Road Trip! 8 cities in 4 days

“Le sud de la France:” The South of France
“Une voiture:” a car
“La plage:” the beach
“Le soleil:” the sun


School ended last Friday, so as a celebratory trip; a few of us rented a car in Clermont-Ferrand and headed south for the weekend. The travelers were: my roommate Kate, Pedro (Portuguese parents, raised in Germany), Simona (from Slovakia), and Lara (German, parents now live in Sweden). In total, we drove approximately 1300 km, which about 807 miles. We left from Clermont, which near the center of France, drove south to Montpellier, then east along the coast all the way to Monaco, and back up north through Avignon to Clermont. We stayed or stopped in the following cities:

Montpellier, Marseille, St. Cyr-Sur-Mer, Cassis, St. Tropez, Nice, Monaco, & Avignon.

The drive began in the Auvergne region of France, where we live, which boasts a lovely countryside of volcanoes and rolling hills, all in full green. As we moved south the landscape became flatter with more farms, and then at the coast, again very large hills and cliffs along the sea. We took what is called the “routes nationales” versus the “autoroutes” in order to save money by not paying the many tolls, as well as drive along more scenic routes through small villages and along the sea. The routes along the sea were quite windy as we drove, our little Ford stick-shift “Imax” did alright, however, having a more powerful sports car may have been a little more fun. With the sea often in view, however, I was fairly content. Coming from Kansas, I think I will always be happy to see elevation and/or water.

With no CD’s or iPod hookup in the care, we were forced to listen to the radio the whole time in the car. This was interesting. Besides the fact that there weren’t ever many stations to choose from, I think we heard a total of about 10 songs repeated over and over again the whole trip, at least half of them being to some techno beat. I was longing for some good ‘ole country music for road-tripping, alas, I had to make due with the bumping club beats of France. Occasionally, we would catch some older French crooning songs, Edith Piaf style, which were pleasant enough.