Excursion to Cote d'Azur

            Well, I would be lying if I said there weren’t problems along the way, including unexpected illnesses and people getting lost on a mountain, but despite these setbacks, our group had a generally very fun and relaxing trip to the Cote d’Azur (southern coast of France).

We boarded a train Friday morning (fastest.train.ever.) and by the early afternoon, we were lying on the beach under the sun and swimming in the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean.

That night, we ate a great buffet dinner together at the hotel we were staying at and were all amused by the cards reserving our tables:

Later that night, some friends and I gathered together in one of our hotel rooms and a couple girls played guitar for us late into the night.

Saturday, after breakfast at the hotel, we walked about a mile down the road and hiked up the small mountain of Agay. The deep orange color of the landmark itself was astounding, and once at the top, we had a spectacular view of the ocean and surrounding hillside. It was a nice workout for us, too!

After lunch, it was time for the much-anticipated scuba diving experience. One of our professors who joined us on the trip has a close circle of friends, all of who are scuba diving instructors, who took us diving for the afternoon. Each of us had a turn to try for a bit. We were each paired up with an instructor and went one at a time while those still waiting were able to sit on the dock and the beach, relaxing and playing music. Nearly everyone enjoyed their diving experience. There was a lot to see on the ocean floor: fish, interesting plants, starfish. The breathing process proved fairly difficult for me, so I unfortunately did not last as long as I would have liked underwater, but what I did see was very cool

That night after dinner, everyone had a lot of energy and we were singing and playing guitar again loudly in the hallway when the girl working at the bar in the lobby came in. We thought we would be in trouble, but instead, she encouraged us to come out into the lobby and play for the other hotel guests, so we did. Practically our entire group ended up coming out of their rooms and sang and played with us. Even our scuba diving instructors and our professors joined us. One of our professors had brought along his own guitar and went and got it. Later that night, we walked down the road to the beach and spent some time down there together.

Sunday morning we left the hotel for the train station, and on the way we stopped and saw some ancient Roman runes in Agay. We were back in Dijon by about 8 PM. It was a very busy weekend!

This coming Saturday, we will be traveling to Paris, so I will be sure to take many pictures and update when I get back!