Aix and Arles

For the past 5 days, I´ve spend my time lazily hanging out in the south of France, in Provence. Now, nothing beats Nice and chlling out on the beach, but I think Arles and Aix are definitely so far my favorite parts of France. Arles actually beats Aix out in my book because of it has a frickin awesome Roman colleseum in the middle of town, which they still use for bullfights to this day, 2000 years after it was built.

I ended up in Aix because of all the people I contacted on Couchsurfing in the south of France, I only got one response from a very nice marketing student named Emilie, who could host me for one night there. I had also heard that Aix (pronounced like the letter X) is a very chic Parisien like provential town. So I figured, why not! Once I got there, Emilie showed me to her gorgeous apartment that she had all to herself, and then promptly took me to a swanky sidewalk cafe where she spent 6 euro each on ice teas for us, as we chatted about her recent trip to Santa Monica and all the crazy things that Americans put French in front of for no apparent reason, at least no apparent reason to her (ie french maid, french kissing, french toast, french fries etc).

It was a lovely evening to say the least, and then she left me to go to a dinner party, and I got a much needed chance to just chill in an apartment, cook some DELICIOUS tomato soup and watch french television for a few hours. The next day I randomly ran into a very nice Argentinian girl, Marilena, who I had hung out with in Nice, and we spent the day running around Aix being tourists. The highlight of the day was us sitting on a stoop in the street, attempting to eat our supermarket bought lunch, when she spilled her cous cous all over the place, and everyone stared and laughed at us as they passed. To make it even better she then took a picture with a tripod of us eating over the mess, and I think the French finally got the change to prove their long held fear that foreigners really are nuts.

For the weekend, I made my way over to Arles, a tiny little provencial town, with as I mentioned before, a ton of Roman history, and which also happens to be the home of Van Gogh when he went nutso. My sister managed to hook me up with a place to stay, since a friend of hers from school just started a teaching job in the city. From the moment I got off the bus, Sarah-Anne grabbed my hand and took care of me for the entire weekend. It was like we´d known each other for years instantly. We went back to her awesomely spacious apartment, and I got to meet her neighbor, Susanna, who is also American and working as a teacher. Both of them had just recently moved to the area and were beginning to get bored with the limited social life afforded to foreigners in France, so it was perfect timing for my arrival. We spent most of the four days I was there walking around, shopping at markets, siting in parks, and cooking elaborate dinners for each other. It was the most relaxing and wonderful 4 days of my stay in France, although I did devlop a bit of an obsession with visiting French supermarches and boulangeries and pastiseries and anywhere else that had delicious French food to buy. Even though I stayed for free, I still managed to drop at least 50 euro on food while I was there, but being in France, it was DEFINITELY worth it.

On my last day in France, I went with Sarah-Anne back to Aix and spent the day chatting with another American friend of hers who lived in town. I tried my first real crepe, which is essentially a giant French burrito. It was the most indulgent thing I´ve ever eaten. I think the lady put at least half a bag of shredded cheese in there, and it was absolutely delicious. I am gonna miss French food so much!

And now, I´ve just made it to Barcelona, on an overnight bus, where I did not sleep one wink. The bus arrived early even, at 530 am, leaving me with no choice but to take a taxi to my hostel, where I had been told there was free internet to occupy my time until noon when I could check in, and couches to lay down on, but once again I´d been douped. Internet costs money and there are no couches. So no sleep for me until noon today! Luckily I´m in a city that really never sleeps, so I should have no problem finding something to do, once the pesky sun rises already.

Hopefully by tomorrow, I´ll have some gorgeous pictures of Spain to share!