I made a daytrip to Aix-en-Provence and found the city charming. It would be the perfect place for a romantic getaway. The streets are full of lovely, classic old world charm and the Sunday antiques market had the most interesting antiques I have ever seen. I even got the chance to go in a Chagall exposition for free. That was marvelous since I had been very disappointed that I was turned away from the Chagall museum in Nice because my backpack was too big for their checkroom boxes. No matter how I tried they wouldn't let me use one of the many group luggage bins that were plenty big enough. The French do like their rules.
The excitement highlight of the day was when our bus was cut-off in traffic by a subcompact car. Our driver yelled, honked, yelled, tailgated him, and yelled some more in fairly heavy traffic at 120kph, all the while talking away on his cell phone. If the guy ahead of us would have touched his brakes at all, the bus would have eaten his tiny little car.
I went back to Marseille and bought a ticket to Paris on the highspeed TGV train. It is amazing how fast the scenery goes by at 186mph/300kph. It is only a three hour trip instead of 8 or more hours on a regular train.
I am going to Paris to spend a wonderful week with my beautiful Patrícia in the city of light. Then I am off to Rome for a couple days to check out an apartment for my friend Chuck and then I will fly to New York to spend a few days. From there I head to Washington DC to take the Foreign Service Assessment.
