Aix-en-Provence and our first visitors

Today's big project was our relocation to Aix-en-Provence, where we will spend the next two weeks. Ally comes to Aix to work at the Archives d'Outremer, the archives of France's overseas empire. She's been here about half a dozen times.

To get here from Lyon, we first had to get from our apartment to the train station. Ally called last night to schedule a taxi and specified that we would need a large one to fit all our baggage. So this morning, when the taxi came, it was a station wagon as we'd expected. The driver told us, though, that we were very lucky to get him; the dispatcher hadn't said anything about our special needs. Anyway, we had a good train trip to Aix. Aix's TGV station is well outside town, about 15 minutes by car. We were again very fortunate with our taxi. Our driver fit everything in his hatchback, which must have been bigger than it looked. He was very helpful. Veterans of our 2001 visit to Normandy will remember the horrible taxi drivers we had there.

The apartment we found in Aix is very cute, although odd. It's a split-level for no good reason. Also, to use the toilet you have to walk into the bedroom, then into the closet, before reaching the toilet. But the kitchen is very nice and the decorations are charming. Like the last place, it has Freebox television-over-internet (via ADSL). This is one of those technologies I've been reading about for about a decade but haven't seen in America. But the French have made it a reality.

Anyway, after arriving, we looked around for some groceries, then set Eli down for a nap. We started worrying about where Mary and Christopher could be. They got into Marseille last night and were supposed to come to Aix today, but we hadn't heard from them. Eli woke up and Ally and I started thinking about how we could find our guests. Then I looked out the window and there was Mary looking for a callbox. They had found us, although they cannot recommend the map of Aix in their Rick Steves guide.

We went out and had a drink, then bought about 5 kilograms of dairy products--mostly yogurt--at the Monoprix on Cours Mirabeau. Then we put the groceries away and almost immediately headed out to dinner. We had pizza and pasta at a restaurant just off Cours Mirabeau.

Eli again had no trouble getting to sleep, despite being in both a new room and a new bed. Our apartment came furnished with a travel crib that's bigger than the one we brought, so we put him in it.

Tomorrow we are planning to buy a lot of produce at the market.