A return to Aix

When I travelled around France and saw many cities along the way, none of them impressed me as much as Aix-en-Provence. I'm not sure exactly what impressed me, it just felt good being there. It was town full of life, chic like Paris, but the people were not so uptight. It had a south-of-France feel - laid-back but was sophisticated at the same time. I knew I wanted to return there soon. So Paul had a long week in Paris attending a seminar (in French, of course) on the French law regarding hiring and firing workers. He needed a break. So he took Friday off from work and we loaded up the car and headed south.

It took us a couple of hours to get there, through the rain - but the weather in Aix was beautiful. The main drag through the town is Cours Maribeau - often called the most beautiful street in all of France. It is wide and long and lined with beautiful sycamore trees on both sides. Shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and museums line the boulevard. We stayed in a hotel on Cours Maribeau and parked our car in their courtyard. Getting the car into the courtyard was an interesting challenge since the streets were barely wide enough for our tiny car.

We spent Saturday walking around the old city and down the streets. The painter Paul Cezanne lived and painted in Aix-en-Provence so we walked (all uphill) to his studio about a mile north of the town. On the way, we stumbled upon a wedding at the cathedral. The doors were locked so we couldn't go inside but you could hear beautiful music coming through the doors.

We also spent a lot of time just sitting in the sidewalk cafes watching the world go by. We sat and had breakfast there, then we sat and had a few beers there, then we had dinner on the sidewalk too. Ah, what a life!

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