Behind Schedule

Trip Start Apr 30, 2004
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Trip End May 09, 2004


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Thursday, May 6, 2004

It's now 8:30, dusk is falling and we are way behind schedule. We walk towards the Cours Mirabeau on the narrow winding streets of the old town, past the St-Sauveur Cathedral and through the striking Place de L'Hotel de Ville. The streets are lined with what look like upended cannon barrels. These iron posts, or "bites", slang for the male anatomy, are sunk into the street so cars cannot park or drive on the sidewalk. In many places the sidewalk is far wider than the vehicular portion. especially at Cours Mirabeau, the Champs-Elysée of Aix. Because we are so late, we have lost our chance to explore Aix in more detail, which is a shame, as it seems like a very lovely town. We quickly scan the menus of the many restaurants in Cours Mirabeau, and of all things, select Bistro Romain. As soon as we enter we realize this is a chain and the menus are again Franco-Italian, like the last restaurant in Antibes. Bryan requests beef carpaccio (as much as you can eat!), Miryam tried the salmon lasagna and I ordered a pave of beef 01. Hotel Canta Cigalo
01. Hotel Canta Cigalo
 . In spite of everything, the food was excellent, but still missed that touch of traditional home cooking that we had experienced only in Antibes up to now. I'm sure if we had arrived earlier, we would have had time to find something more distinctive.

We were still about half an hour from St-Remy-en-Provence, where our hotel is located and we are not looking forward to arriving so late. By 9:30 we are walking back to the parking lot, and fortunately in no time we are back on the A 8, which soon becomes the A 7. At Cavaillon we turn left onto another tree lined road which leads us straight to St-Remy. Our hotel, the Canto Cigalo, a country hotel just outside of St-Remy, is up a side road off of this route. After one or two false starts, we find the narrow farm lane leading to the hotel. Fortunately there is a sign, or we would probably have been still driving around St-Remy until dawn! http://www.cantocigalo.com/site/.

It is 10:30 when we arrive, and all is quiet. There are several other cars in the parking space, so we know there are other guests. We just hope our two rooms are still available. Probably they are, as we had paid a €50.00 deposit one month before. Walking through the garden, we entered the front door and although the reception desk was in darkness, a friendly face soon appears from the kitchen and welcomes us. The rooms were indeed ready, and we wearily climb the stairs to our cozy accommodations. I had requested rooms with views over the garden and Les Alpilles Mountains. Not much of a view at 11:00 at night. At least the moon was spectacular and boded well for the weather tomorrow.
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