Playing tourist for the day

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Geo: 43.5249, 5.45414

We started off with breakfast the way I like it: full of bread, delicious jam, and pleasant conversation.

The hotel/inn has a single large table, so you get a chance to chat with other guests. We met a woman who was traveling with her college-aged daughter and her daughter's friend, and they were heading out for a guided tour, so they didn't get to linger over breakfast.
Luc (one of the proprietors) makes his own jam, so we enjoyed some watermelon jam and strawberry jam on our fresh baguettes.
Laurent claimed that in Aix, they drink coffee out of bowls, so we played along. He could just be taking the mickey, but it delivered the coffee to my mouth, so I didn't care much (though it does cool off much more quickly, with that much surface area -- I won't be adopting the practice at home).

We headed out for our own self-guided walking tour, using an app (GPSmyCity.com). We saw a lot of old town, learned a few things along the way, and a couple of times, we crossed paths with our fellow guests, so perhaps we go the same view for less money?
Part of our tour took us down the Cours Mirabeau, which is one of the main roads within old town. That morning, it was set up with vendors nearly the whole length of it, so we did a little shopping. €5 for a scarf with an American flag design seemed reasonable.....and really, where else would I find such a thing? (No, really -- this particular type of scarf isn't something you find in the U.S.).
And I decided to spend €20 on a tablecloth for my long dining room table -- a cloth that was nice and springy, not Christmasy like all my others).
As we turned down a lane to make our way towards a small cathedral, we realized that it was being prepared for a funeral later that morning. Kinda reminds you that these towns are full of people who actually reside there.

One of the turns this tour app wanted us to take, we missed the first time around. It wasn't a street, as we were expecting, but rather a pedestrian passageway that we never would have discovered on our own. It dropped us in front of the courthouse, and in the parking lot/square in front of it, was another market. We came across a spice vendor, and as we were taking some pictures that we hoped would be artistic enough to frame, we decided (okay, I decided) that perhaps we should take home some of these spices as well. The vendor deduced very quickly that we spoke English, and switched to a very colloquial/casual version.
We walked away with some mixed peppercorns, "crazy salt", and some really-truly Herbs de Provence.

After lunch across from the main cathedral (a big change of pace, as we had croque monsieur instead of the usual jambon-beurre baguette), we dropped our stuff (purchases) at the hotel, and headed back to see what the Musee Garnee had to offer.

Turns out, not a ton that interested us.

We thought maybe we'd go see about this thermal spa that seemed to be just a couple of blocks from our hotel.
Sadly, it's just a day spa -- we were envisioning Roman baths or something. Meh.
So, another nap was calling, and we obliged.

On our way out to dinner, we were stopped by an older woman, who asked, "Parlez-vous anglais?"
Because we'd been in the country long enough to start to get acclimated to the language, we naturally replied, "Oui, oui."
She was looking for an address that wasn't really near us, but the cab driver had dropped here there. I got out my phone, and looked up the place on Google maps, and we gave her directions. She asked if we had wifi, and I showed her my Skyroam. That was a smart idea, she thought.
She got out her phone to open Google maps as well, and we asked if she wanted to connect to our wifi....no, she replied, she could get data. We cringed, thinking of the charges she could be accruing, but whaddya gonna do?

The really funny bit was when she complimented us on how well we spoke English.

Apparently our initial reply of "Oui" instead of "Yep" had her thinking that we were French speakers who happened to know a bit of English.
Hilarious.

On to dinner........Since the previous night's dinner was SO amazing but fairly formal, we wanted to find something that was a lighter atmosphere.

Good HEAVENS, are there a ton of restaurants in this town!! Mind you, most of them don't seat more than about 20 people, which probably explains it, but holy moley.
After lots of research, we identified a couple that looked like likely targets.

One of our potential choices was tucked way back in an alleyway that wasn't getting much foot traffic, and we didn't really feel like being the only patrons in the place. Pass.
Another was around a corner that didn't feel as remote, but we still would have been the only people there.

We came across a place called Bouddoir, which looked much more lively, and after a quick glance at reviews, it didn't seem to be hated, so we gave it a try.
It was just what we wanted. Lively without being raucous, pretty good food, fairly casual atmosphere.
We opted for the trio of creme brulees for dessert, and one of them had this little berry thing as a garnish. The waiter had to go back and ask someone what it was (a physalis), which we could then look up to know that it was basically a gooseberry. Pretty, but didn't do a lot to enhance the flavor of the dessert.

The was the extent of our evening out though (aside from a leisurely stroll back to the hotel). No nightclub action......sorry.

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Photos

Breakfast at L'Epicerie
Note the red bowls for coffee.....

Fountain on the Cours Mirabeau
There are a few of these moss-covered fountains on the street,

How close can he get?
Dejo, slowly approaching the pigeons drinking from this fountain in front of the Saint-Jean-de-Malte church

Another l'epicerie
The spice vendor in the Place des Prêcheurs

Ladies who lunch
I don't know if these ladies were locals on a lunch break, or tourists on a walk, but they seemed like a chatty bunch.

Trio of Crème brûlées
And a physalis as a garnish