15 and 16 September - Rapallo to Ceret

Sunday morning saw us help out with the kids first thing in the morning. Violet had decided to wake at 5:30am, so Bella was fairly tired. We said our temporary goodbyes to Bella and the children and eventually got away mid-morning, with a 4.5 hr drive in front of us using toll roads. Without using tolls the trip to Aix-en-Provence, our destination for the day, would have taken 7 hours. We didn't feel we wanted either the extra driving or length of time involved so opted to pay the E25 odd that the motorways cost. Nic was arriving back mid-afternoon, and they were to follow us to Ceret a few days later.

The drive went remarkably well. We don't always take toll roads, and often not for long distances, but it was definitely the sensible thing to do in the this case. With a 110km/hr or 130km/hr speed limit, the kilometres just churn by. We made a brief stop at the service area beside the motorway to pick up a coffee, pastry and some bread. I moved into the back seat of the car and made some cheese baguettes while John drove, so we pretty much kept on the road the whole time.

We arrived in Aix around 3pm. With two hours to kill before we met our Airbnb host we walked the short distance into the centre of town. At 34 degrees, the temperatures don't seem to be getting any cooler day by day, even though we are now well into September. It was in the early 30s in Rapallo too. Quite by chance the main boulevard in Aix was the location for a major recruiting day by a wide variety of sporting, dance and many other types of exercise groups. A number of information stalls were accompanied by groups of dancers showing off their moves. Even a pole dancer was strutting(?) her stuff. There was certainly crowds of people enjoying the atmosphere, if not signing up for clubs. The heat was telling on everyone though. I don't know how the dancers found the energy.

Sports club stalls on the main street

Lovely old signage

We met up with our host at 5pm. Not really remembering what accommodation we had actually booked in the end, we were a bit surprised to find it to be one room, with a shared bathroom (with 4 other rooms), all within a small apartment. The host also lives here. We'd made the call to use it as it was just a bed for one night, and was the only place on offer centrally placed. We normally try to get little apartments. The plan was to head off reasonably early in the morning.

By 7pm the temperature had dropped and it was a lot more pleasant to wander out in search of a light meal for the evening. We ended up at a lovely Vietnamese restaurant, some of the best we've had anywhere including Vietnam itself. Neither of us was interested in finding a French one - we are not all that enamoured with French cuisine.

Central Aix-en-Provence at night

16 September

We were keen to get on our way. It was unclear whether any breakfast was in the offing, though it was supposed to be. When we were taking our bags out of our room our host appeared in her pyjamas and offered us a coffee. Too little, too late. It was 8:30am and we just wanted to leave. However, the traffic on the local roads was obviously very heavy (rush hour) so we ambled to a nearby cafe for a quick coffee and pastry before hitting the road. By 9am the traffic was much easier so we got on our way, in fact driving the entire way to Ceret without a stop. We arrived at 12:30pm, and took an hour going around the local supermarket to stock up on food for Bella and family arriving tomorrow. By the time we got into our apartment, eaten a bit of bread and done a little unpacking, it seemed appropriate to amble to Le Comptoir to catch up with any of our friends around. Two couples joined us and we had a great catch-up. French bread and cheese for dinner. It was nice to be back.