Aix: the prettiest city in France

So the other week (I am so horribly behind there's no way I'm ever going to catch up on this blog, by the way), Jacqueline had to go take a test in Aix-en-Provence, and I decided to tag along! While she took her test, I checked out all the morning markets that they have going on, including the adorable flee market. Lisa, you would have loved this! I was obsessed.

If I thought that I had any chance of getting this home in one piece, I totally would have bought it.

A plate-full of keys. Naturally.

I wish I were cool enough to wear jewelry like this. But alas...

I loved all these old paintings and newspaper & magazine clippings. 

This one was entitled "family." It reminded me of me and my three sisters! 

Why don't I live in France?!?...

Kesh, I don't know if you read my blog, but I thought of you when I saw these! I almost got you one, but I didn't think that any were cute enough!

After her test, Jacqueline and I met up and went out for lunch. Throughout all of our travels, we haven't really eaten out much, but we thought that this little trip merited it. And those salads were soooo good that it was definitely worth it. 

These two guys sitting behind Jacqueline ordered the same dessert (as each other), and they seriously were eating it like it was the best thing they'd ever eaten. We asked the waiter to just bring us whatever they ordered!

It really was that good.

Anyway, back to Aix. There's this giant fountain in the middle of town, very pretty.

The main drag (where the clothing market is held in the morning), lined with plane trees. Plane trees? That's what I thought until I wrote that, and now I have no idea and I'm too lazy to look it up.

This is kind of cool. The guy who lived across the street from this little square just hated it apparently, and he paid to have it all redone (this is like, 100-some-odd years ago maybe). Only 2/3 of the residents agreed though, so it's still half-ugly (er, rather, 1/3 ugly). Oh well.  

Aix definitely had the cutest stores...

There's also this cathedral that still has its 4th-century columns...

and BAPTISMAL font! Woot! This was my favorite thing I've seen inside a cathedral yet. Yeah, that's right. Immersion was how they were doing it in the 4th century. Go figure.

Next we took a little tour of the cloister (s? I don't know if this should be plural or not). We got there late and were just listening through the gate, and the tour guide was like, you can come in if you want, but there's only 20 minutes left and it's all in French... as if he doubted that we'd be able to understand. We were so happy when he was talking about this one column that had a basilisk carved on it, and he was like, that has been made famous by what popular book...? And nobody answered for a long minute until both Jacqueline and I yelled out, "Harry Potter!!" I think the tour guide was surprised at us. 

Anyway, the cloister (I'm thinking there's no s) was just beautiful! We were happy that we stayed for the tour (even though we had to literally run to the bus station afterward) because it was so interesting to see all the different carvings.

Peter (the carving, not the guide)

Best part of the day (besides that dessert, of course) was running (literally, as I said) into the missionaries! There were four of them doing some "street boarding" and it was so nice to see them. We figure, we were happy to see members out and about on our missions, so maybe they are too. If not, oh well. 

I wish we'd have more time to spend in Aix, but c'est la vie. Next time I'm coming back with an empty suitcase to be filled with things from that flea market!