Luberon

We did indeed rent a car and drove to the Luberon, visting Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Gordes, Rousillon, and Apt. We're still sorting though our photos, so I'll write about it tomorrow.

I will tell you about Eli and some happenings in Aix. This morning he decided to get up at five-thirty. If he keeps this up, in a few weeks he'll be waking up about bedtime. Ally and I tried to convince him to go back to sleep, but he would not. So I took him on a morning stroll through Aix until almost eight. We got to see the Sunday markets get set up.

When we got back from our trip, we went out to dinner at a Tunisian restaurant. On the way back, Mary and Christopher wanted to check out a dance and gymnastics program on--predictably--the Cours Mirabeau. Ally and I wanted to get Eli to bed, as it was nine. Back in the apartment, we were very surprised to see the back half of a cat disappearing into the closet. Why was there a cat in our apartment and how had it got there? Had it been living with us for days or weeks? Also, where had it gone? For we could not find it in the closet. We were mystified by this, and a bit worried that the cat was hiding somewhere in the house. Had the cat been there all along? After looking around the apartment, we realized that a bathroom window was open, and we saw the cat outside it. So that solved the mystery.

We were relieved not only that the cat was safe and had not, in fact, been in the house long, but also that it really existed. In 2002, while Ally and I were sitting in her tiny apartment in Paris, I rustled some papers. Ally blurted out excitedly, "It's a kitty!" I guess she really wanted a cat.

Speaking of cats, Mary noticed I omitted an interesting incident that occurred yesterday at Cézanne's studio. Eli found a cat there. Apparently the cat is very lethargic, because Eli was able to dump handfuls of gravel on the cat's back without getting any reaction. Veterans of Spain will certainly be reminded of the Cats of the Alhambra.