Aix en Provence

Happy Birthday today, Dave!

After 24 hours of planes, trains and automobiles, we arrived at our apartment in Aix en Provence late yesterday afternoon.

The adventure began with Dave forgetting his passport and taking a $300 round trip cab ride from the airport back home to retrieve it from the scanner where he was making copies before we left. He arrived at the airport 20 minutes before our flight was to leave (the rest of us were on the plane--ha!)and had to elbow his way through security to catch the train to terminal C...the farthest terminal from the main terminal. Boy am I glad I wasn't involved in the forgetting-the-passport-incident!!! Yikes!

Anyway, he barely made the flight. After an initial hour of Amelia crying and scared out of her wits on the leg from Chicago to Paris, we settled in for a few hours of sleep. Once we arrived in Paris, we took the high speed train to our depot in Aix en Provence, where we picked up our lime green rental car, and drove to our apartment. True to form, we endured another Jason Bourne-esque adventure with Dave at the wheel as he navigated extremely narrow one way streets...going the wrong way at speeds too fast for the situation...and this with the help of a GPS this time!

Finally, we arrived at our destination at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon just in time to get settled in to our apartment and then visit the recommended Brasserie around the corner for dinner. Now, we're ready to begin the R&R and tour the region in the coming 5 days we have here.

This morning we woke up and strolled down to the Sunday Farmer's Market (pictured above) just a few blocks from the apartment. We came home with fresh fruits and plenty of lavender, which is indigenous to the area.

Who knows what's in store for tomorrow?