All Caught Up!

Guess who’s back? It’s me, Sara! Here to update you on all the neat things we’ve been doing since December!

This Christmas was our first Christmas in Aix and it didn’t disappoint. Last year, we celebrated Christmas and the new year in Zurich with Cory and Jessica so we were excited to spend the holiday in Aix and see what it had to offer.

December started out great, with the ITER Christmas party we mentioned in the last blog. We danced and sang and ate delicious food. There was a really cool Japanese music and dance group that performed in the theater we were at, as well as a slightly strange magician walking around. All in all, it was a fun night and a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas festivities.

A week later, my Aunt Sallie, Uncle Tom and Aunt Caroline visited us in Aix! We had a great time showing them around town and eating delicious food. I think they especially enjoyed exploring the markets and seeing all the fresh fruits, vegetables and cheeses that we sometimes take for granted. It was so much fun having them visit and getting to spend time with them in France.

They left a few days before Christmas and then Jonathan and I spent the next couple of days relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. Christmas Eve we had dinner with Cindi and Orlando and had a delicious Bûche de Noël (aka Yule Log). It’s a really beautifully made cake that’s decorated to look like a log. We had a dark chocolate one and it was fantastic. We spent the rest of the night playing games.

Christmas Day, Jonathan and I made a breakfast casserole with a baguette and mixed our own sausage because you can’t easily find breakfast sausage in France (if at all!) We have now decided that any breakfast casserole we make will only be made with a chopped up baguette. It was that good. We spent the rest of the day wandering around town, which was a complete ghost town. That was actually pretty cool but a little strange. I’ve never seen Aix so empty.

For Jonathan’s birthday, we just relaxed around the apartment and played a lot of video games, everything a 29 year old would want to do. We were mostly excited for our next visitor who would be there the next day: Josh Levinson!

While Josh was here, we visited a ton of art museums around town. My favorite was at Hotel de Caumont, where they currently have an exhibition of Japanese wood-block prints. They were incredible. One room had an exhibit showing you how they created the different layers within the print. Multiple blocks, multiple colors all laid down in a specific order to create the depth and shading. Absolutely incredible.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve while Josh was here as well, and had friends over to toast the new year. We watched a countdown that was projected on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We had a great time and even enjoyed a Gâteau des Rois, a Provençal version of a King Cake. Ours naturally had a Pokémon fève, or bean, in it. Jonathan was very excited about that.

(Hello, co-editor Jonathan here. You should know it was a Piplup fève.) 

A few days later we travelled to Marseille and showed Josh around what little of the city we know. The Christmas market was still up and running so we explored through there for a while and sipped on some Vin Chaud (mulled wine). We eventually took Le Petite Train which drove us around Marseille and eventually dropped us off at the large basilica at the top of the hill, Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde. We were able to explore the basilica and see the view of the city as the sun set. It was really incredible. The train took us down the hill, which was quite nerve-wracking because it was very steep, but we survived!

The next day we drove to Arles and looked at all the remnants of Roman civilization in the city. We checked out the amphitheater and the Roman theater, which are both still in use today! Both of these fairly massive structures had apparently been built over, onto and torn down during the Middle Ages and were eventually rediscovered and excavated, so they were in mostly good shape still. It was pretty incredible to sit in the amphitheater knowing that ancient Romans had sat there, and people from the Middle Ages had once built their houses right smack in the middle of it.

Our final big trip with Josh was once again to our favorite place in Southern France (so far): Les Baux! It was insanely windy and I refused to go up very high on the castle ruins because the wind had already pushed me around when I was on the ground. The idea of blowing off the top of a cliff into an olive tree farm didn’t sound like the most fun way to die. Jonathan and Josh were braver than I was, but I like to think that I was slightly warmer, so who really won?

(Jonathan here. We won, we got the best view.)

It was the next to last day for the Van Gogh and Japanese Dreams exhibits at the Carrières de Lumières, so we naturally had to go. Josh was amazed by it, I think. But who wouldn’t be. It’s so hard to explain the power that place has over Jonathan and I. It really is like you are inside the art, but in the wildest way possible. We’re going to miss this exhibit, but the next exhibit in March will be Salvador Dali and I’m really excited to see that!

Josh left the next day and made it safely back to the US. We had such a great time with him and we already miss getting to show people around town. Time is running out people!! If you want to come and see us in France and have us attempt to be tour guides in Aix, book your tickets soon!

In smaller bits of action in Aix, I experienced a great Epiphany in Provence with THREE camels, people dressed as the Three Wise Men, goats, sheep, a cow, donkeys and dancing! IT was so strange but fun to see the animals wandering down the main street of town. 

We celebrated Jonathan’s birthday almost exactly a month late, but it was a blast. Lots of snacks, friends, drinks and laughs. The next day we realized that we can’t party quite as hard as we used to, but I guess that comes with the territory of 29? 

And finally, we were wandering around town, looking for crêpes because it was Chandeleur, or Candlemas, and everyone eats crepes on that day for some reason, when we stumbled across what we first thought was a concert. There was a band, a stage, a glowing purple mustache, and a ton of people, so naturally we joined the group. Soon, we realized they were actually shooting a music video for the local band “Deluxe” and so we jumped into the crowd (literally. They made us jump around like we were at a UNC basketball game!) and had a blast. The song was really cool, so when we got home we tried to find the song online and lo-and-behold, it hasn’t been released yet! So, I’m excited for that to finally come out. I’ve actually been listening to their most recent album and really enjoying it, so now I’m thinking we should go to their concert in town in March. The songs are all in English, so I would really recommend checking them out! They’re super fun.

And with that, we have finally come to present-day on the blog. I’m currently finishing up typing this blog in the coolest and most French way I could think of, at a café and enjoying a cappuccino. The cappuccino is probably more Italian than French, but this café is certainly an Aix staple: Mana Espresso.

I’ve set some goals for myself this year in regards to the blog, mainly blogging twice a month. Hold me honest to it. And if you have any suggestions on what I should blog about let me know. If I’m going to put my thoughts out into the void, I want to make sure at least one other person besides me is actually interested.

Thanks for checking in, and we’re serious about showing people around town. We’re guaranteed to be here until the end of October. Come visit us! Drink wine and coffee! Look at cool art! Eat the best bread in the WORLD*!

Ok. Bye. Ending blogs is hard. À bientôt.

(*Ok, so we can’t guarantee it’s the best bread in the world, but it is pretty doggone good.)