fév 21-24: Aix-ventures and Avignon arrival

Aix wasn't actually all that adventurous since I went to bed around 9pm every night on account of a cold, but it was a good time. I arrived via TGV then shuttle from Nice early afternoon which meant that I had to lug around my 25lb+ backpack until the 5pm check-in time at the hostel. I spent a while at the tourist office; I've come to really appreciate this instution of every French city/town/village. The people are so helpful, and there are resoures galore. It makes me wonder what the Cambridge tourist office is like after all of my years there.

I also thankfully stumbled upon a fantastic little restaurant that I'd recommend to anyone looking for lunch in Aix. Named "pourqoui pas?," it's a one-woman operation -- both chef and front-of-house are run by this very nice lady who seemed to be in her early 40s. The concept is different for a French restaurant with everything on one plate at once rather than in courses. This meant carrot soup, potato and cheese tart, marinated mushrooms (I ate them!), green salas, cold zucchini couscous pilaf, nice ham and onion jam all together. Everything was delicious. I was too late for dessert as she ran out on the guy before me. But thankfully I returned two days later and had pear crumble with salty caramel! It was a small, relaxing space just what I wanted.

I was at the hostel for three nights which was a 20-minute walk from town on a busy, ugly street. The place felt deserted and a bit run down, and the breakfast left a lot to be desired -- think not-so-fresh slices of bread, jam packets and concentrated oj. But I did meet some nice folks including a girl from Chile who's been traveling aroudn Europe post-college, a Norweigan cyclist who works 12 12-hour days of concrete construction in a row then has nine days off, an Irish guy looking for work teaching English in France, and three Quebecoise women -- two young exchange students traveling together, and one older retiree in France for the year-long trip of a lifetime. I found the Quebec girls nearly incomprehensible with their thick French-Canadian accents.

I spent my second day in Marseille, a 30-minute bus ride south. It's France's second largest city at 1.5 million, and it's also the most international. I certainly saw more men in robes and scullcaps and more people of different races than in other cities, but it preserves French tradtitions, too. I was particularly excited to see the morning fish market in the vieux port where fish are sold just out of the water, many still flapping or wriggling on the ice and water-filled tables from which they are sold. Lots of sea-roughened men and women who reminded me of New England fishermen, too.

I mostly walked around the city, hitting up two churches in particular, the first and second striped churches I've seen in my life. The guy at the hostel reception told me this was the North African influence at work, and the historical markers noted the Byzantine influence in both of their architectures. The second was Notre Dame de la Garde which is on a hilltop that watches over the city with a 9-ton, 9.7-meter high, gold-leafed Virgin and Child on the top.

There was also lots of grafitti in Marseille, some of it pretty cool.

Saturday morning in Aix, I checked out the market which was awesome. There was a 5-foot-wide paella, lots of produce, cheap clothes, and bustle. I later happened upon the second Saturday morning market which was just as great with a fish and shellfish section and some old-timey farmers. In between I took a guided tour of Aix in French. Some of the info was familiar from my French class last semester, and I did understand the vast majority of what was said. In general, it's a city of fancy 18th-century houses, fountains, a twisty Medieval section, and a cathedral with an architectural period identity crisis.

Today it was the TGV to Avignon, a 20-minute train ride covering about 60 miles. The landscape changes amazingly when you head here, getting more arid with scrubby plants and rocky hills, but also more and more vineyards as I'm now in prme Côtes du Rhone territory. Avignon is best known for the children's song "Sur la pont d'Avignon...", its summer theater festival, and the Palais de Papes where the papacy resided for some years in a decidedly un-papal palace. The city also retains its remparts which are formidable, though apparently crumbling to some extent as there is a sign posted in the parking lot next to them which is usually in a falling rock zone.

I had a long walk around the Ile de la Barthelasse, an 800-hectare (nearly 2000 acres) island in the Rhone just across from Avignon. It remains remarkably rural and agricultural and had some superb tiny roads for walking or cycling which it seemed that all of the Avignionnais were doing on this gorgeous Sunday.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the marginally better of the next two days weather-wise, so I may rent a bike and get some suggestions for toodling. I already like Avignon quite a bit, and I believe the next few days will only improve it.