the French Riviera

Fréjus is a small town in the French Riviera. I hopped off my train at the station there and called Keveen, who headed over in a friend's camper-van, greeted me with a big hug, and we were off to the campsite/resort where he's been living and working this summer. It's an odd phenomenon in France, one of the most beautiful countries I've been to, these "campsites" which are really mobile home parks where people vacation. It's great for people with kids because there's a pool and activities (which was part of Keveen's job) but the places I'm talking about are not beautiful. They're utilitarian. I suppose they are way less expensive than hotels, and they do have toilettes and running water, but nothing like camping. It was the same with Mélanie's friends in Toulon, except they didn't have children. If I remember rightly, there are not many places here where people can actually camp, so that is their alternative.
As for me, it seemed the perfect place to wrap up vacation time in a laid-back kind of way. It was clear that aside from the time he had to work, Keveen was excited to hang out and show me around the area. He is someone I want to follow around and make a documentary of. He's one of a kind. He has a French father, American mother, he's French, but he speaks English like an American (or like a Scot when the mood takes him), fluent Spanish, and a useful amount of just about every language he's come across. The Dutch children at the campsite are teaching him Dutch, for example. He'll talk about growing up in West Africa, and it all makes sense, he's like Mowgli from the Jungle Book, except he's not really shy about anything. He's travelled quite a bit, including a long stint in India. His philosophy is "spread the love" which he does in many ways. He can never turn down an opportunity to flirt. He takes beautiful, poignant photographs and considers himself a bard. I didn't get to hear him play ukelele, but I imagine he's good at that as well.
He told me that there was a girl who was supposed to have arrived the night before, but had not shown up. He had waited at the station for a good long time, and had not received a phone call. With that mystery lingering, we walked down to the centre ville for a glass of wine and a lookabout. It's a charming town. We sat in the main square just by the church and drank sangria. We met a woman there whom we joined and ended up making plans for Saturday with her. She knew of a party happening in a smaller town nearby, and close to Keveen's dad's place, where we were headed Saturday nonetheless.
While we sat enjoying the weather and conversation with Patricia, Keveen got a call from his coworker saying that the other couchsurfer had shown up, so we headed back to meet her, hoping very much that she would be a fun person to spend time with. We were not disappointed. Kalela is a beautiful girl from Sebastapol, who currently lives and studies in Sweden. She's got a great smile and super-fun energy. The three of us really clicked. I threw together some dinner with what Keveen had in the fridge and we all agreed that we'd have a leisurely evening, being that we were all pretty tired.
Friday Kalela and I walked about 45 minutes to the beach while Keveen was working. It was lovely to have someone so sweet and easygoing to spend time with. On the beach we went au natural - to the extent that we could - to get the full experience of the beaches of the riviera, and to avoid tan lines. The Mediterranean is not warm. Somehow I had gotten it in my head that it was. It was nice, but a little too cold for me that day. It was just cool and breezy enough to be perfect for sunbathing but not hot enough for swimming. Afterwards we walked back to the downtown to get some supplies for dinner. Some house-made harissa from a little North-African market, fresh mint, rice and lentils. And when we got back, a bunch of campers leaving the site were dropping off leftover food, so we were set for the weekend. We had a great dinner. Keveen made this fantastic stuff with frommage blanc, mint and spices that we ate with baguette, and I made a vegetable curry and rice with lentils. That night we went to watch the show that Keveen and his coworkers had put together with the little kids on vacation there. It was darling. They did little dance step to songs like "YMCA" and skits and stuff. A couple of K's coworkers bought some wine and we sat, drank and laughed. After that we all danced at the club there. Surprisingly, the DJ wasn't bad.
Saturday the three of us were picked up by K's uncle, Thierry, whose wife and kids were vacationing in Spain, and we picked up Patricia down at the train station. We had a nice afternoon at his house, about 10 or 15 miles to the north. He made lunch, we played with his dogs and lounged in the hammocks in his yard. K took us girls down to the river, which reminded me a lot of Butano. We got a ride to his father's house, where we met his dad, stepmom and her sister.They let us take their car, and K set about showing us the area where he lives. We saw the highest town in Provence, and a fantastic waterfall in a canyon surrounded with fig trees. And then we went to the party Patricia told us about. It turned out to be an open-air Basque-themed party. They had what I suppose was Basque food (I've only ever had it once before): spiced chickpeas, Spanish tortilla, cheese and Serrano-style ham. It was strange. The people there were the homeliest people I've seen in France. It was an entire town of odd looking but friendly people. There was a DJ playing, a mix of French pop and random American songs. James Brown followed by house music.
We crashed in little cabin on his dad's property and spent the next morning in another small town, having coffee and pastries before dropping Kalela off at the train station. Spent the rest of the day taking it easy, eating, went to the beach in the evening for a bit, played a bunch of music for each other. Fortunately, Keveen's dad let him keep the car, so I didn't have to hoof it to the train station this morning. Now I'm on the train to Tours, by way of Paris of all places. Jean-Claude will pick me up at St. Aignan around dinnertime. He told me on the phone yesterday that he's got a bunch of friends coming through this week, so it should be fun. We're holding a wedding at the Chateau on Saturday, Sunday I head to Paris, Monday morning I fly to SFO. It's great to be glad to still be here and also happy that I'll be back in a week. Before I headed off to Toulouse I was on the verge of wanting to go home, but I am so glad I didn't.
photos: Kalela, Keveen and me; me and Kalela looking out over Provence; in the river; the Riviera