We spent three days in this wonderful little place. As we walked out the door of our hotel to a waiting taxi, it was raining. It was sad to think we will not likely see this place again. It seemed like a nice place to live.
The place we stayed, Hotel du Globe, was excellent. Although, only 2 stars, our room, No. 27, was well equipped, very clean and had a nice balcony with chairs and a table. The breakfast, offered at €9, was a good value by French standards. The staff was very welcoming and made us feel at home.
Aix-en-Provence is a city of fountains. You can’t walk many blocks without seeing one. The streets are narrow and lead to many plazas that are surrounded by stores and sidewalk cafes. They are busy late into the evening. The food and drinks are expensive compared to the U.S. We normally ate out only once a day. At the other meal we would snack on fruit and stuff in our room.
We bought our snacks at a little corner store called 8-a-Huit which means 8 to 8, their hours of operation. We bought fruit, chips, cookies, peanut butter, water and wine. Our favorite wine was Roche Mazet Merlot. We tried the Bordeaux but it seemed a little lite on taste for us.
We also found a self serve laundry “laverie” close by to wash our clothes. That is a great place to meet people. We met a frenchman who had lived in the U.S. for 6 months and a guy from Maine who was traveling with a group. It cost €3.20 to wash a load and €1.00 for each 10 minutes in the dryer. There was a steady stream of people coming and going.
Every day as we walked through town the streets and plazas seemed to change. Thursday, the day we arrived, we only ventured a little way from our hotel. Friday, when we went to dinner, people were out everywhere, especially the 20 something’s. The bars (there are lots) were teeming with young people drinking and smoking. Smoking in public here is much more prevalent than the U.S. THe sidewalk cafes are also crowded with people eating and drinking. All of this carries on until late at night.
Saturday morning when we walked through town all the plazas had turned into flea markets. There was most anything you might want to buy from clothes to soap to fruits and veggies. When we went back out for dinner, the fea markets had disappeared. There were only a few people at the restaurants and bars. However, we did hear people celebrating in the wee hours from our room.
Sunday everything was much slower. Most of the shops were closed. In the morning we heard church bells ringing. Otherwise, a calm seemed to have come over the city. Traffic picked up in the afternoon but with less intensity.
Even though it was raining Monday morning, the day we left, everything had come alive again. When we arrived at the train station there was a small crowd waiting to board trains. The cycle had started over.