Aix. Week of 16 to 22 March 2015

As we entered the second week of our stay in Aix en Provence, we decided to shorten the daily blog. From Tuesday to Friday, we would spend all morning in French language lessons. So we will update and repost as the week develops.

Monday March 16th. There was an optional French class from 11:00 to 12:30 hrs. David played hookey deciding to rest his aching right calf after the strenuous work out the previous day. In the evening we walked into town to attend an art lecture and a dinner at the La Mado restaurant in La Place des Precheurs.

Pamela Martin covered the work of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) and Vincent Van Gogh (1857-1890) in Provence. Cezannne painted very slowly while Van Gogh was surprisingly fast. Ms. Martin gave an excellent presentation, using slides to elucidate her understandings of the works of the two painters who took their inspiration from the light and color of Provence.

The dinner featured a salad with smoked salmon and duck.

Tuesday, March 17th. We both went to the morning French language studies. There was a 100% forecast of rain, so we took the bus. It did not rain. David had his brain turned inside out by the subjontif.

Louise found an English language book store and started reading “Lives in Writing” by David Lodge. It is a study of the interface between life and literature, and an examination of the forms taken by writing about real lives. It highlights the splendours and miseries of authorship.

Wednesday, March 18th. There is a Kiwi couple in the school. They are from Auckland. The man was with Louise and then he got “promoted”. The woman joined David’s class on Tuesday. There is a lot of movement within the school. Louise has a woman from Taiwan while David has two Swiss, a German, a Pole, a Russian, a Hawaiian, a New Zealander, and an English architect.

In the afternoon we walked downtown in the sunlight. David made the mistake of finding the Desigual store that had bewitched Louise in Strasbourg. Same problem. Louise now owns a colourful outfit.

We cooked the second half of yesterday’s pizza using the pot on the stove trick. The first half produced a bit too much smoke and that set off the smoke detector. However, the smoke detector did not emit a sonic alarm. It just flashed a red light. Instead, we got a concerned telephone call from the concierge.

We have been eating some lovely salads. The supermarket near us is one in a chain of such stores, Casino. Their store brands are good, as well as their fresh produce. And the boulangerie just across the boulevard nearest the hotel has sandwiches and, of course, banguettes that one cannot resist . . nor would we want to.

Thursday, March 19th. For the second day in a row, the weather forecast was good. But, it started out at a very crisp 48 Fahrenheit. We chose to take the bus. Two stops before the school, two burly men got on via the back door – a real “no – no”. It turned out they were controlleurs, the ones who check to make sure you have validated your bus pass. Fortunately, we had been good.

David continued to explore the subjonctif, an exercise that he finds totally useless. Louise experienced a lively class in which she learned many vocabulary words describing garments, colours, styles. Then we moved into leisure activites, learning how to speak about our hobbies, sports, all the while using aspects of the partitive. We hoped.

At 12:30 we walked in bright sunshine from the school to La Brocherie restaurant. There the AHI group we had a good lunch starting with a buffet salad bar, progressing to a roasted chicken thigh and finishing with a very rich ice cream dessert covered in ground nuts.

We drifted home revelling in the sun. We stopped briefly at the Monoprix store to buy a frozen shepherd’s pie, making sure that it could be cooked in the microwave. It worked well, we even managed to brown the top by using the grilling option after the microwave.

Friday, March 20th. After a beautiful day on Thursday, it was back to doom and gloom. The weather in Provence at this time of year is not great. The locals tell us that it does not settle into nice weather until Easter. That happens to be the exact day we leave!

The subjontif continued to beat David about the head and shoulders. It seems to be a French preoccupation as it is rarely used in English and never in German. David is now going backwards and losing confidence. Louise continues to muddle through these long, intense mornings with an attitude of comme ci, comme ca or que sera, sera or whatever.

At the mid-morning break we gathered on the second floor balcony of the school to take turns looking at the partial eclipse of the sun.  A German student at the school had been taken to an eye glass store by his landlady to buy a pair of cheap cardboard glasses with lenses suitable for eclipse viewing.  Being so far south, it was about one eighth of the sun that was blocked.

We took the bus both ways to and from school to help David’s leg muscle recover. Coming home, we stopped off at the boulangerie to buy a tomato and mozzarella baguette for lunch. For dessert, we also bought a sweet apple pastry.

In the afternoon we strolled into town to find the GAP store. Louise had noted that one of the French instructors was wearing a GAP chemise. The instructor showed us on the map where the GAP was located, just behind the Court House in Place des Precheurs. Louise is addicted to GAP so we simply had to go to satisfy her cravings. Using the GPS, we found the GAP without difficulty. But, it was her third disappointing visit to a GAP store. Peut-etre she has finally . . . at last! out grown the GAP. In desperation, we trolled the boutiques in the Old Town without success. As a last resort we went back to Zara, where a lovely bargain LBD was a bit too decollete. Finally, to appease the Buying Gods, Louise bought a black shirt for ten Euros.

On the way home we dropped into the Casino grocery store to buy a microwavable Boeuf Bourguignon and red wine to match.

At 18:00 we walked back downtown to the Grillon restaurant on the Cours Mirabeau. We met with our confreres and Tour Director to have a drink and discuss the week. Then we came home to a dinner of leftovers, although “Komm Morgen Wieder” sounds better.

Saturday, March 21st. Our original plan had been to take the interurban bus to Arles. But, the weather forecast was rain so we gave that up. Laughably, the iPad app told us it was sunny in Aix when it was painfully obvious that it was liquid sunshine. So, we had a leisurely breakfast, did some laundry and generally procrastinated.

Despite the dampness, we walked into town to two pharmacies to find a better elastic bandage for David’s calf. Then we picked up a baguette-based sandwich at le boulangerie and did some grocery shopping at Le Casino.

When it bucketed rain in the afternoon, we simply read the books we had brought for such eventuality. David started “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser.

Our biggest decision was what the microwave could cook for our dinner – we chose boeuf bourgignon. Our small kitchen is very well equipped for very simple, ready-to-microwave meals. So we have become adept at shopping for items with which to make our dinners appropriately. We have not made an attempt at the local eateries except when in company of our group.

Sunday, March 22nd. When we woke up one look out the window told us that the gods continued to foul up the weather. Even the two apps on the iPad told the same gloomy story. We tried to think of something to do that would get us out of the hotel. We eventually hit on the idea of riding the bus to the eastern end of the line. From Le Tholonet there was a chance that we could see Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire. Once it started to rain in earnest, we ditched that idea. Instead, we waited for a break and then did a slow stroll downtown.

We had to line up outside the Boulangerie just before lunch. People seemed to be buying serious delectable pastries for Sunday afternoon tea and coffee. Louise has a weakness for these French delicacies, so she indulged us in a croissant amandes and a zero calorie French twisted chocolate croissante. The Vignes Patisserie Boulangerie would be closed on Monday. French businesses must be closed one day of the week, and we had learned that Monday would be the Vignes dark day.

Having demolished half of yesterday’s baguette sandwich, we knew we had to leave the room for an hour so the maid could clean. We walked slowly in the spitting rain just killing time and having a fairly serious conversation about what we wanted to accomplish in life. Not driven by careers, family and any other serious responsibilities, we needed to define an aim. We had already tested the usual escapes and had found each format somewhat lacking. We never did come to a firm conclusion, but we did confirm that perhaps doing nothing might not be so bad. Well, not exactly doing nothing, but rather adapting to our time together in some new ways.

We decided to figure out exactly what we had spent on living expenses. So, after the maid let us back into our room, we sat down with the receipts and concluded we had each spent 250 Euros on groceries and other necessary incidentals during our two week French escapade thus far.

We spent a lot of time reading while it rained outside.

We exceeded expectations for dinner. We boiled up some spaghetti, warmed up the ragout sauce and microwaved a melange of pre-cooked chicken and potatoes. With a bottle of Entre Deux Mers white wine, it was not half bad.