Grand Hotel Mercure Aix En Provence Roi Rene Aix-en-Provence

... year.

Pour conclure, as I feel that this 'essay' will do for now, I've really noticed the French love for dogs...there are more fat dogs here than there are fat people, and they take them everywhere, even into shops and supermarkets. Hygenic?

So, all in all, the first 6 weeks have been awesome. This week I got a pretty bad case of the homesickness and generally feeling a bit low, I forget that for the first time in my life I'm actually living on my own ...

Bonjour avec Aix-en-Provence Cherie
Since the last news we have visited the Cote D'Azur spending time at Monte Carlo and Antibes. We stayed near Antibes at a place called Biot and at night you could hear the seals at nearby Marineland - very strange. It was still quite hot and stickey with more mozzies. Monte Carlo was wall to wall money with billions of dollars in boats and cars. Antibes was similar but it had a lovely old town as well.
We arrived ...

... ask where they will sleep and what they will eat?" Yep, I reckon that’s about all they do. Jesus was lucky; he never had to score WiFi. But he could multiply fishes; now THAT’S cool.

Sometimes I tell my wife when I feel she’s not being appreciative that all she has to do is close her eyes, click her heels three times, then re-open her eyes and everything she needs is right within her grasp ...

... a narrow valley with high cliffs on either side. The Abbey was founded in 1148 and construction and growth continued into the 13th century. It is still in use today, it's brothers having celebrated the 850th anniversary back in 1988. We took a very quiet tour of the Abbey. Silence is demanded as that is one of the vows of the brothers. When we were in more public areas the tour guide described the history of the order ...

... walls all over the place, the valley is filled with lavender and grape vines and the roads are narrow and winding. This is the France I really wanted to see. Lucy wants to come back here one day in July to see the lavender in bloom. We understand that it gets harvested no later than mid-August. It is probably very hot and very crowded, but no-doubt worth it.

... will probably get tossed with pasta one night. So far the highlight of this morning’s shopping trip was some amazing local grapes that are like little flavor bombs of violet juice in the mouth. We've never had anything like them.

When we got back and unpacked I realized that the basil sauce got left on the pasta counter. Grrrrr. The proprietress was distracted and I was juggling bags, camera and money and we both missed it. So back we went before heading ...

... very convenient, quite lively, and features the best patisserie in Europe and the medieval part which is amazingly steep and windy and just a gem. The medieval town was one of our favorites of all of Provence managing to avoid TCV-itis with unfeigned authenticity. We spent a good while here not doing much other than wandering around the town, viewing it from above in an old disintegrating chateau, and taking pictures of it's brightly painted doors ...

... a single DOCG which are based solely on quality. And who wants to drink a de fact second or third tier wine all the time? That being said, Tuscany makes some kick but reds. Our favorite bang for the buck were the Multipulcianos but we had some excellent stuff from all over the region. Of particular note are the "super Tuscans" which evade the constrictions of old world varietals and production rules by classifying themselves as table wines while ...

... calmamente, entao foi super-mega-slow food.De sobremesa, tiramisu. Foi um bom laboratorio linguistico, eu saquei minha cadernetinha varias vezes pra anotar expressoes. Ontem passamos na casa de uns amigos do Alex pra pegar a copia da chave da casa dele pra que eu pudesse ficar mais independente.Ate agora, todos meus anfitrioes me deram a chave, com exceçao do Eric de Lyon onde nao teria proposito pois cheguei na hora do jantar e sai no dia seguinte pra pegar o trem.

... and I have our own room with a balcony over looking a field of goats! Oh, there's a horse here too, his name in Bijoux which means jewel. I told them it was hardly a manly name for a male horse! Well I guess HE doesn't care so much. Yes, we do work here, not just hang out and play with the animals. We clean bothrooms and do up rooms, and help cook when there is a big group staying, and do dishes, and bake when ...