Tuesday we hopped a train over to Aix en Provence for some walking around time. Mom, Lorraine and Felicia booked a short tour of the city and markets, we opted to mooch around to see what kinda stuff we could get into.
On the whole, Aix didn't do much for me. Looks pretty much like Avignon with more tourists, more cruise ship day trippers, more cars and larger streets. Felt a lot more commercialized and tourist related to me.
What they did have, was an amazing Tuesday market. We spent the morning digging through antique vendors, garage sale crap vendors and cheap watch merchants, picking up a few nifty things along the way. Then we hit the fresh market. Holy crap!
Dozens of vendors with fresh fruit and vegetables, prepared foods from all over the region(one guy doing Chinese from a truck) and more variations on local themes than i have ever seen.
Freshly ground and whole spices from Morocco! Some I have only seen in books or online. The smell of the owner grinding the spices nearly made me pass out.
As usual, a cheese and cured meats vendor selling stuff from all over the southern half of France. Many where their own products, including some exceptional soft cheeses. We bough a nice hunk of brie with a large center layer of truffle slices.
In the early afternoon we hopped taxis back to the high speed train for the 20 minute ride back to Avignon. Later that night we had dinner at Le Bain Marie as a send off and as usual it was amazingly good food. Its nice to see a small neighborhood place is still kicking the pants off the tourist-centric places in town.
Wednesday morning I took the Folks to the airport and picked up Audie and The Girls(tm). No issues, no great delays. While I was off in Marseilles, Lorraine and Felicia hopped the TGV for Paris for their 4 days of fun. Good luck guys!
Lots of fun, getting kinda tired at last. This has been one hell of a trip!
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