{"id":88,"date":"2015-09-21T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/?p=88"},"modified":"2016-02-20T19:26:24","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T19:26:24","slug":"so-you-wanna-go-to-the-south-of-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/21\/so-you-wanna-go-to-the-south-of-france\/","title":{"rendered":"So you wanna go to the South of France . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a> \"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit the South of France – in particular, the regions of Provence and the French Riviera. \u00a0It evokes so many images\u00a0– fields of lavender, the Mediterranean sea, and stone pathways through ancient cities lined with bougainvillea. The cities are iconic – St. Tropez, Cannes, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, and Nice. The magic of the SOF will delight anyone no matter what your interest: if you\u2019re an art lover you can walk in the steps of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso; if you love French food (and who doesn\u2019t, really?), then you will find the land of mussels and fries, salad Nicoise, and lots of pastries; if you love the outdoors, there are beaches, bike paths, and mountains.<\/p>\n

With my upcoming 40th<\/sup> birthday, I decided that my dream of visiting the South of France was going to happen. But, how do you plan a trip of a lifetime? Where do you start? Since I wasn\u2019t going to have an unlimited amount of time to spend there (a few months would have been great, right?), it was going to take some careful planning. Of course, the first thing that we had to decide was how long we were going to spend on the trip and when were we going to go. After some discussion, we decided to take two weeks, inclusive of travel days, and go at the end of May. We decided on May for several reasons: first, we didn\u2019t want to go in the middle of the summer because that is THE busiest time of year to visit this region even though we would be giving up seeing the lavender in bloom (imagine taking two hours to travel 10 miles . . . tres mal); second, it was late enough in the year that the weather would be warm; and lastly, it fell over the holiday weekend so it would work better with our work schedules.<\/p>\n

Now that we had our trip schedule, we could start to look at the specifics of where we were going to go.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll cover that in my next post on \u201cSo you want to go to the south of France?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit the South of France – in particular, the regions of Provence and the French Riviera. \u00a0It evokes so many images\u00a0– fields of lavender, the Mediterranean sea, and stone pathways through ancient cities lined with bougainvillea. The cities are iconic – St. Tropez, Cannes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[45,22,12,20,26],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hz1R-1q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/19\/hello-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":0},"title":"Welcome to Navigation Maven!","date":"July 19, 2015","format":"image","excerpt":"The inspiration for this blog came from a friend after discussing my most recent trip to the South of France. \u00a0In the midst of explaining what we did on our trip, how I organized it, and the planning that went into the trip, \u00a0she said \"You should start a blog!\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":304,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/04\/perfectly-imperfect\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":1},"title":"Perfectly Imperfect","date":"February 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"To say that I have taken a break from this blog would be an understatement - but that doesn't mean I've been sitting idly by. \u00a0Anyone that knows me understands that my motto is \"A full life is a well-lived life.\" \u00a0That's not to say that taking a break isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ADVENTURES"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.navigationmaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_4623-e1517777742854-298x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/20\/the-untethered-soul-in-france\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":2},"title":"The Untethered Soul in France","date":"May 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago a friend introduced me to The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. At the time it failed to resonate with me, and I never finished reading it. But then, about a year ago, someone else mentioned the book and encouraged me to read it. After locating it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FRANCE"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.navigationmaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_6700-e1526820627686-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/18\/181\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":3},"title":"The Journey is the Reward","date":"April 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For some travelers, planning a trip is almost as enjoyable as the trip itself. It generates excitement and wonder. Nothing else can compare to this kind of freedom of exploration. Recently, we met with the couple we are traveling with to Ireland to plan our itinerary. With our plane tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ADVENTURES"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.navigationmaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20150502_Brandy_40_088-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":224,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/02\/prague-with-an-open-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":4},"title":"Prague with an open mind","date":"October 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When travelers visit Europe it is so easy to get caught up in trying to see everything. In every major city you can make a list the length of your arm of sites to visit and things to do, which is practically impossible due to the length of time most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ADVENTURES"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.navigationmaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_3376-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":272,"url":"http:\/\/www.navigationmaven.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/21\/ireland-redux-part-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":5},"title":"Ireland Redux, Part One","date":"March 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A friend of mine recently told me that when you get older you have two birthdays. This point comes to mind as I turn back to writing on my blog. 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