The Trail's Our Thing

Lionel then led us through the now-deserted Bibémus quarry, another spot where Cézanne painted. Much of the stone used to build the beautiful homes in Aix came from this quarry. The walk down the mountain was much easier, and we returned to Le Tholonet and took the bus back to Aix. Afterwards George, Annalise (a woman about my age from Sweden) and I had a beer on the square at L’Hotel de Ville.

In the quarries at Bibémus

Friday night was a big event. The man who leads many of the excursions is named George. He hosted our group for an evening of pétanque at his local club, near the Hôtel Roi Rene. Afterwards—since it was his birthday weekend—we had a barbeque there at the pétanque club.

About twenty students were there for the pétanque. All of my classmates except for Suzanne were there. Although I have watched a bit of pétanque before, I didn’t really undertstand the game and confess that I thought it was the same as boules. Now I’m told that the two games are not the same, though I don’t understand the difference.

Playing pétanque

George divided us into teams of three. I was paired with Daniel, a man from Switzerland who is here with his pregnant wife (also a student) and a woman from Germany who now lives in Australia. (I don’t know her name, but she knew a lot about the game.) George explained the rules of the game, which I didn’t really understand. My teammates explained to me (in English) as we played. It was fun. We played one team for about 30 minutes and then we all swapped around and played another team. I wasn’t great, but several times one of my balls was closest to the little ball called le cochonnet. Now I understand the game, I definitely want to play again.

After the games, we had apéritifs at the little bar there at the pétanque club, along with several older local men. I decided to have a pastis, since that seemed appropriate when playing pétanque. As a little snack with our apéritifs, we ate tiny, tiny little escargots, pulling the snail out of the shell with a toothpick and then drinking the garlic juice. All the younger students were saying “Ewh, ewh!!” I was the first to try, encouraged by Markus, and then everyone tried the snails. They were really quite tasty.

A pastis with Markus

We had a great meal, though there really wasn’t a proper place to sit. We just sat on the steps there by the little bar. There was a cold pizza (very good) as a first course, then sausages cooked on the barbeque with a variety of salads, then cheese, and finally a cake… all served with a great local rose. People conversed in whatever language seemed easiest, depending on who you were talking to. We sang happy birthday to George in French, German, Swedish, Finnish and English… each nationality initiating their own version of the traditional song.

Yesterday I went to St. Tropez, an excursion led by George. We traveled on a large tour bus, and the group included 14 students from the IS school, some young American students from another school, and some people who seemed to be local… perhaps friends of George’s filling the bus? My friend Patricia (a professor of anthropology at a college in Edmonston, Canada) came on the trip, and we sat together on the bus and enjoyed the day together. We left the Tourist Office at 8:00 am and arrived in St. Tropez at 10:30 am. It was market day and summertime, and there was a lot of traffic.

Beautiful St. Tropez

Patricia and I loved St. Tropez. George described it as “très jet set.” There were huge yachts in the port. The town is so colorful—the red stone, the blue water, so many beautiful flowers and trees. We climbed up to the old citadel with George and some other students. It was closed, but the views were wonderful. Then Patricia and I broke off to visit some shops and then the big and busy Saturday market—very crowded, but still a great experience. We also enjoyed people-watching… marveling at the very tan and thin women, in short skirts, tiny tops, and very high heels. We had just time for lunch at a little restaurant before we had to meet back at the bus for a 1:15 pm departure.

Our next stop was Le Cap Taillat, a natural beach about a 30 minute drive from San Tropez. A group of us followed George on a two kilometer trail, but when we arrived at the beach he likes, it was too windy to stay. It was all very scenic.

Along the trail at Cap Taillat

Along the way there were several small beaches where people were sunbathing and families were playing. Many of the women were sunbathing topless, and we saw several men sunbathing completely nude. Many people were very very tan (bronze). The nudity is the norm in France and everyone seems very comfortable, but of course it is different than what Patricia and I are used to. Interesting in many ways! Our group was at the beach for about three hours, which was too long for those of us who weren’t really interested in sunbathing or swimming.

We were away from Aix-en-Provence for eleven hours! I would have loved much more time at St. Tropez, but overall it was really a wonderful day.