Hiking w/ Raymond and Christine*

*If you don't know who Raymond and Christine are yet, just click over to the May blog post entitled "A Lesson in Trusting Strangers."

An Afternoon Stroll by the Sea

Christine and me on the path. (Raymond was the photographer that day so he's not in any photos.)

A couple weeks ago, they took me out to a new area I haven't been to (not a lot of buses in that direction), and we went hiking along the beach! It's really cool, there's a long walking path up and around lots of little beach coves - beautiful views, good mixes of sun/shade, beach/forest, hills/flat bits.

An action shot. Here we are cruisin' along the beach.

Hiking around the cliffs, never far from the Mediterranean Sea

Another action shot. I blinked.

A pretty, but invasive, plant species that grows in the area.

Raymond and Christine know lots about plants, wildlife, and the geography of this area. They taught me the names of several plants typical to the region (in French). We talked about different types of birds, insects, and other wildlife critters in the area (and I told them about what we've got back home too.) In the car on the way, and also when we got to the beach, they let me look at a couple maps to see where we were and where we'd gone.

Christine teaching me about the fauna. Gosh, I look tall.

Relaxing at our destination, one of the nicest beaches in the region (with extremely fine sand).

And the bra in the background reminds me... Wondering about French Riviera "topless" policies (or I should say "social norms")?
It's up to a woman's personal preference. I'd say it's about half and half, maybe 60/40 split (more women favor avoiding the tan lines)

Here's a big tree that got uprooted over the winter. The strong winds that blow through the area are known as the "Mistral." Comparable, I imagine, to the Santa Ana's, but they can come anytime)

Curious about the Mistral wind? This Wiki is pretty interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistral_wind