Day 12 - Aix-en-Provence

Distance Walked: some, Alchol Consumed: 2 glasses red wine, 1 glass rose wine

This morning I skipped breakfast altogether as I was headed to Aix-en-Provence for the day to do another food tour.  I had to be there by 9:30am and the train trip takes about an hour, so I decided to leave early and have breakfast in a cafe in Aix.  This was a good idea, as when I got to the train station here in Marseille I discovered I could take the fast TGV train to Aix.  I decided to do that as it took only 15 minutes and cost less than the local, regional train.  However, after doing that I discovered that the TGV railway station is way out of town and not the main station in the centre of Aix at all.  I had to take a taxi to get into Aix itself, which took twice as long as the train trip and cost three times as much, so no time for breakfast.

This tour was a professional one, not like the one I did with Oriane.  Oriane's was organised through a company called Guest in the City which is like Uber for tour guides.  Any one can offer their services as a tour guide to do any sort of tour via their website and the website people just take a cut.  There were four other people on my tour today - a Canadian couple and an English couple, so I let them do all the shopping and sampled with a clear conscience.   The tour guide was originally from California but had settled in Aix with her (English) husband about 20 years ago.  She was very good but her patter was more professional than Oriane's.  While she was perfectly friendly, it was clearly her job and didn't feel like a day out with a friend.   She was also very proud of how rich a city Aix was and how wealthy and smartly dressed the locals always were.  Given we were all in t-shirts and jeans or shorts, I thought this perhaps wasn't the best thing to harp on about.

We started at a local patisserie where we had calissons (again).  Next was the local food market where we were lectured on how important it is to the French to only eat food that is in season.  The market stalls were operated by local farmers who come every day so the produce had all been picked that day, or at worst, the day before and was wonderfully fresh.  We tried two varieties of local tomatoes and also figs, olives and muscat grapes.  We then stopped at the charcuterie stall and had salami, coppa and ham - not all local this time, some was from Corsica.  Next we went to a coffee shop where they roast their own beans (just like Grinders on Lygon Street - but I didn't mention this as I was supposed to be impressed).   We had the option of coffee or the local hot chocolate.  Jennifer, the guide, raved about the unique way the make the hot chocolate - by melting together chocolate and milk and then putting it in a churn so that it is silky smooth.  In other words, it was exactly like a Brunetti hot chocolate - and very good it was too.

Next stop was another patisserie where we tried one of the local cakes - a sponge with a hazelnut cream topping - very yum.  Then was the cheese shop - I had to restrain myself from making the obvious jokes ("Oh dear, the cat's just eaten it") as I wasn't sure who else would understand.   We collected some cheese from there and then went onto our final stop which was a wine shop.  We tried the local rose wine while eating our cheese (a comte which isn't from here at all but was very good).

After the tour I wandered into the old town and stopped at a bistro for lunch, again based on the friendliness of the waiter.  This time it (mostly) paid off.  As I was not particuarly hungry I just had the plat du jour, which was a lamb shank in a stew with potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms and the local wine.  For dessert I had a cafe gourmand, which is an espresso coffee with a sample of their desserts.  They went overkill on this, instead of one or two I had 5!  I had an egg cup full of sweetened cream (too sweet), a small dish of rice pudding (too bland), a tiny chocolate muffin (too dry), a mini friand (ditto) and a mini calisson flavoured with mandarine (delicious).

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the old town (> 1000 years old) and the new town (an upstart of only 400 years of age) before wandering back to the correct train station and catching the correct sort of train back to Marseille.  Tomorrow I'm off to Arles.  I had planned to spend the morning here and then go in the late afternoon but I think I head there straight after breakfast.  I'm sure the hotel in Arles will let me leave my suitcase with them, even though I'll arrive before it is time to check in.

I randomly chose a place for dinner, largely because it had a fixed priced menu that had a reasonable selection of dishes at a reasonable price.  Most restaurants only offer that for lunch.  It turned out to be a good choice.  For entree I had the goat's cheese salad, which came with lettuce & tomato with a remoulade dressing as well as two pieces of tasty but not too goaty cheese on toast.  It was very good.  For main I had ordered what I thought was a piece of salmon with a foie gras sauce.  What I was served was salmon in a cream sauce on tagliatelle.  I started to eat it, guessing that the English translation had lost some of the detail.  I had noticed this was the case for some of the other dishes.  I was about three mouthfuls in when the waitress rushed up to say she had accidentally given me the wrong salmon special.  I settled for what I had because it was good.  My waitress was not having a good night.  She tried to serve the couple at the table next to me the entrees that belonged to a couple a few tables over.  She later gave someone else the wrong wine.   I felt like leaving her a tip.  Not because her service was good - it wasn't - but because she was rushed off her feet and clearly getting frazzled.  For dessert I had the nougat ice cream - also good.

Now I'm done with Marseille.  Off to see Roman ruins in Arles tomorrow - in the rain according to the weather forecast.  Drat.