Ugh. I am officially the worst blogger ever.
Well, maybe not the worst. I have too much self-confidence for that. But certainly one of the most inconsistent. Anyway, although my trip is finished and I am moved into my tiny dorm room in New York, I will try to recap the rest of my trip for any interested parties who haven't already heard every juicy detail three times over. Starting where we left off:
Day 2 in Aix-en-Provence
In the morning, we did indeed go to the market as I said we would. It was really cool! Rather than being one big market, concentrated in one square, Aix's farmers' market takes over several smaller squares nestled throughout the Old City. We had a lot of fun, both that morning and on the morning that we left Aix, strolling through the tiny, winding streets, happening upon new market squares every few minutes. Everything we saw was true to all the old Provençal clichés: gorgeous displays of the area's produce, olives and olive products galore, beautiful seafood, artisanal cheeses and meats....We only regretted that we couldn't take all the beautiful things we saw home to cook up our own Provençal feast. I would love to come back and rent a villa in Provence somewhere for a couple of weeks, and do just that on every market day.
In the afternoon, we went on a tour of the Camargue with about ten other people.
On the way there, we drove on side roads so that we could see the beautiful countryside. As much as you may appreciate the work of all the Provence-crazed Impressionist painters now, its value will instantly double for you once you see in real life what their inspiration was.
You are probably wondering what exactly is the Camargue, and rightly so. It is a marshy area at the delta of the river Rhône, most of which has been sanctioned a national park or wildlife reserve or something. It is famous chiefly for two things: the horses raised there (this may be the only place on the Continent where you can find cowboys) and the thousands of flamingoes that live in the bird sanctuary there. Yes. Flamingoes in France. Year-round. I know. Who would've thunk.
First we saw the horses:
Later, after a quick dip in the Mediterranean (which was wonderful!), we saw many MANY flamingoes:
Look at this guy flapping his wings!
If you ever need pictures of flamingoes, huddling together in any number, striking any flamingo-y pose, I have over 70 other snapshots for you to choose from.
It was a really wonderful day - a welcome change of pace from the city/culture-oriented activities that predominated on this trip.
