THE MYRAH SISTERS HIT TOWN

April 18-29, 2007

Wednesday morning arrived along with emails and reports of the progress of the Myrah sisters—Cheryl, Susie and Marilyn.  They had a 48-hour marathon and test of their determination to get to France. 

On Monday, the 16^th they drove from Sacramento to SFO to catch their flight.  No problems with the drive.  Of course the fight was full, so they were squeezed into the plane along with the other sardines, and they flew to New York.  Weather reports for New York City were ominous, with a major storm and flight delays predicted.  Their flight was able to land and they faced a 10-hour layover in NYC before the next leg of their trip, NY to Paris. 

Since the Myrah sisters are very smart they bought themselves into the Admiral’s Lounge where they could shower, eat snacks, take a nap and go online.  This made their layover much easier and more productive.

Their flight to Paris was uneventful, but again packed.  They caught a third flight from Paris to Marseille, where Don and I picked them up at 2:30 in the afternoon on April 18.  As we were traveling down the road to Eoures who did we spot strolling along the road, but Eric, who had returned after a few fun days in Nice.

We took them all home, showed them around and gave them food and drinks.  We sat on the nice patio and sipped our wonderful 1.09euro Bordeaux while they told us all about their flights and layovers and Eric told us about Nice.  Susie took a stroll into the village and discovered the patisserie, so she came home with some yummy desserts.

The next day we all went to Aubagne to go to the bank and check out the town.  Then in the afternoon Don took the 3 ladies on a sightseeing drive along the cliffs out to Cap Croisette and then over the mountain road to Cassis.

In the afternoon we enjoyed our wine and dinner on the lovely patio while we planned our activities for the next few days.

The following day we all got up early and headed up the road to Aix en Provence.  This is the town where Cezanne lived and we visited his studio there.  After leaving the studio we decided to split up and meet again at 4pm.  Eric and Susie went off to find a nice restaurant for lunch.  Don, Marilyn, Cheryl and I strolled around the town and found ourselves on the famous Cours Mirabeau where the notables strolled and visited with each other in 1890.

The following day the sisters went into Marseille and Don and I had a lazy day at home, reading and napping in the sun.

By Sunday Eric had left again, heading for Rome on a $29 RyanAir flight and the rest of us returned to Cassis to take the boat tour of the Calanques.  These are the many fijord-like inlets along the coast north of Cassis.  The boat took us out along the coast, pointing out the “best beach”, passing by the nude sunbathers, showing us the fancy sailboats moored in each inlet, and alerting us to the rock-climbers perilously hanging by a fingernail on the steep rock walls over the churning sea.

After returning to Cassis and strolling around the town a bit we headed on to the town of Bagnols for lunch.  This is another touristy little port town with lots of restaurants, fishing boats and shops.  Our salads were tasty and afterward we strolled along the walk where there was a display of many homemade kids’ games—giant pickup sticks, tossing games, chess, ball tossing, matching games, etc.