Contentment and Making the Best of It in Aix

We arrived in Aix en Provence from Grasse on a Sunday, weary, stressed from the drive to find our apart hotel much less than desirable. On first look, there was scaffolding outside one of the buildings lined with heavy duty plastic  While Dana stayed in the rental car, I hopped out to check in and I waited, and waited, and waited. Eduardo who was manning the front desk was having problems with the gentleman in front of me as well as the computer. Finally, check in happened and more importantly to my mind, instructions on entering the parking garage. After fumbling around a bit with the entrance key pad, we found the entrance to the reception area, but uh oh where the hell did I put the entrance code? Luckily a couple of fellow guests came by and helped us get through to the elevator. We jerk our luggage into the small space and noticed the elevator walls were totally lined in red paper with a multitude of humorous drawings. The room itself was nicely sized and probably sufficient. The kitchen area certainly less than what I had anticipated for the 1 ½ week stay in Aix. And oh so not what we’ve become so quickly accustomed to with the luxurious apartments we’ve booked thus far. We thought well, we can maybe work with it or ask to move tomorrow or what might even be better, shorten our stay here and collect whatever refund we could.

 Pulling the black out curtain in the bedroom aside (blackout curtain = good) what to my wandering eyes should I see . . . Scaffolding covered in plastic (= not so good), not 2 feet outside our window, promising little natural light and lots of noise on Monday morning when the workers returned. Not to mention up close personal views of the construction workers. Uh oh, a bump in our road. We tried the air conditioning, thinking that if we could keep the room a bit cooler we could leave the windows closed so maybe the hammering, drilling, and whatever else noise created wouldn’t waken us at the butt crack of dawn. But only heat came out of the vents. So, let’s go find something to eat, a light meal. The hotel’s location, pretty good, only a couple of blocks from Old Town. As most areas in France, on late Sunday afternoon to early evening, Aix itself was almost completely closed up. Before we walked out to the Rotonde-a very large fountain in the center of the old town, we peeked into the ‘courtyard’ listed on the hotel’s site. The furniture in the what promised to someday be a lovely, spacious outside courtyard, was upended, arranged haphazardly, with dumpsters in the center so no access to that. Oh no, too dreary. We did manage a nice light meal in a Thai street food restaurant, Pitaya, which suited perfectly.

With Monday morning came the construction crews, lots of noise, navigating the car to the TGV (several miles away), navigating back to hotel, and news of the stock market dip! Yuck! Eduardo moved us to another room, and no we could not get a refund because of Booking.com so we’d have to take that up with them, and I managed to talk to a financial advisor. Whew, Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day. The new room was smaller but no scaffolding, quieter as well. Checking out the kitchen the drawer handle came off in my hand as did the cabinet handle. There were holes in wall where we assume lights should be. And of course then we start documenting everything. I took a shower, the shower head spun and sprayed all over the bathroom. We complained and showed the pics to Eduardo and they did manage to fix a lot of the issues. Still have holes in the wall, but the shower head is fixed (needed a screw), Dana fixed the cabinet and drawer handles once we found the nuts laying inside. Still we just wanted out, at least I know I did. Let’s get the hell out of Aix and on to greener pastures.

And then on Tuesday, the market came to town. Market days in Aix are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Everything opened up, people lined the streets, sat in cafes, checked out the market stalls, and it turns out Aix is glorious. The market is truly not to be missed from the fresh produce to the hand made crafts, the antique books, and the affordable stylish clothing. Even though we did not get to see the Cezanne exhibit at the Granet museum, it’s closed pending an exhibition in June, we did get the unexpected addition of another wing of the museum which we can tour later in our stay. 

On Thursday we took a mini-bus trip to Cassis, a seaside village just south of Aix where the fishermen still clean their catch on the harbor walk, selling fresh seafood directly to the local customers. We walked a bit in the Calanque, providing a breathtaking overview of the canal area. 

On Friday, we toured the Vasarely foundation on the outskirts of town, a wonder of modern art. I wasn’t familiar with him until now, the visual feast of geometric shapes and color studies, and illusion was most certainly a WOW for us both. AND we slowed our roll, way way down. Now that’s what this trip is all about, breathing, enjoying each area as we find it, bumps and all, and as Dana’s dad, Rod, advised ‘enjoy your life everyday’. We are content for the time being to enjoy what Aix has to offer including Hotel Chaumont, beautiful and small museum. Pics below from that as well as Vasarely Museum.

…until the elevator broke, alas it was a bridge too far to cross and so we made alternative plans which took us on to amazing Arles and one of our best stays to date so Thank you appart hotel in Aix, you made us stay a couple of nights in Arles!