The night we left Corsica was formal night on the boat. I was looking forward to wearing the tuxedo I’d hauled 6,000 miles just for this event. Too bad I left my cufflinks and other hardware in St. Louis.

No worries, I had another white shirt and no one was the wiser. Or, at least if they were, they didn’t say anything.

Note the fashion statement I made by turning up my sleeves. Give it a month, and this will be a global trend.

From Corsica we traveled to the mainland of Southeastern France to visit the towns of Marseille and Montpelier.

Marseille is France’s second largest city and has a 1,500 year history as a key port on the Mediterranean. Our boat literally parked right next to the behemoth Cathedral the Major.

We chose not to visit this church, or anything in Marseille for that matter, choosing instead to head inland to the town of Aix-en-Provence. As luck would have it, we were visiting on a Tuesday – which is market day!

I was expecting a bucolic village, teaming with merchants and peasants milling about exchanging goods. Instead, we encountered a modern metropolis, with an “old town” swarming with tens of thousands of people and a market that stretched nearly half a mile.

The “Centre Ville” is chocked full of shops (including many high-end global retailers), restaurants and a multitude of fountains.

Leading from that fountain is a wide, tree-lined pedestrian thoroughfare, with permanent shops along either side and hundreds of pop-up merchants hawking their goods on this market day.

I patiently tagged along as Shawna explored each and every one; and even withstood visits to several permanent shops. Let’s just say, a few Euros were exchanged!

After another fun evening on the boat …

… we woke up the next morning in Montpelier, or actually, the village of Sete. This is not a tourist town. It is an old fishing village and largely remains that way today. The unique thing about the town, however, is it is full of canals. It is actually called the Venice of Languedoc, which is the region in which Sete is located.

We got to explore those canals on kayaks.

Nothing much more to discuss about this town, except one interesting tradition they have here: water jousting.

They actually still have a festival here each year where dudes attempt to knock each other off platforms in the middle of the canal. Good times!

Tonight we will bid adieu to France and wake up tomorrow morning in Spain.

Au revoir, France.