Traveling to Aix-en-Provence - July 10, 2010

 Saturday July 10, 2010

Senne's Summary: We took the train to Aix en Provence.

This morning is our last morning in Paris. We wake up at 9:00 GASP! SO EARLY! We pack up our bags, and get organized to meet Annie the lady we rented the apartment from. She gives us back our damage deposit, so it would seem that we managed to hide the immense amount of damage that we caused (well I did pull the bathroom doorknob off, but Steve fixed it!)

Steve attempts to go to the post office and mail the postcards we bought yesterday… the post office was closed yesterday and the sign saying why was in French… so Steve thought he'd try again this morning. Still closed—he thinks maybe the sign says closed for July… oh well. I'm sure we’ll find some stamps in Aix.

Just as a (very entertaining) side note. I need to tell you about this very "helpful" French phrase book we found in our Paris apartment. It was divided into situations you might find yourself in… restaurant, asking directions, pharmacy, etc… So I’m reading the one section entitled "Romance" (important stuff you know) and I’m going to tell you my two favourite lines from the “romance” section. I already forget how to say it in French so I’m going to give you the English. (As you read these imagine the “romantic” situations in which you might need to know how to say these two things!)

1) No thanks, I’ll do it myself.

2)   I would like to watch, but I don’t want to join in.

Enough said ;)

We walk the 30 minutes to the train station… with our giant backpacks (I’m wondering if I need less clothes!?!). It’s already blistering hot, which is evidenced by the lovely sweat outline of my backpack straps on my shirt… ick! However, it should be duly noted that I managed to carry both of my packs the whole time!

The train ride was awesome. I was a little nervous because we’ve never taken the train before, and all the instructions and announcements were “en francais”. BUT, we managed to get on the right train and get off at the right stop! I really enjoyed seeing the French countryside from the train. The train was super-fast (300 km/hr at top speed), so it was really difficult to take photos, but Steve got a few good ones. There were beautiful little villages poking up out of nowhere. I’m hoping that we are able to get out and see some of them this week.

Our host, Eric, was kind enough to meet us at the train station and transport us back to our apartment. He was very nice and spoke quite good English. Let’s just say his English was substantially better than our French! He showed us all the important stuff in the apartment. This tour was quite a bit longer than the Paris apartment tour :). This apartment is still not large, but is maybe three times the size of our Paris apartment… and it has a terrace!!!

After the grand tour, Eric leaves and Steve and I decide we need to get some food. Steve is dangerously close to his Hulk mood at this point, so we travel quickly to get some. We end up at a nice little restaurant on the Cours Mirabeau (the main drag) and have a lovely dinner. While we are eating (out on the sidewalk again!) all these really old cars (like 1920’s) start pulling up on the main drag and parking. They must have been doing some type of show because the cars were beautifully refinished and the people in the cars were all in period costume. It was pretty cool to see.

Now we are back at the apartment and I am just lounging out on my “Provencal Terrace” listening to the sounds of 1000’s of people watching the soccer game in the bars :) Steve side note: Germany won 3-2 (penalty kick to close it out…off the crossbar).

Planning what's next on our Provencal terrace.