Skip to main content

#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, and then hit the Monoprix (a little like Target, especially when you give it a French pronunciation as we liked to do when it first opened in Abington a few decades ago). Steve needed some hair spray and I was on a search for a face cream Steve remembered I loved last time we were here. Neither of us could remember the brand, only the color box, white with blue writing. Although the graphics had changed to pink, I recognized it right away; now I was trying to read the French to figure out the daytime from the nightime creams. There was apparently one other change on the box. Each cream specifically stated the age or ages it was for. The cream I bought in  2013 said 30’s to 50’s  and I clearly have said goodbye to all of those decades. So, sad to say, I had to search to find the creams for my age - women in their 60’s to 80’s. I was not very happy, but I sure hope they put something special in these tubes for us OLD ladies.  
Hotel du Caumont



Shopping done, we embarked on the Rick Steves walking tour which included a peek in at the Hotel du Caumont, which you might think is a hotel, but is a museum and cultural space. Turned out there was a great special exhibit with about 75 works of impressionist and post impressionist, Cezanne to Manet to Picasso, from the Guggenheim NY, from one family’s personal collection. It was well curated with a good audio and afterwards a 30 minute film about Cezanne’s life with English subtitles.  




  A bit more of the  walk, a lunch stop sharing a croque madame (yes, when in France we eat everything including jamon) and the rest of our walk through the Mazarin District and the Old Town, ending as always at a cafe, this time for a Campari and soda.  So why is this blog titled Paris’s 21st Arrondisement? Well, Aix is rather small, only 140,000 people so I am guessing that might be about the size of one arrondisement in Paris. There are small winding lanes, straight medival alleys, old churches, cafes, designer shopping, smartly dressed Aixois and lots of tourists.


There are cobblestoned street and leafy boulevards. They have special confections, calissons d’Aix, beautiful patisseries, public art and fountains, lovely hidden gardens, shuttered windows and flat front stone buildings.
And just like being a tourist in Paris, we are seeing the best neighborhoods, though I am guessing that if we ventured out of the tourist area, to Aix’s periphery, it would feel decidedly different. This is truly a city to just wander about, get lost and then find something wonderful. Just like Paris. 






Tomorrow we take the bus to Marseilles for the day. We have arranged to meet Patrick, a Marseille native, who will be our volunteer ‘greeter’ for the day. For those of you who travel to Europe and have never used the greeter program, you should try it. People, usually retired, who love their hometown share 3 or 4 or even 6 hours with you showing their city, some famous places and some you would never have found. They are usually charming and sincere, better than a standard tour guide for sure! 

Tonight again we will wander the streets and just find a place to eat - many of the recommended places are closed on Monday, but the food is never bad in France...even the take away slice of anchovy pizza Steve had today right after we finished lunch!   
   
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 3. West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna?

 West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna? Aside from the fact that it is approximately three hours and fifteen minutes from Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, it turns out, is technically in Western Europe, even though Austria makes its appearance in Rick Steve's Eastern European book and people who live in Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are Central European.  In fact, it is almost offensive to call them or their country Eastern European, as that is clearly only for the old Soviet bloc.  We made a few stops along the way, taking the scenic way past a magnificent very long lake, and over beautiful mountains with rolling fields of crop and grain, not quite the Sound of Music Austria, but not too far off. Crossing from Czech to Austria in the EU of today entailed no more than driving past the old vacant border patrol building.  We checked into our hotel, just a couple blocks outside the busy Ringstrasse and next to the Rathaus, and sank into our air conditioned room,...
Post a Comment
Read more

#118 - It’s Sunny and HOT in Paree

Dinner last night was just a ten minute walk, following the Marci school of city touring which says : “run around all day, anywhere you want, take public transit everywhere, but once you are back at your hotel, be it 6 or 7 or even 8pm, just walk close by for dinner”. I always pick the neighborhood to stay in first and then I pick my hotel. I don’t mind running all day, but once the day is done I want to be near lots of good places to eat dinner.  Astier, a bistro in the 11th, qualified on the location and the Good Eats. Again, the food sounded simple, like my beet gaspacho with crunchy veggies. The deep purple was rich looking and the flavors layered and fresh.  Steve started with the pickled herring and I think he was quite surprised when the waiter delivered and LEFT on the table a  quite large glazed terracotta container of herring, a serving spoon and fork, a bowl of small potatoes and a basket of bread.  Then he left. Clearly this was an all-you-can-...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths In Czech, beer is king. It is the breakfast of champions, the lunchtime  liquid, the afternoon aperitif, the dinner drink and evening bar crawl beverage. There is dark and light and everything in between. You can order normal, at 10% alcohol, or 11 or 12 for a faster buzz. It can be smooth or bitter, yellow, brown or red. It goes with dumplings, and pork knee, and pickled sausages and apple strudel. It fills you up and always makes you need the WC. And so, although we are not beer aficionados, and I am not even a beer fan, we picked Plzen, CZ as the first stop on our 15 day road trip through Eastern Europe (or Central Europe to those who live there according to a Czech acquaintance). It was close to Prague so even if we got lost, the day would not be lost.  The morning's challenges would be getting to the rental car place in town by metro, finding our way back to the apartment in our Skoda, the largest produced Czech car,  and navigating ou...
Post a Comment
Read more