-year depression. And before I get all emotional and weepy on you (saving that for my last post), I am going to change the subject to my recent vacation to Provence and the Côte d'Azur.

I don't have time to blabble on and on today, so I'm going to try to keep this post to a minimum. I left with my third host mom, Christine, on Saturday morning and we hit the road with little time to spare. In three days, we visited Monaco, Menton, Nice, Cannes, St. Maxime, St. Tropez, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Baux-en-Provence, the village of the Bories, and Fontaine de Vaucluse. And I thought the Eurotour was fast-paced!

It was a really great vacation; the weather was beautiful, the water was perfect, I went gambling for the first time (and won! Oh - and before I continue my list, I'm just gonna go off on a small little tangent in these parentheses about the wonderful experience that is gambling. Christine and I went into a casino in Cannes, sat down at the surprisingly really confusing slot machines and were approached by the nicest waiter asking us if we wanted drinks. I, being the one cheap girl in the casino, told him no, but then he said they were all free! Well, alright if you insist. He then took us on a little tour of how to play all the machines and gave us these nice pens as a gift. I can now see why gambling becomes an addiction to so many people; all you do is press a few buttons, pull a lever, and bam, you have a different amount of money! How fun :D But don't start to worry Mom and Dad, I'm not going to become a compulsive gambler any one of these days. And...ending tangent...continuing my little list now: Bet I lost you didn't I?) I ate lots of delicious food, and I saw almost every type of Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce out there! I felt pretty out of place; everyone/thing on the Côte is so expensive, and I'm just the tourist wandering around and taking pictures of all the wealth.

After the Côte, we headed up and visited some places in Provence. Every place was so gorgeous and picturesque, and I'm very grateful that I got a chance to see everything that I did before I leave France. Merci beaucoup Christine!