Day 30

Day 30:

Sunday, April 19, 2009: DAY 30!!! Wow time really has flown by. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been in France for a month! Today was really fun! I went to Aix-en-Provence with Jacqueline and Bernard. They invited John but he had to stay home and write a paper for his Resistance class that I am not in. They told me I could bring up to four friends but I didn’t have cell phone minutes to ask people.

I would have invited Melissa but she already had plans to go to Marseille with her host mom and family for her host mom’s birthday. I invited Lance but I didn’t know if he could get up and be ready to go by 11a.m. when they wanted to leave. He couldn’t. So it was just the three of us. It takes an hour by car to get to Aix and Jacqueline let me sit in the passenger’s seat so that I could see the countryside. It was really pretty.

We were going to Aix because their youngest son, Mikael, lives there. He is a high school English teacher and is moving to New York City in August to teach. He lives alone but has a girlfriend – more on her later. So we were at his house for awhile we let to go into town. Mikael drove.

We parked and walked around a little farmer’s market. It was an okay day… a little overcast with a chance of showers. They showed me around Aix a little then we found an Italian restaurant and ate lunch outside. I had this really good spinach ravioli with a ricotta cheese sauce and cream brulee for dessert. This was Mikael’s birthday lunch because they were not able to celebrate earlier because they were in Paris for the Easter weekend. He is 31.

They also talked about plans for the wedding of their other son, Phillipe, on June 27. Mikael was making plans for the bachelor party in Paris. Lunch was really good. I discreetly watched Bernard put 100E (between $130-$140US) on his credit card for the four of us. After lunch, we walked around more and saw more of the city. Aix is probably about the same size as Avignon but attracts a younger crowd with more money. The city reminded me of a much bigger Athens because it is built on hills. Avignon is cool but as much as I complain about them, I love the hills in Athens; it adds to the character.

We walked down Cours Mirabeau with its super chic stores (all closed on Sunday; probably better for my wallet that way) and we went to Mikael’s girlfriend’s house. Her name is Leah. She is 21 and studies dance. She’s moving to Brazil in August. She invited us in and we had tea. The conversation then turned to the differences in the education systems of the United States and France. The French think that it is really ridiculous that universities give athletic scholarships. A recap of the French system: all classes and books are free; students pay for food and lodging; students can earn up to a doctorate degree for free. They also think it is strange that we have rural universities in America – like OU. All the universities in France are in cities.

The students are striking in protest now because Sarkozy wants to close smaller universities – like the one in Avignon – and require that students start to pay for instruction.
So anyway, after visiting with her for awhile, we left and wandered around some more. Mikael, Leah, and I went to a Picasso and Cezanne museum. Cezanne lived and did a lot of work in Aix. The museum was free because it was Sunday; it was mildly interesting. After that, we walked down the Cour Mirabeau again and there was an outdoor antique market. There were a lot of people and a lot of really cool stuff but I really didn’t get a chance to look around that much. I think my mom and grandmas would really like it.

So then we walked all the way to the new Theatre of Aix. It has the best view of the city from the deck on the roof; but it, too, it closed on Sundays. Mikael really wanted me to see the view so he insisted that we climb the fence and go. So Mikael, Leah, and I left our bags with Jacqueline and Bernard and went. The risk was really worth the view. No one was going to stop us anyway and there were already 10 people there.

On the walk back to the car, Mikael and I talked about New York. He is looking at an apartment in midtown that is half as much space as he has now and twice as much rent per month. I told him that I just went to the city at the beginning of March and I plan on going again and he invited me to stay with him if I ever needed to!

So we went back to his apartment in Aix and left for Avignon. We had to take toll roads there; it cost almost 10E. The ride back was really pretty too; we talked about my family visiting at the end of the month. We got home and John was not home; we started eating dinner without him. After dinner, we watched the news and I did some homework/blogging before bed.

(Google Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne, New York City, etc.)