Aix-en-Provence

Water is the essence of wet

After enjoying a week in Italy for vacation, then a brief stint back at work which included 3 nights in London for me, we were back on the French trail for a long weekend to round out the end of summer. Adding to the excitement on this trek, visiting from the motherland of Oregon were our close friends and fellow Lone Pine Wildcats, Chad and Tasha. Chad and Tasha, who were enjoying their own child free week of European holiday, carved out a few days with us to go to the South of France to spend 3 nights in Aix-en-Provence.

Ahhh, the French countryside

Aix is one of those towns in France everyone tells you to go see. Sitting at the south end of the Rhone Valley, not too far from the Mediterranean, it was a city we have had on our list of places to go in France. Bonus: Given its location in the south where the weather would still be nice and warm, it seemed like the perfect fit for everyone.

Meeting up with Chad and Tasha at the train station in Paris as they returned from a visit to Champagne (did the tour with Rachel of course), off we go to Aix. About 3 and a half hours from Paris, we started the trip by passing the time with some wine and cheese and we even got little Bean to take a nap which almost never happens. Of course we rented a great apartment for all of us to stay and upon arrival we quickly obtained the necessary provisions and enjoyed happy hour and take out dinner for our first night in town.

Wine Tasting!

We had two full days to fill. The first day, based on the recommendation of my coworker whose husband is from the area, we decided to rent a car for the day and drive around the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. We stopped in a few villages along the way and we even had a great restaurant recommendation. Of course being in France, we had to pull over at a random winery for a bit of tasting and some great pictures courtesy of Tasha and her photog skills.

Traditional French Saturday market

The second day in Aix we dedicated to the proper French tradition of visiting the Saturday town market to buy all the ingredients for dinner that night. The Saturday market in Aix actually spreads throughout several parts of the town and included not only the traditional farmers market for food, but also a flea market of sorts. After spending some time wandering around and getting all we needed for the evening, we found a nice lunch spot to sit and enjoy the weather along with a bottle of rosé from Provence. Pleasant lunch, some nap time, and a great evening dinner made for a great second day in Aix.

Dinner in Paris with the Bartley's

Aix definitely lived up to all the hype. We really found the city to be a bit larger

than expected with lots of interesting streets, shops and great food. We were even treated to an early morning "extreme" thunder storm which woke everyone up around 6:00 am Sunday morning. After an enjoyable and all too short trip, we headed back to Paris, bringing our summer vacation to an official end. Good news, we still had a few nights with Chad and Tasha at our place as they rounded out their trip with a few days in Paris.

Get yer' bucket!

View from our apartment for the week

Summer Vacation!  It's one of the best times of the year, something to look forward to, plan out, visit new places and relax in the warm sunshine.  In Europe it's especially nice as the summer months have a definite slow down at the office and generally you're going to take two, maybe three weeks of holiday.  Not quite so much for us this year due to some other conflicts and changing schedules but we did peg one full week at the beginning of September for a week on the beach.  Since we're not tied (yet!) to the school schedule, the weather is still very nice and crowds begin to die down, early September was the perfect time to go.

Morning walk...

The criteria was pretty simple.  On the beach.  Easy travel.  In Italy.  Upon examination of a map and direct flight options from Paris, we landed on the town of Viareggio just north of the town of Pisa.  A simple 1 hour 15 minute flight and a 20 minute car ride, this fit the bill for all we wanted.  What we didn't expect was that the worst part of the trip would be the ride to the airport where a bit of car sickness from Josephine made for a stressful first 40 minutes of holiday, but once at the airport with a quick change of clothes, all was well and ready for the trip.

Wonder what's out there?

 As is our norm, we rented an apartment in Viareggio right on the beach.  This place turned out to be one of the best places we have rented so far with big windows on one side facing the water, and a large patio on the other side with a table perfect for outdoor dining and some couches too for evening relaxation.  As is usual at a Mediterranean beach town, the water front is lined with chairs and umbrellas where you rent your spot for the day and it's yours.  Come and go as you please, your spot is always waiting for you.  Bonus for us with the apartment, the travel time from house to chair was about 2 and a half minutes.  This was especially nice come nap time each afternoon when putting Josephine down.

Just loungin' for the day

Hi from Pisa!

We settled in to a pretty nice daily routine.  Wake up, cup of coffee, have some breakfast then go for a walk.  Pick up some fruit, restock the wine from a little wine shop we found, and head back to the apartment and lather up the sunscreen.  All goes well we're in our beach chairs by 11:00.  After spending an hour or so on the beach playing in the water or sand - or both - we would head off to find lunch.  Lots of little places at the beach or on the street, just pick one and see what we get.  After lunch, one of us would take Miss Bean for a nap, and the other would get some coveted alone time on the beach to relax.  An hour or so into nap time and we switch.  Once nap time was over, we're all back at the beach by 4.  Play some more then most likely head off for some gelato before going back home to clean up, have dinner and settle in for the night.

Get yer' Bucket!

Of the 5 full days we had in town, we did take one day and travel to the town of Pisa.  This was a 25 minute train ride which seemed easy enough, but notoriously the trains in Italy are somewhat unpredictable.  This was true for us as well, but fortunately not too painful.  Pisa is famous of course for its Leaning Tower which was a pretty good site seeing stop.  There was a long line up of people all trying to get that perfect picture at just the right angle where it looks like you are holding up the tower.  And the "selfie stick" is out of control.  The selfie stick is an epidemic and needs to go away, but that's another story.  After seeing the Tower, off to lunch we go for some Italian thin crust pizza and a slow walk through the town back to the train station.  Nice little town and a perfect break from the beach routine for a day.

I love vacation!

As our beach vacation came to a close The Bean definitely seemed to enjoy herself, she loved her sand bucket, seemed to enjoy standing right at the edge of the water where the waves would splash up on her feet and was quite the diva walking up and down the rows of chairs waving to all the people as she would go by.  One week, always too short but we got exactly what we wanted out of our time and look forward to planning the next holiday!