Wednesday 7th August

Sadly we had to leave Cinque Terra/ Monterosso on Wednesday morning at 6.30am so it was up and at em at 5.30 for our long train trips. Monterosso to Genova 1 1/2 hr trip , Genova to Nice ( with a 1 hr delay in the middle) 3 hr trip and then another 3 hr trip from Nice to Aix En Provence , but we made it we were greeted by our hostess who told us we had a problem. The problem turned out to be water dripping thru the ceiling and light fitting in the toilet which she said she was getting fixed lol. Well her immediate fix which you can see by the picture which I add I am fully dressed in is an umbrella ☂️ 🤣🤣🤣. Today after a few messages and phone calls we think it is fixed..... Hopefully because we really like the apartment it is really close to the main restaurant area of Provence.

After arriving at around 6.30pm we settled in and then went out to explore and find dinner, the French are not as good as the Italians at translating there menus into English as well as French so good old google translate is getting a work out. Early night so we came get up early to beat the heat.

Thursday

off to explore and we found a Market who could resist.... walk the length, Sue bought some shorts, I didn’t find anything of interest. But I did manage to find a hair salon so booked a hair cut which was quiet an experience. Firstly they wash and dry your hair and fully style and blow wave it, then they start to cut it, talk about Edward scissor hands, all this done while his young daughters stood either side of me talking and yelling at their father. Oh and the family border collie sat on my feet. All in French no English until he asked at the end where I came from, when I said Australia the mood changed he suddenly had some English lol..

After lunch with Ian and sue we again went our own ways Ian and I hopped on the local tourist bus an overgrown tuktuk for and quick tour of the city and Sue on foot to the Hotel de Caumont center which is a old hotel which has been restored and is used as a Art museum. It houses Guggenheim Art collection of Picasso, Van Gogh, Cezzane, Thannhauser, Gauguin and Braque to name a few. We met on out bus trip a local lady who was a French speaking Vietnamese and very friendly even though we weren’t supposed to have a commentary on the bus trip she provided it in English, and we ended up at the same place as sue.

Fantastic dinner out and took in some local culture of dancing in the street don’t know when these people ever sleep oh that’s right during the day for siesta lol.

Friday

Today we decided to hire a car as most of the things we want to see are out of town and we are a little over train travel.

We drove to Venelles about 20 mins from Aix-en-Provence in the most beautiful country side to a winery called Chateau La Coste. We had a long lunch just enjoying the scenery and the cool air of the area, we also had a waitress who is travelling to Australia in 3 months for a working holiday so we spent the whole time teaching her some Aussie slang.

Home to find our plumbing problem fixed 🤞🤞🤞

Night at home planning our adventures for tomorrow.