Menton | Gail's Interrail Adventure

03 March 2018


Hello!

Following on from my Toulouse Interrail adventure series, today’s post is all about when I went to Menton. It was a long journey for me with changes at Narbonne and Avignon to get to Marseille, then a change at Menton in order to reach Menton Garavan. It was gonna be a long day and a total of about 11 hours travelling literally from one side of France to the other.


I finally arrived at my destination at 9pm where I met Chris and Asta, the other girl that he was hosting that night. From there, it was only a few minutes’ walk to his flat where we ate some pasta, drank some homemade mojitos and played some video games. Chris then went to bed but Asta and I stayed up chatting until around 2.30am, which was really nice.

The next day, I woke up initially around 8am but fell asleep again (something I seemed to do a lot after this journey, tbh) and woke up finally at 10am when Asta brought though a cup of tea for me. (The cup was a Rapunzel one! I was so happy!)






I then had a shower and got changed and when Chris came home, he told us that a few of his friends were going to come around, but that they didn’t speak English. We decided to stay for lunch, too, so while he was sorting out all the food, we took a walk to Italy. Yup. The French/Italian border was only a 5-or-so minute walk away! We stayed to get a few photos and then headed back, and by the time we arrived, his friends were there.


Initially we thought that the pasta we were having wasn’t suitable for vegetarians but Asta quickly realised that it was, so I got to eat what everyone else was eating rather than just a salad and some beans! I’ve been needing to train my ear to understand French, so while he and his friends were talking, I was looking at the table trying to concentrate on what was being said. I didn’t do very well, but I tried. (Side note, I did the same thing when I went to see Joanne and this skill is showing improvement which I’m really proud of!)


Then Asta and I took a walk into Menton itself, where we saw the old town, the cemetery and took a few more photos. We then headed together to the train station for her to get onto her next stop, where we said our goodbyes, and I made my way back.


That night, Chris invited another friend around, Mila. She was really lovely, and she’s an Au Pair! (Another theme from this holiday. It seems that I meet a lot of people doing the same thing.) We drank more mojitos that night and had some more pasta and then we played a strange card game, which was a bit like snap but … Not. Eventually I headed to bed and disgustingly woke up to find that I’d been sick during the night due to the alcohol. Not nice at all.







On the Thursday, I took the train (not interrail) to Monaco! I was talking to Robin about Monaco and he jokingly asked me to take photos of fancy cars, which I didn’t do… But, I did take a photo of the Formula 1 shop! I tried my best to ask for a ticket in French but I failed so badly that the woman at the train station spoke to me entirely in English. She must have thought I was crazy, tbh, because I still wasn’t feeling 100%. Then, I basically spent around an hour and a half aimlessly wandering around Monaco trying to find somewhere to eat that was quiet because I was nervous about trying to order in French, and about whether or not the restaurant etiquette is different in France (or Monaco). Eventually I found somewhere where I had the pizza that I HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO STOP THIKING ABOUT! Afterwards, I went for another aimless wander around near to the Casino and I bought a few souvenirs for the baguettes before I headed back to Chris’ flat.


When I arrived back, we went to get a cuppa (he had a normal drink and I had a tea), where we sat with a view of the sea, and the blinding sun if you looked to the right. It was really nice. Then we headed back to his where I typed up a few blog posts (Including my Toulouse one!) before Mila came around again.






This time, the only alcohol we had (well, that I had) was a glass of wine with my dinner (which was pasta again) while we watched Russell Howard clips on Youtube before they went to bed and I began packing my suitcase while watching Dan and Phil. It was a nice end to a visit in a nice little town.


I said my goodbyes to Chris in the morning before he went off out, and had a shower before heading to the train station for the first of 4 trains towards Grenoble to see Joanne. (Menton Garavan – Cannes – Lyon – Grenoble.)


I had a lot of fun interrailing, and my next post will be about Grenoble, and what I got up to with Joanne. It was super exciting getting to see her again, seeing as the last time was in May when we said goodbye to each other in the flat!


Stay tuned!


Until next time, be excellent to each other.

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