Yesterday, Emily and I work up and went out to explore. We grabbed a late breakfast at a boulangerie (bread store). I had a mini baguette with chocolate chips and Emily had a ½ baguette. We also walked through the marché en plein air (open air market) where we marveled at the sights and sounds of southern France. In an effort to get basic necessities for our Auberge, Emily and I tried Monoprix (a target like French chain). We found some things like shampoo and toothpaste. We also found clothes that we wanted to buy but didn’t. Then, we came back and grabbed Sara for lunch. I ate a jambon et beurre sandwich (ham and butter on a baguette) and had water and a shortbread cookie – all for 5 euro! Later, we met up with the group and took a never-ending walking tour around Aix. We walked down tiny medieval streets with cobblestones (in the mornings these streets are washed and thus very slippery). One interesting thing about Aix is that there are tons of fountains. There are traditional European round fountains with statues but there are also these 2 fountains that are essentially large square rocks covered in moss and ferns – they are gorgeous and by far my favorite. We stopped in a confiserie (candy store) and bought calissons, which are famous Aixoise candies. They are basically a paste (not unlike marzipan) made of melon with a hard royal icing top layer. They are very delightful! We went to a crêperie for dinner with the group. We (and by that I mean Sara and Emily) had some very interesting philosophical debates with another boy on our trip. I was very impressed with Sara and Emily – basically I was silent the whole time while they kept up with this philosophy guy. It was quite impressive.
Today we went to Cassis – which is a town on the Mediterranean coast about an hour away by bus. It is gorgeous/wonderful! There is a beach and instead of sand, it had pebbles! It was nice to walk on (for awhile) – it felt like a slightly uncomfortable foot massage – but after 15 minutes of walked it felt like walking on sharp rock daggers. Emily went for a swim in the ocean and Sara napped/tanned. I mostly avoided the sun (thanks to the help of gallons of sunscreen and Emily’s large wide-brimmed “tourist” hat). We also went on a boat ride around the coast – Emily and I sat inside the boat but Sara sat on the outside – she was splashed very often. After some beach time we a group of us walked around the city, stopped in some boutiques, and bought snacks – I bought caramels. For lunch Sara and I had Kir – a famous Cassis drink! It is white wine (ours wasn’t very good quality) with cassis (black current) syrup. It was quite refreshing and we felt très française. All in all, our sojourn to Cassis was delightful – and will probably be repeated.
Some observations about France:
- - Swim shorts are very popular as regular everyday shorts from French men/boys. I have seen about 7 French men wearing swim shorts as real shorts.
- - Also man purses are very popular here.
- - I’ve only seen tiny dogs (Chihuahuas and miniature poodles) or giant dogs (St Bernards and Huskies)
- - Those fountains I mentioned serve as water fountains (as long as they do not say – Ce n’est pas potable – this is not potable). Emily filled up her Nalgene in one yesterday and she is still alive. So I think I’ll trust the fountains.
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| My favorite fountain in Aix |
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| The beach in Cassis |
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| The Cassis harbor |
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