CHAPTER 17. SOUTH EAST FRANCE CONT.

The Nice VW agency doesn’t have the right color glass, so we drive down the freeway to Aix, having lunch at a rest stop; we each eat a green salad, and share a roast chicken plate. Along the way it is raining, and we see some pretty and neat fields and lots of rugged rocky mountains. The Aix VW agency has the glass and puts it in; meanwhile we talk to the woman office manager (in Spanish) and arrange to get a new stereo cassette put in; our total cost is the insurance deductible. It will take a couple days for the radio to arrive, but we want to spend some time in Aix anyway.

We spend the first night in the Le Domaine de Tournon Hotel, recommended by the VW manager, who guides us there. It is expensive and the room is small, but we are too tired to look elsewhere. The next day we move to the Prieuré Hotel, selected from our Michelin Red Guide.

We drive to downtown Aix and find a parking space on the 5th floor of a garage, walk to the Cours Mirabeau and to a bank, just before it closes for lunch, to cash some traveler checks. We go to the Brasserie Le Royale on the Cours for a good lunch menu, then follow the Michelin walking tour to the Cathedral, which has very pretty cloisters. Back at a sidewalk table at Le Royale for coffee we see a very pretty girl at the next table, dressed all in black, including leather pants. It’s then to the car, by the supermarket, and to the hotel to rest, read, drink, and snack.

At breakfast in the hotel we talk to a couple from Seattle who are on an around the world tour. It’s a warm and sunny day as we go to the Laundromat to wash and dry clothes. There we talk to a pleasant young woman from Holland, who is in Aix studying French; she had been in Cambridge three months studying English, preparing for an international law career. We check at VW, but the radio hasn’t arrived yet, so go on to Le Royale, where they have opened folding glass doors so all the front is a sidewalk cafe, and have another tasty lunch. We walk to the Ganet Museum and see some works by Paul Cézanne, then go to the supermarket and on to VW, where the radio finally arrives about 6 pm and is soon installed.