Today was a full on day (yet again), We started with an early morning stroll to the bakery to get some fresh bread, then after breakfast one of Francoise and Gerard's friend called Michele took us for our own private tour of Aix!!!!!
She told us the history of Aix. An being a local she got us into places we would never have got into, like the cloister of the Cathedral which were locked in so that no one else could get in!!! ... stupid me forgot the battery to the digital camera and so we have only the photos on Sam's SLR.
She also told us about “les Hotel Particulier” which translates roughly to Big, Big Mansions. They all shared the same characteristic a U-shaped house with a courtyard for the carriages and a garden out the back. The also had very impressing front doors that lead to the courtyard as well as “waste of space staircases”. Since it was the rich who owned these mansion they all tried to out each other by having bigger and more audacious trappings.
One thing that was really cool was a style of painting called “Trompe l’oeil” on the walls of the staircases to give the illusion that the house was bigger than it was …. Not much has changed since the 18th century ☹
After some more sight seeing and photos … we went and had coffee (le café) at the most exclusive coffee house in Aix, This is where the rich and famous come to drink when they are in Aix and get their face painted on the walls, The most recognizable was Pablo Picasso!! Pretty cool to have had coffee where Picasso drank coffee…and of course Cezanne was there as well!
After that we hurried home to meet up with Francoise and Gerard, and their neighbour
Christine. We all then went off to have lunch at the restaurant at the foot of the Ste. Victoire. The mountain looked way cool with the mist and rain, and we had a great lunch, I had a nice rare steak and Sam had “une Andouilette”.When we got home we went to do some present shopping and also to get 5 rolls of film developed we went to Gerard’s favourite photo store to get them done, and they did them in about 1hr but it was very, very, very expensive about 135 Euros. But they were very good photos on good paper, But I think we will wait till we get home to get them done at Big W.
We also got a little photo album for Gerard and Francoise to say thank you for all that they did for us. Sam used all her creative Memories™ know how and her natural innate skills to make a wonderful book!!!!
We also did some shopping for the Great Aussie Feast as our last real dinner in Aix,
The Menu was:
1. Aperitifs
2. BBQ Steak with veggies and Les pettit poids
3. Pavlova and baked custard
4. Turkish coffee
During the aperitifs we were treated to slide show of Dunes and Rocks of the Sahara desert which Gerard took about 12 years ago, they were awesome…
And finally after all that it was time to go to sleep ….
No comments:
Post a Comment