Tag: France

European Cruise: Day 15 Toulon

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Toulon, France. In port from 7am-4pm. We have an all day excursion through Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.

Today we had to get up early and meet our group at 7:30. Our excursion lasted all day. We got straight on the bus for a 2 hour drive to Marseille…….I may have slept almost the entire ride. Apparently I was getting worn out hahaha. We arrived at Notre Dame (I guess there is more than 1 cause we certainly weren’t in Paris).


 
It was very pretty and you could see Chateau D’if in the background! 


I love the Count of Monte Cristo so this was really exciting to me, if we had had the whole day there I would have take the ferry out to see Edmond Dantes’ cell (fictional character but they have a cell for him hahahaha). Oddly the most exciting thing to me about Notre Dame was that I needed coffee and they had coffee machines that had espresso and it was actually GOOD espresso!!!


 American needs to get those cause our coffee vending machine things are terrible. Then we drove about 10 min away to the dock/port area of Marseille and had 15 minutes to wander around. Now I had done my research and there was a Starbucks in Marseille, 2 actually, so I immediately asked our tour guide if we were near either of them and we were right around the corner from one!!!!! Carra and I booked it around the corner and I got my first “you are here” mug of the trip!!! I was super stoked.


 We even had time to stop and get post cards and a magnet on the way back for Carra and make it back to the bus with 2 minutes to spare.

Next we drove about 30-40min to Aix-en-Provence. Where we went in Provence she said was akin to Champs Elyse in Paris, very upscale and ritzy. We took a little hour tour with her then had 1.5 hours to do what we wanted. I broke away from the group because I had seen a little market a few streets back that was only open for another 20 minutes and what better way to have lunch in Provence then get a baguette, some cheese and grapes! And that is exactly what I did and it was glorious! 



Then I picked up some post cards and found a Hagen Daas shop hahaha and had another espresso while I people watched, it was the perfect last 30 minutes of my day. Oh and I got some coffee caramels that were to die for!!! If they weren’t so dang expensive I would have bought a whole bag of them!!!!! They were so good and rich!!!

Tomorrow Barcelona!!!!

European Cruise: Day 14 Corsica

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

We have reached France. We are in port from 7am-7pm and have a half day excursion. countryside drive and wine tasting! Kind of like pizza in Naples you cant be in the south of France and not try wine. Again its a commandment. We are also going to an essential oil factory to see how they make perfume and to a nougat factory, wine and candy, best day ever!!!!

Today was another day we had to take a little boat from the ship to the shore.

The view from the essential oil factory. It was set up in the hills and beautiful.

Overall I wasn’t super impressed with the factory, there was nothing wrong with it but we have essential oil here so I wasn’t super wowed.

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Posing in front of the fermenting wine hahahahaha. Their wine was good and SUPER economical. I got their rose, which was an award winner, for 7.50 euros! That’s like $10.

Had to take a picture with the vineyards.

The nougat factory we went to was small, cute and local. The owner came out and gave us a demonstration, and we got to of course sample everything. I bought some little cookies they called Napoleons, shaped like his hat. Corsica was the birthplace of Napoleon. I am going to try and upload a video of the guy but we will see if my phone cooperates.

This was a half day tour and I had every intention of going out and exploring the town but a wicked headache started to hit me on the way back so I went back to the room…..where it just got worse and worse until I was on the floor trying not to cry (because that just makes a headache worse) to the point where I got nauseous from the pain and vomited. At that point it was time to go to the medical area. I went down practically in tears, they gave me a shot to stop the nausea so I didn’t get dehydrated and some pain meds for the headache. I ordered a pizza to my room and went to sleep.

 

Stitch Fix for Europe!!!

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, travel

Good morning!!!

Europe is coming up quick and after asking my roommate about her packing situation and realizing we have 2 formal dinners on the cruise I thought I might need a little more style to add to my wardrobe for the trip. So I my clothes will be have stylish have workout clothes hahaha. I ordered a stichfix and for the first time gave them a dollar amount that I needed to stay with and they totally listened! She was actually $1 under my budget! I was impressed. But I won’t be keeping the whole box unfortunately. I wish they gave you like 10 things instead of 5. But here is what was in the box:

This necklace is actually on point for my style but so much so that I have at least 2 necklaces that are pretty similar hahaha.

This doesn’t wow me or unwow me. I have been starting to lose weight so in another 10lbs it will look totally cute but I have a few things in this style already.

LOVE this shirt, it is cute and comfy and has Polka Dots which are totally my jam. It is adorable and conservative so I can wear it to the more strict dress code places in Europe like Vatican City. and it is loose a breezy so I shouldn’t be dying on a hot day. This is definitely a keeper.

This dress is the style I love, its empire waist-like and its a dark green color which I love, it would be great in fall with leggings and boots and I like the neckline design, it makes it cute but still classy because it doesn’t really show cleavage. But again I have a dress pretty similar to this so I unfortunately don’t need to spend the extra money on something similar.

The fifth piece is this kimono cover thing. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it. I can see how it would be cute with jeans and a tank top in the fall and the colors are great but I am not 100% sold on it. And if my first thought isn’t “omg I have to have it” then it goes back.

That leaves me with the polka dot shirt. Maybe I will check out target and some discount websites.

 

Have you tried Stitchfix yet?

Here is my referral code if you have not.

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/7169629?sod=w&som=c