Provence and Aix

Have been staying in Aix-En Provence since Wednesday and frankly it is a really cool city, small enough to give you a sense of safety, unlike Marseille which has an air of dodginess about it. Spent Wednesday exploring the older part of the town, with it's cool narrow streets and many, many, many fountains, including an awesome one in the centre of the town. Yesterday Simon and I rocked out the Mont Saint Victoire, a mountain about the height of Orford, but a lot longer, it is mostly a huge ridge. We accidentlly got off the bus at the wrong town and ended up hiking the longest possible trail, which took us over four hours, but it was absolutely beautiful, got some great pictures of the provencal countryside from way up there. It was really warm down in the trees but extremely windy way up at the top, and very rocky, which made for tough going, but when we finished we had an awesome sense of accomplishment. The only people we mw up there were some French mountain climbers who had done the cliffs that face the Meditteranean, we made a point of opening our cots to show how tough we are because we are Canadian. The Provencal folk are an interesting bunch. The tend to ignore the rules of the road and honk their horns alot, and the motorcyclists and scooter riders are downright insane!!!!! The place also has a lack of street signs, which makes it hard to find your way around, although Aix is much better than Marseille in this regard. Anyways, ta-ta for now from Provence!!!!!