The day after we arrived Rebecca invited us up to La Pistache for lunch. Since we hadn’t yet picked up a rental car, we walked through the old city to EuropCar. The walk was beautiful. The buildings here are all from the 1700s (or older), and have incredible facades, carvings, and old wooden doors. Walking through the city is a treat in itself.
We arrived at the rental car agency to pick up the vehicle Ann had rented. The Woman took pity on us when she saw we were four people and that Ann had only rented a 2 door car.
“I think you need something bigger, yes? I’ll upgrade you for free to a four door.”
What was “bigger” was a fiat Panda. It was clearly the highest performance car in the fleet. To shrink the size of the car down to meet European standards, they had to lob off the engine compartment and replace it with a cage containing three squirrels hooked up to a running wheel. While this car is small by US standards, don’t be deceived. It can achieve top speeds of 130 Kmh, “comfortably” seat four, and have room leftover for 3 grocery bags. It also has an advanced multimedia system consisting of a cable (not included) which you can connect to your ipod to play music. Of course there’s also the radio which plays a mix of popular accordion music blended with US Top 100 hits. They also repeatedly say “Michael Jackson” on the radio – mostly because they like the sound of it. Ah… France! 🙂 I jest, but it’s charming.
We made our way up to the Intermarket in the Panda where we were to meet Rebecca’s husband. To get there, we consulted the map, and established a plan to move clockwise around the city to get to our destination in the most efficient way possible:
We didn’t have GPS (our data is off on our phones because we’re too cheap to pay for it), so we spent the next 30 minutes consulting the map, driving, hitting one way streets, turning around, circling, explicating, and repeating the process. At this point we were committed, so we forged forward, taking detours through the old city, getting familiar with the Panda, and cruising through the streets of Aix which most US SUVs would have found impossible to navigate.
We finally emerged at our destination a few minutes early and I consulted the map again to see if I could figure out what had just happened. As it turns out, Aix has a road which runs around it. It flows counter-clockwise, enabling you to easily circumvent the maze of one-way streets and reach your destination efficiently. Go figure. Sometimes it’s easier just to go with the flow.
Rebecca’s husband arrived on time and we followed him up to La Pistache. We had been warned that the road was treacherous, and Paul had recommended that the just put the car in First and drive up the hill at the end without stopping. We cruised around the switchbacks on the gravel one-lane road (one-lane for a Panda mind you), and made it to the top. I’m pretty much sure I passed the required training for rally car drivers. By the end of the stay I intend to drive it blindfolded.
Lunch was fantastic. Fresh tomatoes, wine, a provencale tarte, and melon with ham. Rebecca and Paul were absolutely charming. We talked about schools, politics, jobs while the girls got to go for a quick swim in their pool. We then took a tour of La Pistache (our new home). It’s a beautiful 3 bedroom house with a full kitchen, charming living room, and an amazing view of the valley below. I’ll post some pictures of the inside when we move in.
We drove home and headed to the local grocery store and picked up supplies for dinner. I will say that the wine selection in the small supermarket was quite good and very reasonable. Our diet is likely to be 90% liquid.
All in all it was a fun day – We had some great driving adventures, started to learn about the quirks of the city, and met our landlords.
Our Year in Aix-en-Provence 