I saw London, I saw France

I spent the last week walking all over England and France, at least it feels that way haha. Its been a lot of fun though. After my parents arrived in London we stayed at Pieter's house for the weekend with his parents and sister. We hiked a bit and swam a bit, the usual fun. I also went into London with Pieter to meet up with Anne which was great! After that my parents and I went to South East Sussex and camped. It was crazy hot at the campsite so we ended up heading over to the beach almost everyday we were there. We hiked along the South Downs Way, which is a great hike along huge chalk cliffs over the sea, hung out on the beach and also hiked to an old Priory which was cool. One night we went to a pub quiz in a tiny town, haha and didn't do very well but had a great time. It was right before July 4th so they conveniently had an American round, and that round had a question about New Mexico! It was crazy. The next day we went back to Leigh-on-sea and stayed the weekend with the Cordwell's again.

On Sunday I flew with my parents to Montpellier, France which is in the South of France. Its a cute little town full of winding tiny roads and old Cathedrals. The Tour de France had one of its races here yesterday which was pretty awesome. It started and ended in town, which i guess is unusual, it normally ends in a different town. It was a team time trial and Lance Armstrong's team won and since he is the only person I knew anything about that was pretty exciting. It was also just a great atmosphere, tons of people all excited about the races, the sponsors giving out free stuff, everyone lining up to watch the race, it was fun fun. We saw the first teams start, each team starts 7 min apart, and then walked the mile or so down to where they end (after they ride in a huge loop outside of town). It was a long day with lots of standing in the sun, but actually a lot more exciting then I thought it would be. Today we drove up to Nimes, about an hour away and spent the day there. They have one of the oldest preserved Roman amphitheater there which was really cool to see. It had an extremely comprehensive audio guide tour so I learned quite a lot about gladiators and the kinds of events the Romans held there. We also wandered around some markets and saw some other cool Roman ruins. And ate great bread, cheese, fruit, and chocolate croissants which I've been doing everyday for lunch, haha. Tomorrow we might go see the beach or more cathedrals or another Roman town or all three if we can fit it in before we have to head back to London the day after that. I then have 5 days after my parents leave to hang out around London and since we haven't really done that yet I think I'll spend them doing London museums and stuff like that. If anyone has know of any great London spots I should hit up let me know!