By Erik Skye

11 Jul 2011

Words du jour (Francais): jour (day), semaine (week), mois (month), an (year)

Landscape of green pastures and happy white cows (tails swishing), golden wheat blankets, corn, islands of forest, giant round bails of yellow dry hay, rolling hills accented by clusters of red-roofed buildings, neat rows of grape vines on sticks, thousands of fences and hedges dividing it all. That’s what I saw as I travelled on yet another TGV from Paris to Marseille today; that is, when I was awake. I’ve found trains make me sleepy.

Dalia met me at the train station with her friend Yacine, who is visiting from Paris. They were waiting for me to arrive so they could begin a road trip to Spain. After showing me a few sites in Marseille, and a quick stop at Dalia’s apartment, we were off.

The landscape of southern France reminds me of southern California, with rolling hills (sometimes green with low forest, sometimes brown with grasses), occasional views of high mountains in the background, thick haze (not sure if that’s natural or pollution), vast areas of nothing between population centers, and a large body of saltwater nearby.

Dalia drives like me (fast!).  I told her this, and she responded “I want to arrive!” She’s a very good driver.

Dalia and Yacine were born and raised in France, but their parents are from Algeria. Dalia’s family is originally from the Kabylia Mountains, home of the historically isolated population of the Berbere people. Yacine is from Algiers (the capital) and is Arab. Both are Muslim. I enjoyed learning about their customs and culture as we travelled. Yacine even offered to have me over to his place in Paris before I leave the country, to eat a traditional Arab dish made by his mother.

We reached our destination, Lloret de mar, Spain, late in the evening. This is a party town, reminding me of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, except replace Americans with French.

I’m getting confused on language, going from France, to Germany, back to France, and now in Spain (still half full of French speakers). I’ve given up trying to communicate here. I’m relying on Dalia for that.

Yacine’s nickname is “Timmy”, from a wheelchair-bound character in South Park.   Apparently, Yacine likes to imitate Timmy. Dalia’s nickname is “Dadou” (I don’t yet know why). They wanted to go to a “foam party”. I wanted to go to sleep. We compromised. I stayed until 1:30 a.m. and stayed dry. I don’t know what time they rolled in to the hotel room, but I noticed their clothes were hanging up wet when I awoke. 

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