We left off our travels in Europe saying goodbye to our friend Kelly in the Athens airport. With 6 weeks in Greece under our belts we were nearing the end of our 8 months in Europe. At this point it was surreal to think back on everything we had done; pictures with the icebreakers in Helsinki, touring a KGB prison in Riga, visiting Auswitchz, Oktoberfest in Munich, exploring Roman cities in Croatia, enjoying the hot springs in Bulgaria, flying hot air balloons in Turkey, and simply all of Greece.
As we waited for our flight to our last destination, Montpellier in the south of France, it was mixed feelings. On one hand we didn’t want to stop travelling, there were still so many more cool places in Europe to see; Malta, Sardinia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the list keeps going, but on the other hand travelling like this for 8 months is tiring and we were excited to see our friends and family back home.
The cheapest way for us to get to the south of France was to fly to Barcelona in Spain, grab a hostel overnight, and then jump on a 4 hour bus early the next morning.
Why were we here you might be thinking? Sure, France is probably high up on a lot of people’s bucket lists but why Montpellier? It’s hardly a popular tourist city and there’s at least a dozen cities more popular to be visiting. In short we were here for French lessons.
During our travels, Candice had been thinking about how to end the trip. We needed to be on the western part of Europe to fly out of either Paris or London (the biggest hubs from Europe to Canada) and we wanted to do something cool and different. She originally was focused on a 3 day biking trip though the tulip fields in the Netherlands but the end of April was the best time and we were leaving in early April.
Then one day we listened to a podcast and it talked about learning French in France and we thought that’s perfect. I was put into French immersion as a kid and from 7-14 years old I was 100% fluent in French but since then I’ve let my French slip and while I know basic words I couldn’t even hold a conversation with a toddler.
After all our travelling we met so many people who know 2 or more languages that we thought this was the perfect opportunity to improve our knowledge on a 2nd language and, best of all, French is probably the easiest language for a native English speaker as about 40% of English vocabulary was taken directly from French. Just by knowing English you already have a leg up on French.
It’s common when doing these language lessons to stay with a host family with the idea that you’ll get more immersion in the language and culture of France. We stayed with a lady in her 60s named Marie, and her daughter who was about our age was over most nights for dinner. They were both very friendly and accommodating.
Also part of our French classes were daily activities (both free and paid) to do after classes. It was strongly recommended to take up the free walking tour of Montpellier. For close to 3 hours we walked along with our penny-whistling guide as he talked the history of the city and showed us around the most interesting locations.
As our guide explained, Montpellier is practically a baby in city terms. Founded around 1100, it was “only” a thousand years old making it one of the youngest cities in France. Many of Frances largest cities were founded during Roman times or earlier making them 2000+ years old so I guess from that perspective it makes sense.
About a month before we arrived in France my aunt had contacted me. My cousin was in Belgium volunteering on a sheep farm as part of the Woofing program, it’s a lot like the Workaway program we did but it focuses heavily on farms, and the place she was volunteering at wasn’t working out. She was thinking of leaving early but her plan had been to stay in Europe for 6 more weeks before meeting my aunt in Portugal in May.
This was my cousin’s first time overseas and first time travelling solo so my aunt asked if she could make her way to us in southern France. She’d feel a lot better if Sarah could spend a week or 2 with someone she knows while they figured out her backup plan. We of course had absolutely no problem and with the large gap in age (about 15 years) I didn’t really know my cousin all too well so this would be a perfect opportunity to get to know some family better. It also worked out perfect that our host had an extra bedroom she rented out on AirBnb so Sarah could even stay at the same house as us.
Here’s a picture of the 3 of us finding the Poutine House in Montpellier. Sometimes it’s the small things that bring you the most pleasure. After being teased in Slovakia and Turkey finding an actual Canadian Poutine restaurant was exciting.
Unfortunately though, while it was a commendable attempt at poutine, it appears that even cheese obsessed France can’t get proper cheese curds. But I will say at least the cheese was extremely close to a proper cheese curd, when we were in Australia they simply threw shredded mozzarella onto fries and gravy and that doesn’t work at all!
And if you haven’t had a proper poutine before that actually looks really close to the real thing aside from far too much gravy. If it doesn’t look like a disgusting greasy mess then it’s not good poutine. True Canadian poutine from Smoke’s shown below for reference.
During our time in Montpellier we spent our weekday mornings from 9-12 in class and after lunch we usually spent a couple of hours studying in the school’s work center and then enjoyed some free time in the evenings. By the way if you didn’t translate the title it says “Adventures in the south of France”.
The French ministry has a language assessment program called DELF (Diplôme d’Etudes en Langue Française) or the French Language Diploma Studies. There are 4 levels, A1, A2, B1, B2, and once you’ve reached the B2 level you can take the diploma test. Passing this means you are officially competent in French and is usually a requirement for getting French universities and some other classes. After the DELF exams there are the DALF exams which add the C1 and C2 classes and many French jobs will require you to have completed this exam to certify you are fully fluent in French.
Also note these courses are used internationally so they are usually a requirement in other French speaking places like Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium, and I assume ex-colonies of France where French is now an official language. In total I counted 40 countries where French is spoken and 32 of those it’s an official language.
As a total beginner, Candice was in the A1 program while I was slightly more competent and got into the A1+ class (I wasn’t quite at an A2 level but I knew the basics already). There were many reasons people were taking the classes, for example a gentleman from Russia was in my class and while his wife was fluent in French and got job here he had a lot to learn, another gentleman worked for an international company in the UK and he often dealt with French businessmen so improving his French was vital to his career, and there was a lady from Germany who was 19 and wanted the experience of living in another country for an entire year and learning a new language.
The school was really good and we both enjoyed our teachers and our classmates. By the end of the 2nd week I thought it was really cool that I was able to speak with the Russian guy in my class, Serge, who knew no English, using our broken and terrible French to tell each other what we planned for the weekend.
On the first day we arrived in Montpellier we were already planning what we wanted to see on the weekends. With only 2 to explore the south of France we didn’t have any time to waste. Candice thought I was crazy but I wanted to spend our time visiting 2 other countries, Andorra and Monaco, with my reasoning being that both countries were very close to Montpellier so we probably would never make a trip out of our way to see them again.
In reality it was too difficult to get to either for a weekend trip. If we had 3 days we could have done it but since these are separate countries you can’t get a bus direct to them and have to do some weird transfers making the trek quite difficult for a weekend trip. In the end with chose Marseille for 1 weekend and Nice for the following weekend.
This Is Marseille
We found out quickly from our classmates that Marseille evokes mixed emotions. Some people told us they loved Marseille while other people suggested we cancel our trip and go to Nice instead. The main reason people said to avoid Marseille was that it was “sketchy” and “dirty”. Candice and I have been to a lot of places and unless you’re likely to be shot or kidnapped we aren’t bothered by “sketchy”.
We arrived in Marseille after dark and immediately understood why some people thought it was dangerous. Our AirBnB was in the old part of the city on a side street that looked more like an alleyway. The lighting was poor and there was graffiti all over the buildings and it was obvious we were in a part of the city with a large immigrant population with Turkish donair shops at every corner and many muslim shops and restaurants.
The thing though, while the area was rundown, and there were large groups of people congregating outside drinking beer and smoking, no one looked threatening to us. These were just people living their lives and we even got a few friendly “Allos” or “Bonjour” as we passed by.
Setting off first thing in the morning we stopped at a cafe for some French coffee and it really sunk in that we were actually in the south of France. After our quick stop we headed up to the most popular church high up a tall hill that offered a great view of the area.
Because Notre-Dame de la Garde, a Catholic Basilica, is situated on top of a hill it makes it super awkward to take a proper picture of the outside but thankfully we have Google to help us out.
Our best picture for reference.
Inside the Church they seemed to really like worshiping boats.
We attempted to get a picture with us and the French Riviera but unfortunately the lighting and angles were terrible.
Our 2nd stop was, surprise surprise, another church. Well technically it’s a Cathedral, Cathédrale La Major, to be precise.
The architecture and grandeur of these European churches is simply mind boggling. Crazier yet is that they could build such massive structures in the 1100s when this was built and with such an intricate design. I do, however, feel the catholic church’s money could have been better spent helping the poor during this time but 900 years later it’s a fantastic tourist stop.
I have to give credit to Candice for finding a super cool angle in this church.
Enough of churches, our 2nd day in Marseilles was all about art and style.
Marseille has a lot of grafitti and while a lot is simply vandalism there was also a ton of awesome murals to find. We went on a search and found some awesome hidden gems.
Not a mural but I really enjoyed this composition
It Was Nice To Meet You
Pronounced like the word niece, Nice, was a total 180 degrees from Marseille. Where Marseille was grungy, rough, and full of character, Nice was this beautiful, clean, gem on the Mediterranean. The cities are only 2 hours apart and it was a stark contrast.
Looking around I don’t think we saw one piece of graffiti and definitely no murals.
Wandering around we ran into a market near the sea board
The most stunning part of Nice is its immense boardwalk stretching the entire length of the city along the sea.
After hitting the end of the trail our only option was to backtrack or hike up these 200 steep steps. We of course chose the 200 steps for some unknown reason.
Heading back to the center of the city we took plenty of photos along the way.
Une Fin Coupée Court
An end cut short is the best way to describe this. We had our flights from Paris to Montreal booked for March 27 and we had planned 1 more week of French lessons followed by 7 days to tour in France. We had planned to make a day visit to Geneva to visit a friend who works for the UN and spend about 5 days in Paris. Unfortunately the Corona virus had its own agenda and on Saturday night France announced it was going into full lock down on Sunday (thanks for the heads up French government!).
On the same day as the lock down announcement the Canadian government made their official announcement that all Canadians overseas should return home immediately. It was pretty a simple decision to immediately rebook our flights as our school was shutdown starting Monday and all tourist spots were closed. We ended up leaving France on March 17, just 10 days before we originally planned to leave Europe.
My cousin had already arranged to do a Woofing stay in Switzerland and already had train tickets booked from Lyons to Geneva. She talked with her host family and her Mom and they decided since Switzerland was doing fine and hadn’t closed the borders that she would stick to her plan. With our rented car we drove from Nice to Lyons and said goodbye to her at the train station and then immediately headed back to Montpellier to get our travel plans rearranged.
People asked us if we had a nightmare getting home and surprisingly we had 0 issues. Yes the airlines shut off their phones and we couldn’t contact West Jet or Corsair and yes our insurance company wanted to book us on new flights out of Paris even though all the transportation to Paris was closed (no buses, no trains, no planes) but we were able to rebook our own flight. We found a flight from Nice to Frankfurt and then to Calgary and finally ending in Kelowna. It was Monday at 11 am and we booked the flight for 8 am Tuesday so $700 each felt like a steal of a deal and best of all we could still get a train to Nice at 1 pm. We packed up quick as we could and Marie drove us to the train station and we said our goodbyes.
We were nervous the entire time from Montpellier to Frankfurt because we knew the situation was changing hour to hour and at any time the train or flights could be cancelled with no notice. However we had no problem, made it to our hotel in Nice, spent the night then arrived by plane in Frankfurt. Our flight from Frankfurt to Calgary wasn’t cancelled and we were allowed to the boarding gates so we sighed with relief and enjoyed a German breakfast, a pastry and pretzel.
In the end everything worked out, best as we could hope, as our insurance company reimbursed us for the flights to Canada, though they didn’t cover the train or hotel, WestJet gave us a credit back, and finally, in November, Corsair contacted us to say they’re giving a full refund on our cancelled flight from Paris to Montreal. Also my cousin spent about a week or so in Switzerland before it went into lock down and she got back to Canada safely soon after. She said she was sad she had to leave early because her host family was amazing but she still had a great experience.
If you’ve ever contemplated doing a big trip my advice is to go for it. There will always be another job waiting for you and who know what will happen in a year or 2 from now. Start saving for your trip and start researching. You’ll be surprised how long it will take you to plan out a trip and the time spent will keep you motivated on your goal and give you time to save up. If you’re not able to save a lot then consider signing up for programs like Workaway or Woofing where you can stay somewhere for free in exchange for a bit of hard work extending how long you can travel. However you do the trip I doubt you’ll end up regretting it.
Before I end this entire blog I want to leave you with one last picture of the Rocky Mountains from high up as we flew from Calgary to Kelowna, finally arriving back in Canada. Thanks for reading and following along on our journey.
A Romping European Time 