Re- sending with photos - Aix to Avignon

---

Hi all,

Another installment from me before I leave beautiful France. I have so enjoyed my time here and if it werent for the next chapter of my adventures; and meeting up with friends and family in the next few weeks, I would not want to leave!!! I feel I am making progress with the language, although it can be slow - I am remembering more and more words & using them rather than just my basic french. I am almso reading a novel in french and only have to look up about 5 words per page on average!!

The last dew days in Aix were very busy. As I mentioned I met some great people at school and we all had things we wanted to do together before we left so we had to cram them in!!

The night after I wrote last I went to a Moroccan tea house with Barbara & Martina. We first met at Barbara's lavish apartment she had rented through the school just off the main street in Aix, Cours Mirabeau. She had shown us a few days before and we were all green with envy so she invited Martina & I for some rose which was lovely. We then headed to a tea house I had seen before and got stuck into a shisha pipe!! For the record, it is just flavoured tobacco (nothing stronger) and we had apple & cinnalon flavour. I was nice but I personally dont see the point of doing it!!! We also had lovely fresh moroccan mint tea to accompany itand some maroccan pastries, yum!!

On our way home we spotted a fab jazz restaurant and booked it for last Thursday night, Martinas last night in Aix. The restaurant was gorgeous and has a jazz band on certain nights of the week. We first met at Les Deux Garcons on Cours Mirabeau for a cocktail. Word to the wise - french are not renowned for their cocktails (the mojito was vile) so best so stick with a kir or glass of rose!!!

The band & restaurant were blow ground level in the jazz cave as we called it, and we had the choice of the main room in which the band & other tables were, or a smaller room adjoining it. As we had a large booking we booked the smaller room and it worked out really well. They set a huge table for 12 and we pratcially had the room to ourselves which was a good thing as we were all really loud!!! it was just gorgeous down there, beautiful lighting & cozy setting, with some great jazz music in the background. The food was spectacular and probably my favourite meal in france. Entrees were an assiette of gaspacho, goats cheese mousse & tapeade with pain and tartare of salmon. We had a choice of mains and I chose a beef dish with goats cheese sauce - yum!! For dessert I chose the grand marnier souffle (which was surprisingly cold - and meant to be) which i rate as probably the best dessert I have ever had!! it went down really easily and the grand mqrnier combined with the loads of rose made me very sleepy!!!

The last day of school we were all really tired and didnt do much: so it was a good thing the teacher decided to show us a film. It was Tanguy, and I didnt see all of it, but it is about a guy who refuses to leave home and looks very funny!! It was quite hard to understand without subtitles tho so i will have to rent it out.

Friday night we went to Atelier Cezanne, where he painted for 5 years of his life. We knew ther was some special event on Friday nightrs at the house but didnt know what it was. We were very disappointed to discover it was his pintings projected onto walls outside the house accompanied by music.........;;and that was it!!! We couldnt go inside the studio and it was quite cold outside so a bit disappointing. I asked if they sold wine (would have made it more bearable) but they only sold water - go figure!!! We left and headed into Cours Mirabeau for a farewell drink.

Saturday morning I had a horrible cold that had been coming on all week, so it was a godsend that my friend Lotte had offered to drive me and another student Nobuko to Avignon, as she was coming here for the day. We arrived around 10am I was able to check into the hostel straight away. The hostel is across the river from the mqin city and in such a great spot - its good coz it makes me walk more each day and also because it looks right over onto the popes palace and bridge of Avignon, and has spectacular sunsets. its a good thing as the hostel is very basic and the water is not very hot at all.......its been 3 weeks since my last hostel stay and I think I am getting over it!! Luckily there have been some nice people to talk to.

Saturday arvo I checked out everything that is accessible from Avignon and decided to head straight to Orange to see the theatre. As part of their summer festival there they have opera on there and there was a screening on TV a few weeks ago that I saw. The theatre is roman and has been preserved beautifully. There is still the statue of the emperor which looks out over the stage onto the audience and interestingly enough the statue was designed so that the head could be changed - so that if a new roman emperor came into power they could easily change the head rather than remaking the statue!! Tells you something about roman politics, doesnt it??

I then decided to head to Isle sur la Sorge for the remainder of the afternoon. My friend Nina had suggested it to me and I am so glad I went - it is a typical provencale village with a gorgeous river running through it. The first street I walked down led to the church and there was a wedding party walking through the streets - bride and all!! I stopped and had an orangina in the main square and took in the entertainment of some buskers.... and then continued my walk through the village. I stumbled upon a huge antiques marlet in the grounds of a beautiful old mansion and just wandered around looking at the things for sale and thinking how muxch mum would have loved to be there!!!

Yesterday I jumped onto the Van Gogh trail and headed to Arles for the day. You can retrace the steps of Van Gogh through the scenes of his paintings - they have about 15 tableaus set up around the village & outskirts of where he painted his paintings, and they are in front of the actual scene so you can see what it looks like now!! My favourite one was of the hospital where he spent some time and the beuaitulf garden there. The least impressive site is the famous 'yellow house' which has since been knocked down & replaced with a BNP Paribas building!! Arles is beautiful and plenty to see there. i went into the old arena, Les Arenes, which is still used for bull fights today (in fact this week!)

I then decided to head to Nimes for the remainder of the day which wasnt a wise move.... I was quite sick & exhausted and when I got there saw a tourist train straight away. I normally avoid stuff like this but as I was so tired the thought of sitting down for the next hour appealed. It was actuqlly a good thing to do as I quickly relised everything was shut and Nimes didnt have much charcter. I decided to pull the plug headed back to the train station; only to find my foggy brain had read the timetable wrongly and I had to wait an hour for the train!!!

Today I did a walking tour of Avignon and as I specified I wanted an englisjh speaking tour (I can understand french but not historical religios detail!!) i was the only preson on my tour, which has been a theme of this trip!! The tour encompassed Avignon town itself plus a tour of the Popes Palace, which was a great way to do it - the palace is huge and I think in my sick state I wouldnt have coped without someone telling me about it to my face!! Thankfully I am feeling better today though.

I decided to head to St Remy for a quick look in the afternoon. It was stinking hot (think 35 degrees) so not too pleasant.... I wanted to do the Van Gogh tour but it was vastly different from the one in Arles - firstly it was baking hot in the sun and secondly they had set up the tableaux in random places, where Van Gogh may have painted things, rather than where they know he did!!! In some plqces there was a tableau in front of a private property, and the owner had installed a huge wall there. In other cses there was something totally different there. It was rather ridiculous and I laughed to myselfd the whole way (only way to cope).

The trail ended up at the hospital in which Van Gogh lived for a year, after the ear cutting episode. Thankfully it was worth the walk and you could see the actual spot he painted his irises, my fave Van Gogh painting. The year he was in St Remy was one of his most prelific periods, during which he painted around 150 paintings. You can see why - the hospital is on a hill in the provencal countryside, surrounded by cypress trees, olives, lavendar.... the list goes on. I visited Vincents room which has a beautiful view of the garden & countryside. I xould love to visit in May when everything is bloomong though - being August its too hot and everything is past its prime. There is a beautiful open air garden section in the liddle of the hospital also.......well worth the visit!!!

Tomorrow I head to the Luberon for a half day tour to visit the villages of Gordes & Rousillon....then off to Costa Brava in Spain to dive for 3 days (beach/ water - woo hoo!!) and then a reunion with the fogies in Bar-the-lona on Saturday. I hope your spanish lessons will come in hqndy guys coz all I know is hell, please and thank you!!

Love to all,

Anj oxox

PS have to run now but will try to send some photos in the morning.

---

Photos

Sunset in Avignon
Looking onto the pont d'Avignon & Popes Palace

Hospital - Arles
Van Gogh stayed here a while and painted this picture in this spot the courtyard - you can see the likeness!!

Reconstruction of Van Gogh's room - Arles
It has been remade to look like a painting - a bit spooky

Irises in St Remy
As IF this is where Van Gogh painted them!!!

This is the landscape Van Gogh painted??
An example of the crap Van Gogh tour - doesnt really give you a feel for what it was like, does it??

Olive trees, Van Gogh trail
This is better - I can see the likeness here!!