Riviera, Provence, and the French Alps 1998
(page 2)
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| Monday
6/8 Aix-en-Provence (Air France still on strike) |
I
did a beautiful relatively flat run out of Cassis. |
We
left Cassis and drove to
Montagne Ste-Victoire near Aix. Bill was impressed by how high it looked
from the bottom. The first half was pretty steep, but doable-we made good
time. |
The
second half-from the tree line to the top seemed very steep. The path was
pretty well marked but physically challenging although there were alot of
old people without hiking boots in the first half (showing me up). |
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Once
we reached the  church
(Croix de Provence) there was 150 feet to the very top. |
I
was terrified- we  were
behind a family with 2 members 20+ years older than me and a small dog.
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|
 I
was exhaustedwhen we got back to the church from all the anxiety and ate
4 peaches before descending the mountain. |
 We
enjoyed the climb despite all the blisters on our feet. |
We
continued to Aix to check in at Hotel Cardinal. Bill didn’t like it
much because it was in dire need of maintenance, but I liked the large size
of the room and the fact that it had a refrigerator with ice for my knee.
|
We
reserved a table at the Bistro Latin, walked around for a while, visited
 Bechard
to look at their famous candies (met some Americans there), and had a freshly
squeezed fruit juice on the tree lined Cours Mirabeau. |
At
the restaurant, we ran into the same American
family from the candy store-they were funny, comparing how many guidebooks
and maps we each brought on the trip. They won. |
| I
had a pretty good ratatouille and whitefish charlotte. Bill had a hot goat
cheese and salmon appetizer followed by cod with some fresh vegetables.
For dessert, we had chocolatey profiterolles, but were still hungry, so
we got some ice cream and sorbets and again sat on Cours Mirabeau. Aix is
very lovely, we walked around alot. |
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| Tuesday
6/9 Aix-en-Provence & L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue-(Air France still on
strike) |
From
the Hotel Cardinal, we did a pretty hard run on the Route Cézanne. This
is the road from which Cézanne did some of his painting. Afterward, we walked
around Aix, bought some calissons-diamond-shaped almond paste candies for
which Aix is famous. We ate some white chocolates given to us free when
we bought water, then we had a late breakfast, checked out of the hotel,
and carried our luggage over to a big parking garage where our car was.
Then on to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. |
