Saturday, June 29
Elise, who owned the barge, kindly offered to drive us to AVIS, where we were planning to rent our car. Our new mode of transportation is a manual, diesel Scenic. It is very comfortable, and there was plenty of space for everyone and our luggage, but we soon discovered that it is a little too big for my liking. The streets here in France are tiny, as well as the parking spaces. Much too close for comfort at times. But sizing aside, it has been wonderful to also enjoy the freedom that accompanies a car. That day, we visited the Palais des Papes and the Le Pont d' Avignon bridge.
Palais des Papes (couldn't take a lot of pics):
After walking around in the heat, we drove to the Pont du Gard (pre-French, Roman bridge) and swam in the refreshingly cold river.
From there we drove to our new location, Aix-en-Provence. As I said, the streets were too narrow, many one-way, and our GPS wouldn't take into account blocked off streets. So we dropped off Emily near our new apartment to meet with the host, and Stephen and I were able to find free street parking not too far away. We reconnected at the agreed upon fountain and carried our bags up, up, up several flights to the top floor of an apartment building. The climb was completely worth it. The apartment was central, modern, super cute, and had the best view. That evening,we walked right around the corner to have dinner. We started with tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil, then I had fish and veggies, and we all shared creme brûlée and a strawberry shortcake-type dessert. We were becoming very European with our late and long dinners, so after returning to the apartment, "reading" (making up) a bedtime story for Stephen from our fake bookshelf :), we went to bed quite late.
Walking around and exploring Aix:
A mansion with a three car garage:
View during the day:
Our cute apartment:
Notice the espresso machine...took a little bit to figure out but we mastered it in the end. :)
And the fake bookshelf :)
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