Skip to main content

#104 - It’s Why We Want to Live in France


We left Valbonne by 7AM, so all was quiet.......it was Sunday and no local cafe was open yet for a coffee. We hopped on the A8 and stopped at what we would fondly refer to at home as a turnpike rest stop, which is rarely appealing, and usually features McDonalds with burnt coffee. But not in France. 


Yes, it was a rest stop; yes it was McDonalds, but here the coffee is made to order (duex cafe creme, madamoiselle) on a fancy machine by a real barrista, and yes, you can have a croissant with that. That’s reason number 1.

The harbor in Cassis

 We made great time to Cassis, a small seaside village and the home of kir, where Steve dropped me off near the harbor so I could buy tickets for our calanques cruise while he parked in another Rick Steves recommended parking lot nearby. So first, what is a calanques? The literal translation is creek. How do you cruise to creeks from the sea? Well, actually these are more like fingers of water created by the melting of the last ice age...today’s Mediterranean fjiords. 

 They are like hidden inlets between 500 foot cliffs with secret beaches and great moorings for sailboats. And everyone who visits Cassis takes a boat ride to visit these.  You can visit three calanques in 45 minutes or six or eight or even nine. And you probably guessed,if you know me or read our blogs, that I love a good boat ride and easily went for the two full hour nine calanques ticket. 




The weather was magnificent, sunny and warm, and we had the front bow seats for the best view. There were no waves and the sea, when shallow, was aquamarine. That’s reason number 2. 


We found a sunny spot by the sea for a lunch of tartares, strolled the town and sat for a while on the rocks above the beach while the French laid out on their towels, in bikinis, on rocky sand, suntanning like it was 1970. And there wasn’t a face wrinkle in sight. That’s reason number 3. And I don’t need more than three reasons to want to live in France. 

 We headed to Aix en Provence, our base for the next four nights, arriving at Maison du Collectioneur without a wrong turn. Lucille checked us in to our tres provencal room with the trumpet chandelier, the 12 foot ceilings and the bathroom door that disappears into the wall. 

A quick refreshing shower, made even better by the amazing soaps, shampoos and body oils, and we were out on the town to discover a bit of Aix (pronounced X).   I am not sure what I expected Aix to be like other than the photos I had seen of the famous Cours de Mirabeau, but it is not what I expected. First, the Cours is only about four blocks long and on one side the old very large plane trees that gave the promenade its signature look, are gone and replaced with new small ones. 


   



 

I apologize ahead for so few photos today as our phones are dying and our adapter isn’t working in our hotel room plugs so we can’t charge up. I’m tempted to make up for the lack of visuals with pithy observations of the French (to be titled ‘Why does everyone look French when you are in France?’) but I think I will save that for another day when there is nothing else to write. 



For now, au bientot!            

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 24

From Vivaldi  to  Vincent (Van Gogh) THE VIVALDI PART Rewind  a bit back to Saturday, June 22nd. We had dinner at home and then   at 8:00  took a walk down the Seine to Saint Chapelle. Last time we were there in 2000, it was Christmas week and we froze waiting in line for two hours to see the chapel. This time, we simply stood in line to buy tickets to be treated to a six piece string classical concert in this magnificent setting.  The concert was Vivaldi...not just Vivaldi but theFour Seasons.....not just the Four Seasons but played spectacularly....not just played well but in a stirring setting.  The last time the music and its venue engendered  such magic was in 1977 seeing the Vienna Boys Choir sing in the 12th century Cathedral in Durham, England. The lead violin played with the speed and finesse of the finest rendition of the Flight of the Bumblebee. The light was still subtle through the stained glass though the chapel was dark.  The e...
Post a Comment
Read more

#8 - Two whirlwind days ( and the WTF Answer )

We've literally got about 30 hours to see as much of Sydney as we can before we meet up with our friends on Wednesday at 6PM. And we vow to make the most of it. I've got a list of about six musts that I let Steve vet and although he doesn't tick anything off, I know he's thinking that I am making a killer schedule.  We start off the day with a coffee and the first Opera House tour at 9AM. The structure is surely impressive, the tour not as much, but since there is no Opera or symphony while we are right at the Rocks, the tour is the best we can do to peek inside. The architect was Danish, and the design shows it - from the two-woods paneled concert hall that the Kimmel Center is surely a total knock-off of, to the incredibly comfortable sleek seating that has stood the test of time, like all Danish design.                                             ...
1 comment
Read more

#105 - Aix, Paris’s 21sr Arrondisement

After a good night sleep we awoke to another sunny, blue sky day, which here also means almost no humidity and no frizzy hair (this might qualify for reason #4 to live here). So far we have stayed at hotels where breakfast is not included, which we actually prefer. It leaves more room for lunch and vin.  In Valbonne we had an electric kettle and some Nescafe, still wildly popular in Europe, which could hold me over for an hour or so until we had a proper cafe stop. But here in Aix, a kettle, mugs and nothing else. So we were up and out a bit quicker this morning for our cafes and a shared pan chocolate (a rectangular croissant-like pastry filled with chocolate, but you knew that).      We headed to the main tourist drag, Cours Mirabeau, to La Rotunda fountain, and to the TI to get the requisite walking maps and info. It was still too early for the upscale shops or musee so we did a bit of shopping to find the right adapter to charge our devices, an...
Post a Comment
Read more