Aix en Provence

Aix en Provence (pronouced X on Provence) is also known as the City of fountains. A beautiful university city, it is worth stopping here if you are travelling through Provence.

We arrived here by the fast train from Paris which took about 3 hours and only cost £40 with excess luggage. Mr Poachie was very impressed with this and promptly did the maths to work out what a trip would cost from London to Glasgow. 

We picked up some supplies from a shop in Paris that morning, I love how much variety there is and how fresh the food is! I chose some pasta, grapes and crisps to keep me going. I love travelling by train, it feels safe, its time effective and I like watching the world go by.

When we arrived, we went to pick up our hire car from the station terminal and then drove into the city centre to find our hotel. As we were only here for one night we booked something cheap and cheerful, but looking back I wished I had booked a hotel with a lift and decent AC! Despite these things, the hotel was lovely, centrally located with friendly staff

Once we had dumped our bags off, we walked up towards the centre and ordered some drinks and got comfy to do some people watching.

After an aperol or two, we headed further into the centre to find somewhere to eat. There was so much choice it was a bit of a struggle to decide! 

We settled on a cool tapas restaurant and the platters didn't disappoint. After scoffing this and enjoying some more wine and people watching, we headed off in search of ice cream and went back to the hotel for an early night. 

The next morning we got up and headed out for le petit dejuner. Most places we visited had a deal on for breakfast where you could have a pastry, coffee and orange juice for around 6 euro which I thought was very good. 

There was an enormous market on with stalls selling everything from soaps to linens, to bags and olives. We enjoyed having a nose around and made a few purchases.

We had to check out of our hotel at 11am so we headed back, repacked our suitcases and then left to find the car and make our way towards Gordes which is about 40 minutes drive from Aix en Provence - blog post to follow!