Aix en Provence

A leisurely start to the day with breakfast in the sun but it did start a bit earlier than planned. We at first thought that it might be bird frighteners (but the grape season is over) or clay pigeon shooting but no the shooting season had started. Thankfully, after the first day most shooters were back at work, or maybe we were just a bit too tired to hear them. Jim and Margot's hosts had mentioned there was a lovely 2 hour walk near their place but if we were going to do this we should make sure we talked alot (not 'quack quack') and wore bright colours. We didn't go on it. Aix en Provence is a quite a big town and during the week we managed to get lost in it quite a bit. Whenever we weren't sure how to get back to Puyricard we followed the signs to Aix - but they seemed to finish at the edge of the city and left us to our own devices to navigate narrow streets to the other side of town. We did however get quite proficient at finding two car parks (one called 'Carnot'). The market at Aix (and we went to a few during our week in France) was rather large selling a huge range of food (I have never seen so many types of mushrooms, salamis or cheeses) but when buying our picnic lunch we stuck to the good old known food like grapes, peaches, nectarines, bread and some lovely camembert. Also a huge array of flowers, particularly sunflowers - it must be the sunflower capital of France I think. As we drove through the countryside we saw many fields of sunflowers left in the fields - presumably to gather the seeds for next years crop.

As we wandered around the narrow streets we kept looking up at the statues and architecture (or I did - Harry was much more proficient at finding the patisseries and the chocolateries). Lots of little statues up high on every building. Each day either Haz or Jim had on an All Black or hurricane teeshirt - so we were noticed and had numerous discussions with rugby supporters - mainly Aussies - and some French.

Provence is home to many artists and in Aix we visited Cezannes birth place, in Vauvenarg Picasso's home and Van Gogh spent most of his time in Arle. Surprisingly though these three towns had few if any of their actual paintings in their museums so we didn't get to see any of their artwork. So, we visited the places that inspired them - (do Harry and Jim look inspired to take up a paintbrush?). The garden at Cezannes place was a welcome respite from the hot sun, after a long walk up the hill. Margot asked for directions to a park for lunch and received what appeared like quite simple ones - up the hill and turn right. We finally found a little park a few more corners away and enjoyed our first picnic in France together.

The car took us to Vauvenarg where Picasso lived, was inspired, and died. It is not open to the public as Picasso is entombed there and his daughter wants to keep it away from public which is fair enough but a bit disappointing. We did watch a local game of Petanque in the village and it was good to see all ages competing in what looked like a game running up to the final next week.
Jim and Margot then showed us there B and B - where a dog Jim nicknamed Tiger - strained at his rather large chain and barked loudly as we got out of the car. Both our places are very authentic France but quite different as we have an apartment with a lounge and kitchen (if there were other guests we would share but there weren't) and they have a smaller ensuite room. Their hosts are a family and excellent cooks and Jim and Margot had home made croissants for breakfast and 3 very entertaining meals there with other guests (of which I think Jim understood little of the conversation but Margot understood a little more). We had one meal with our hostess under the Acacia tree and she served a beautiful range of French food (tres bon). After all that travelling we fell into the pool and Harry and Jim challenged each other to game of 'foozball' - Harry will be getting up early in the mornings to practice for the next game!! Dinner was back in Aix at a French restaurant where we all understood what we were ordering and enjoyed the evening.