Today started off with a train to Paris, a slightly over 6 hour trip, but no change of trains necessary, and I have bought the ticket sufficiently in advance to be in First Class for 28Euros! Nice smooth, if long ride all the way to Gare De Lyon, where after walking a few miles of tunnels you can connect to the 1 line and 2 stops later be at the apartment. Went in the door and place was just below a Sauna, so turned off the heat in the front hall and bedroom, fortunately left the living room one on as that one adjusts to lower temperatures. After grocery shopping and heading over to Rue Montorgueil for a little dinner, I spent a good hour trying to get either heater to come back on. Europeans love cryptic and meaningless symbols on their appliances and no amount of button pushing produced any kind of result other then works like “No” and “stop” and other strange characters. Usually the secret to operating European appliances is to google the model number and you can find an owners manual in English. Up till now this has always worked for me, but maybe these heaters pre date the internet? Eventually, gave up put an extra duvet on the bed so that I was buried under about 6-8 inches of blankets and called it a day. By some strange turn of fate the heater came on for awhile in the middle of the night. I strongly suspect these were programmed at one point and now the time is not correct and the whole thing is screwed up, but believe me it’s not something any normal mortal is going to figure out, and I’m really good at this stuff. I miss my baseboard heaters that just had a dial for the temperature and stayed where you put them. Sent an email to Adrian asking for help, I think all of us who share the apartment would just like a manual mode so that we can set the heat where we want and have it STAY there. For your amusement, here are some pictures.

Had a low key day today with lots of walking around Nice. Went to discover a new coffee shop, Indien, which does good coffee and roasts, but nothing to write home about. Hopped the tram back to Pl Liberty hoping that the market would be a little more interesting today, but about the same, functional but not fab. A nice walk back down the main drag and then a seafood lunch at Cafe Turin. After that a lovely dinner with Jin and Neil, Seattle Expats with a great flair for cooking and extensive knowledge about Nice. A fine evening!

Today France had a large nationwide strike protesting the planned raising of the retirement age to 64. Luckily, I didn’t have any travel planned today, but even within Nice, none of the trams were running and as far as I could tell neither were the buses. When I went out this morning, I ended up on the ocean and the strikers were amassing to start their march. It seemed more like a party or a mobile rock concert. Anyway, I wanted to check out the daily fish market, which was going to be a bit of walk, so figured out how to use the local VeloBleu bike share system. It only 1.50 euros/day and as long as you return the bike before 30 minutes that is it. The first one was a little tricky as they have you call a number on the screen by phone and based on caller ID it releases a bike for you. Once figured out, it is fairly straight forward. So rode a bike up the market at Pl. Liberation. Not that much going on, but sunny and pleasant, and as I sat down for some lunch, the marchers came through. Fairly large crowd. After a few more bike rentals, wended my way back to the center via a bakery that had some GF things, and did some more walking around. Met with a Nice realtor of British background and had an interesting conversation about the market here. Dinner at Le Bar des Oiseaux was very good.

Started off today with a walk and coffee with Richelle who has just bought a place in Nice. Got a quick tour of the apartment, which was quite large with a modern interior, but not yet furnished as she just moved in. After that, took the bus about 40 minutes to Cap Ferrat and had a lovely lunch on the edge of the harbor. It was Zarzuela, sort of like cioppino but in a flat pan. After that delicious lunch, back on the bus to Ville Franche where I picked up a hiking trail called the Senior Littoral that follows the edge of the ocean back towards Nice. This ended up being a beautiful path but had plenty of ups and downs! Eventually came back out on the road and hopped the next bus back in to the city..

Started today with a good clean up for my Aix AirBnb, that turned out to be a really nice place. A large studio, but a comfortable corner unit. It was still quite cold this morning when I stepped out for a coffee, and after walked over to the Gare Routiere, the bus station to take the 40 bus to the TGV station. That worked as advertised and after a bit of a wait onto the Ouigo TGV to Nice, about 2.5hrs. Ouigo is SNCFs discount train option, but I really don’t notice much difference. Today the train was not crowded, so just took a 4 person club seat and had things to myself in that regard. Easy trip with only a couple brief stops, then onto the Tram in Nice, a week long pass that covers all the trams and buses in most of the riviera is 15 euros! Met at Airbnb, and apartment looks fine, and very well located immediately across from a restaurant I’ve been to before and liked. After having a quick bite of the local specialty, Socca, a chickpea flour pancake, off to Monoprix for a few breakfast items and then out for a walk. Seemed pleasantly warm this afternoon with temps in the 50s, but cooling off rapidly now. Off to dinner shortly with Richelle from one of my French groups who has just moved to Nice and Jin and Neil former Seattleites who live here.

When I woke up this morning and opened the curtains, the Main Street below my apartment had been set up with tents to be the Saturday market. As I went out for coffee and a to walk around, it turns out that almost the whole inner, old town, part of the city becomes a market on Saturday. There is a produce section in one square, premade food in another square and then the main drag had mainly clothing and related articles for sale. It was once again a cold morning but warmed up to a sunny comfortable mid 40s shortly after noon. I headed over to the main museum in town, the Musee Granet, which was supposed to have a Cezanne collection and also was featuring a just opened Hockney exhibit. Actually turned out not to have much in the way of Cezanne, but the Hockney exhibit on loan from the Tate was quite extensive. Then, in a uniquely French moment, the admission came with a second ticket to an additional exhibit quite a few blocks away. After walking over there, it turned out that his exhibit was closed today…. Oh well. Had lunch on a very mediocre undercooked buckwheat crepe, nothing like the most excellent ones found at the Bastille market that are cooked on both sides with lots of butter.

The mini split worked hard last night to pump out warm air, but I suspect the apartment hadn’t been used the previous week and it was still a pretty chilly night. When I stopped by at mid day today, it seemed that maybe it had caught up. The morning started with temps around 24degrees, which made me head for the nearest coffee place that seemed to have some GF options. After some breakfast and coffee headed to the visitor center and the to the Gare Routiere, bus terminal, just to see what the Sunday schedule was going to be like to get back to the TGV station for my train to Nice. (Runs every 15 minutes and 6 euros, but a bit of walk with the suitcase to get there.) Picked up some stuff at Monoprix for the apartment and for breakfast tomorrow and then did some walking around and found lunch at a place recommended by the AirBnB host. A very nice lunch of pumpkin soup followed by a pork shoulder dish. After lunch, ambled around with the goal of visiting Cezanne’s Atelier which is a bit of walk up a hill outside of town. Lovely small museum with a lot of his stuff and a nice view over the city. After working my way back to the center, I was ready from some down time, but in the interests of not prolonging the jet lag kept it to a 30 minute nap. Then it was off for some more walk around exploration before finding a nice warm bowl of Pho for dinner! Fortunately it warmed up into the 40s around lunch time, but the first part of the day was really cold. Beautiful sunlight comes into the apartment in the afternoon and it was quite cozy. Tomorrow will be the big market day all over town and the start of a Hockney exhibit at the main museum in town so I will go to that. For the size of the town, 145,000 this city has a lot of restaurants and cafes!

A long return to France today with 10hrs. Of Delta flight followed by 4 Hrs. Of killing time at CDG and the 3.5 hrs on a crowded train. But, ended up in Aix en Provence for the first time and just as the sun was setting. Interesting light and a beautiful place. Famous for being where Cezanne did a lot of his work. AirBnB is nice, top floor corner studio with lots of double pain windows. That’s good because it is really chilly outside. In the 30s this evening and predicted to have a low of 24f tonight! I did a preliminary walk around, and there are lots of little restaurants and cafes etc. will head to the visitor center tomorrow, but with only 2 full days, will stick to in town exploration including the Cezanne museum and whatever markets are going on. One note if you do come here, the TGV station is quite a ways out of town, there is a shuttle bus that goes back and forth, but I was pretty much done, so grabbed a taxi in. Aix has a population just short of 150,000 so a decent sized city.

Always a little bit of a challenge to provide a wrap up of a month long trip. This particular trip divided into two distinct parts, the first being the Via Podiensis hiking part and the second being the Paris and environs part. So, I’ll summarize them a little bit separately. The hiking part was physically very demanding, and, maybe I’m getting older or it’s just my pack getting heavier, but this trip was more of a strain than previous ones. Part of it was that the arrangers had scheduled me for very long stages consistently. One thing to understand about the French countryside, much more noticeable this time than last, is that they obey their own rhythms and rules and they really don’t care about, logic, customers, making money or anything else. As such if you are going to be out in the countryside of France, you need to know that lunch is between 12:00pm-2:00pm and dinner is between 7:00pm-9:00pm. You will find it impossible to get anything to eat whatsoever outside of these times. With luck, you may find a grocery store, but it will be closed from 12:00pm-3:00pm. Also, while most people expect a hotel to be open, that would be unreasonable in France, the earliest you might find a hotel open would be 3:00pm but sometimes 5:00pm is the norm. Expect that almost everything will be closed on Sunday and also on Monday, even in a fairly large town. Moving on to Paris, be very careful of your stuff at all times. Pickpockets and petty theft is a definite industry. Expect that no one is wearing masks. Crowds are everywhere and the weekends are much worse. While CDG is a complete disaster, French trains are fantastic, generally fairly punctual and easy to use. The metro and buses in Paris are great, but you will still end up walking a lot more than you are used to, be sure to wear shoes that work for this. I can not emphasize enough that you need a fully functioning cell phone if you are going to be traveling in France. You’ll need it to navigate, show tickets, buy tickets, find out if things are open and a host of other things. Apple Pay works almost everywhere, so if you have an Apple Watch get that set up and learn how to use it. Remember that when you have had enough rich French food, you can get Asian food in all kinds of places and it is generally fairly good. Most French restaurants will have boringly similar menus in most regions, but the food will generally be good, just work your way through different items as you go. House wine is generally fine and very cheap, drink that. Your best meals are most likely to be at middle of the road places and rarely at the super fancy Michelin star joints, so, unless you are really into it, skip the super pricey places. Bathrooms: The French don’t really believe in them and so many places like large train stations will have one bathroom for the whole station. And, you will be expected to pay a euro to use it! Develop your bathroom strategy, always use the bathroom before leaving a cafe or restaurant, use the bathroom 15 minutes or so before your train arrives, it is free on the train. Use the bathroom as soon as you get off the plane, you’ll be waiting for an hour or more to get your passport stamped. As much as many things about France make me crazy, I’m already looking forward to going back. For some general travel tips that I’ve put together for Pilgrims, but apply to almost everyone, see this site: https://caminotips.wordpress.com/

Took the RER out to Parc de Sceaux today, about a 20 minute ride. This is special for me because this was my daily commute when I was 10-12 years old, out to Ecole Nouvelle D’Antony. The school is still there and seems to be doing well. They are on break right now but we did chat briefly with some of the teachers over the gate. Then, Parc de Sceaux, turned out to be spectacular! Think a slightly smaller Versailles and you have the drift. A lovely Chateau and then enormous gardens, well tended with fountains everywhere. After exploring the park, we walked into the Town to Sceaux and enjoyed the market before finding a local cafe for some lunch. Then back into Paris for the afternoon. I fended off a Pick pocket at Chatelet this morning who was using a briefcase as a shield while he tried to get into my pocket. Nothing gone. Dinner at a classic French place in the 6th called Le Bistro D’Henri, highly recommended if you like a small cozy traditional French place.