Well, we did it! We are here. After our flights, we connected to the TGV (pronounced tay jay vay) which is the high speed train through France. (TGV stands for tres grande vitesse or very high speed.) And it's true--it does go very fast. We zoomed through the countryside taking only about 3 & 1/4 hours to get from Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris to Aix. (If I knew how far it was, I'd tell you but I don't so you'll just have to wonder or look it up yourself!). From the train station we took a cab to our villa.
Once here we did some unpacking and settled in for some naptime. We made sure that we had alarms on so we wouldn't sleep too long, so we could get onto schedule quickly. I actually didn't even sleep the whole time but woke up before the alarm went off.
Our house is in the northern part of Aix, not within walking distance from downtown. So we found the nearby bus stop and took the bus into downtown to stroll around and find some dinner for ourselves. We successfully did both, I'm happy to report. Dinner was outside, at a creperie, and it was quite good. Following dinner, we walked up one of the streets near our restaurant to find an epicerie, which is a small grocery market so we could get some provisions for the house.
We returned and soon went to bed. During the night Stan, Pam, & Bob arrived around midnight. They flew into Barcelona, via Amsterdam, and then drove north to Provence. They too were travel weary, obviously.
In the morning, all of us refreshed to one degree or another, we took off for downtown again to go to the farmer's market which is held there three days per week. It wasn't very large but had a good number of vendors. We stocked up on provisions for the next few days and then found a place for lunch. Allen and I wandered around a little bit and then came home for, you guessed it, a nap.
Now I'm sitting in the late afternoon sun by the pool (which is quite chilly, I'm told) enjoying a relaxed afternoon. If I can remember how to do it, I'll add some pictures to the blog. Adieu.
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