I am on the train again now. This time I am headed with my Mom and JJ toGenova, Italy for the night. So far the whole train ride from Aix (Ex) has been gorgeous views of the Mediterranean. This is exactly what you would think of as paradise, the crystal clear blue water, gorgeous colorful homes on the rocky cliffs above the water, and lots of sunshine with a slight breeze. We are making our way (in a 2 day trip) to Florence! I can’t wait to get in the water sometime later today! We have already been on 4 trains today, but this is our last one and it has been easy. My Mom has been taking pictures of everything along the way. So a bit of rewinding again, when we got into Aix a few days ago and found our hotel, we headed out to the supermarket to get a light dinner. (7/12) The supermarket the nice girls at the front desk directed us to was called Casino, which is very representative of the size. This was a supermarket/Target type store that was about the size of a Costco. Ok, it was the Walmart of France. Yep! It was fun to get lost in there and see all of the French versions of everything. The next day, we woke up and headed into the main part of Aix for the market day. Everything was gorgeous again! There was fresh produce and a little flea market where people were bartering and making deals on antiques, lots of lavender products, and home made goods. We enjoyed walking around the city and finding places whereCezanne (a very famous impressionist painter) painted and lived his life. We then got back into our rental car and drove through the Luberon Valley and mountain area (just North of Aix) with some expert driving (JJ), navigating (me), and translation (mom). (JJ Writing: we rented a diesel car that only had a few thousand kilometers on it. They mostly rent manual transmition cars, and this was a 6 speed and it really moved. I was getting passed on the freeway when I was going 170 km/hr!!!) About 20 minutes into the drive we started seeing fields and fields of sunflowers, grape vines, lavender, and anything else picturesque you can think of. We made our way to the small village of Cadanet and had a true French lunch. Mom and I got the local fish dish (incredible) and JJ got the “plat du jour”, a four course meal including pate and a main entrée of duck (a regional dish of Provence) and amazing desert like crem brulet except with fresh fruit on top. After lunch, we went to the next village north, Lourmarin, to see a castle (chateau) built in the Middle Ages. Being off the beaten path was perfect for this. The castle was so large and you could just feel the history in it. There were four stories and the spiral, stone stairwell going up through the main part of the castle was very worn and well used! Next, we headed out to a lavender farm and took pictures in the most amazing purple, sweet smelling field you could ever imagine. The light and the sunshine was something I will never forget there. After that, JJ had some real fun driving around the most windy, mountainous roads, with countless hairpin turns to Bonnieux, where we had a brief to overlook the Luberon valley and all of its Lavender fields with the most breathtaking view! We headed down into the valley and headed to Gordes, to village of Borie Huts from the Stone Ages. The whole area is covered in limestone and in order to make room for farmland, the ancient people would pull slabs of the rock out of the ground and pretty much break it up with a hammer to make brick size pieces and form homes from them. From there, we headed back to Aix, only stopping to view the white homes of Gordes, which so perfectly sat on a hillside.
(7/13) The next day, we went straight to Arles. This place is famous for ancient Roman ruins in the time of Julius Ceasar and because it is where Van Gogh spent the last few years of his life, painting some of his most famous works (Mostly while he was in a metal asylum for chopping his ear). Arles was the quintessential French country town in Provence because it had all of the flower covered windows, chipping bright paint, and hidden cafes. Although, there were also incredible Roman ruins like an arena/coliseum (where they still have bull fights) and theatre. My highlight in Arles was walking over to the café where Van Gogh painted one of his most Cafe Terrace at night. It looked just like the painting! After leaving Arles, we headed back to Aix and my Mom went to the Granet museum. JJ and I took a walk and watched the town set up for the Bastile parade and fireworks display. Later that night, when the sky finally got dark, JJ and I headed out to see the fireworks in the main area of Aix, above the central fountain. The girl at the hotel was so funny because she said that the “fire” was starting at 10pm (instead of fireworks – haha). We gave her some funny looks and laughed with her about it. That was definitely the best fireworks show either of us has ever seen! There were no regulations for the show, the fireworks were only about 50 feet above us, they were loud, bright, and French classical music was blaring through the entire 25 minute non-stop show of incredible fireworks! We could barely watch the end of the show because there was so much soot and ash falling all over us and the rest of the thousand people there. The fireworks were so bright we wish we had sunglasses we left as they were blaring Michael Jackson over the sound system. What a great ending to France! Now on to Italy! Ciao!!!!!
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