11:39pm - Friday: Menerbes

It's the end of Friday night here in Menerbes and we have one more night before we head to Paris.

It's been a great time here exploring the region, meeting the locals, etc. Of course, meeting the locals when you live at the top of a hill with pretty substandard snow tires means that you are most likely meeting them as you're being pulled up by a cable attached to their jeep.

Our on Thursday was spent visiting Avignon, Isle Sur Sorgue and Fontaine De Vaucluse. Avignon is an old city and we were told that they have a market there so we decided to go there and explore. It turns out the market was a covered hall and everything had closed down by the time we got there at noon. The city was very old and run down and just downright lacked a certain charm found in other places in France. There was not one thing about the city that captured either of our hearts. Well, maybe the kabobs.

On our way back home, we visited Isle Sur Sorgue and Fontaine de Vaucluse. Both are along the Sorgue river. L'Isle Sur La Sorgue is a small town known as the antique capital of France. Too bad we got there closer to 1pm after a major snowfall. Pretty much all the shops were closed. There were some very nice looking shops with some beautiful pieces in the window sill but alas, snow: 1, Ash and Ang:0.

Fontaine De Vaucluse is just a little north on the river. It is a huge spring whose depths have never been fully explored. Very magical and mysterious. It's also magnificent, marvellous, mouthwatering but what it ain't...is mundane.

After the Fontaine, we drove home and found that the roads still hadn't been cleared. It's one thing to think driving in the snow is a piece of cake going downhill, it's another to go back up. The main road into town consists of three long steep grades with two sharp switchbacks. The first switchback, we were able to make it up but by the second switchback, we were screwed. A man and his wife (or possibly mistress?) in a jeep in front of us pulled over and helped push. After little success, a man and his family in a mercedes SUV came and he helped too. Things got worse and worse the higher we got, so much so that as we were almost nearing the town, we ended up having to actually attaching a cable to the front end of our vehicle to the back of the jeep to pull us up. We just barely made it...the weight of both vehicles with not enough traction made for a slippery ride.

Today it started to warm up so the snow was starting to melt a little bit. A great day for driving out to Aix-En-Provence and Marseilles.

On the way out to Aix in Cavaillon, we stopped at a boulangerie and got breakfast. I had a brioche saucisses (hot dog weiners baked into a declicious pastry and a slice of pizza. Ang had what was known as a "big choco". It was so big that there was no French word to describe how big it was. They had to use English. The pastry was bigger than her head and could make grown men weep with it's taste and stature.

Aix-En-Provence is a beautiful college town with towns of flavor and charm, in the city. The outskirts seemed too newly made up and contrived. But once in the heart of the city, it is one of the coolest shopping districts in the world. The main shopping area is through the small narrow streets of the old town. Modern shops line these old streets for a strange yet comforting juxtaposition. The hustle and bustle today was all part of Les Soldes, a 6 week govenerment regulated, nation-wide sale. 30, 40, 50, even 70% off some items. I bought a warm winter jacket and a scarf for 35 bucks and Ang bought a dress for under 15 (and we're not even in Paris, yet). We ate at a nice little restaurant on a heated patio called Le Terminus. It was recommended to us by an employee of a store called Agnes B. as a good place to eat lunch. We trusted her because it turns out that she had lived for 10 years in BC. Meeting us really brought her back to that time and she was very warm and friendly. It's quite weird how people from opposite ends of the world can have stuff in common.

After Aix, we headed to Marseille. We were already tired from all the driving and shopping but since we were already in the area, we decided to do a quick stop in. The quick stop in turned out to be a leisurely stroll along one of the most beautiful ports, with towering cathedral spires and endless sailboat lines crisscrossing every which way. We stopped in for deux grande cafe au laits and then headed back up the main drag where we did a little more shopping and a little more walking.

On our way back into town, we stopped in Cavaillon for a late small dinner. We ate at Manu and shared a chorizo pizza and a salad.

Whew!!!

What an action packed couple days.

I'm off to bed to wake up early tomorrow morning for a market in Apt, one of the biggest markets in the whole region.

Bonsoir!