Thursday, July 5, 2007

Day Five, Aix-en-Provence

We arrived late in Aix-en-Provence, checked into our hotel, and quickly headed back out to get some dinner. We found there was a lot of new construction, and in the dark the streets were hard to follow. We had some adventures getting there (including a brush with the police), but we finally settled down to a delicious Italian dinner (lasagna, pizza, Nicois salad) in the heart of Old Town.
















We woke up the next morning to another beautiful day. After breakfast we strolled down the Cours Mirabeau, a very wide avenue lined with double rows of plane trees and famous fountains every few hundred feet. We shopped the expansive market that seemed to fill the whole town, talked with some locals, and took pictures of the fountains.










We said goodbye to Aix-en-Provence to head north toward the "route de la lavande," anxious to see some fields of lavender. As we headed north we stopped at a olive oil mill and experienced our first olive oil tasting (a carefully chosen bottle now seasons our food at home). We drove by acres of olive tree groves, vineyards, and fruit tree groves, finally stopping at one roadside farmer's stand in the middle of a grove for the freshest, juiciest, plumpest white peaches, nectarines, and apricots we've ever had (almost all eaten on the spot). Off the beaten path we found an ancient Roman bridge, old abbey, and a beautiful old chateau. We hit both the chateau and the L'Occitane factory at the wrong time for touring, but... c'est la vie. The lavendar fields made up for that.








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