On the Road To Aix En Provence

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This day turned out to be much more cruisy than we expected. We slept in a bit and had a leisurely breakfast before packing up and checking out. We strolled up to the top of Arles with our luggage as that is where the buses leave from. On the way we had a better look at the ancient Roman Theatre then Dave wanted to check some things at the tourist office so Tamara sat outside with the luggage and fell into conversation with a couple of middle aged French women. To her astonishment one of them said she spoke good French, which is amazing as the French are rather snooty about their language.





By the time we had some lunch in the nice park that we had found it was time to go to the bus station. There were several bus stops along this area but Tamara spotted an office for the buses and checked (in French) so we were at the right place when the bus for Aix turned up. We had a two hour ride through the countryside and also a couple of the towns where the bus made lots of stops but still got to Aix before three o’clock. We discovered that in southern France a lot of places shut between 12 and 3 o’clock, including the place where we were staying so we went up to the Tourist Information Office which was very good, and got maps and suggestions for a walk around the historic town centre. By this time we thought the apartments would be open and managed to find them without too much trouble.





This was not a hotel but a room with kitchen facilities and a bathroom with one of the smallest showers we have encountered. The water pressure was great though. We soon discovered that Aix is full of fountains, and and had an interesting walk around the old part of town, some of it in the steps of Cezanne. We also saw the town hall which has a belfry with an astronomical clock, and the old corn exchange. We didn’t feel up to cooking tea so we went to a trattoria where Tamara had mussels which were nearly as good as the ones you get inn Nelson.

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