au revoir, paris ; salut, aix en provence

"hey look, a field of sunflowers!" cath said as she pointed out the window of our TGV (french for "train that moves really, really fast"). the train was carrying us from paris to aix-en-provence, in the south of france, and marked the next chapter of our journey. before i could turn my head to look, a barrier blocked the view. no matter, i saw another a few field of flowers a few seconds later, then another, then another, in fields the size of a football field. then a field of olive trees. or were they orange trees? i'm not sure, i'm the guy who asked an italian cheese shop owner if all the cheeses came from female sheep. indeed, all travelers will make fools of themselves from time-to-time, but that's part of the fun (right, guys?). regardless, the sunflowers, olive/orange trees and picturesque landscape were, we thought, harbingers of good times to come during our month stay in the south, an area noted for markets, wines, a love of food/cuisine, and a laid-back approach.

of course, we left paris w/ mixed feelings. we were charmed by the city ("enchantee, paris"), getting lost and exploring side streets, drinking at sidewalk cafes and eating really good food (i had foie gras 4x in 14 days). and we loved hanging out w/ the sevins (elise, geoffroy and young charles) and our host and flat-mate, david, who originally hails from provence.

the sevins and fenskis

over the past 20 years, geoffroy and his family, the sevins, have become like part of our family.  geoffroy first visited us in 1994 ... since then our families grew close and visited each other many times. i was a groomsmen in geoffroy and elise's wedding in 2006, i did a reading in french during the ceremony to a churchful of french people.  i returned the favor in 2008 at our wedding by making geoffroy do a 200 word reading.  fortunately, his english is much, much better than my french. 

w/ the sevins, we developed a nice routine of meeting geoffroy at his flat at 6pm, going to the park to pick up charles, playing w/ charles for a bit, then, after putting charles to bed, gorging on delicious food and wine, including some great camembert and bordeaux. fortunately, our return flight home goes through paris so we'll get to see the sevins again, in a new home and with a new family member (i'm rooting for a son named "matt").

so we arrived saturday evening at the aix TGV station, caught a bus to the town center. i ran around for groceries (wine/cheese/tomato) to ensure we wouldn't starve (most shops close at 7pm on sat and all day sunday). mission accomplished. we caught a cab to our studio and, as we continued our ascent up narrow country roads, unanimously decided that we'd need to rent a car the entire 4 weeks in aix (it's a 50 minute walk to town). we're settling into place nicely though i think we were spoiled w/ the view from our paris flat.

square in aix.

our first day was, as it should be in the south, leisurely. i celebrated by sleeping in till 11 or so. i like to think i'm reducing my 3 year sleep deficit. we had coffee / tea on our patio and walked to town, which was mostly deserted - except for tourists. fortunately, we found a square w/ a book market and a jazz trio, which was the perfect place to have an early happy hour w/ some belgian beers. cath's really getting into beer here, which is cool. she's also getting into the wine, too :)

mondays are reserved for planning and logistics (~2 hours). we'll map out the next few weeks, rent a car, do a budget (few weeks late on that one) and hit the grocery store. all in all, not a bad to-do list for monday.