Back to the farm ...
We last saw our intrepid travellers turning their noses away from the sea, and pointing them back towards Peter’s farm. This was not to be rushed however … there were a couple of places to check out along the way.
First stop was Aix-en-Provence - a university town in (wait for it) Provence. We had bypassed it on the way to Cote d’Azur, but had been told it was worth a look … which it was. We stopped about 25 minutes walk out of the old town, and found (after the 25 min walk) that there was a very large fountain in the middle of the old town, and a lot of people. We spent a fair bit of time walking through a ton of little streets, finding cute little shops with local stuff, and a surprising number of boutique clothing stores - more expensive than I would have expected to be supported by a student population! We decided to hit up a take-away Asian for dinner (surprisingly good), and a supermarket for other esssentials (i.e. wine) and headed back to the hotel to eat.
The next day we selected a fairly random spot to stay - all we knew was that it was about the right distance on the map - but St Etienne turned out to be very interesting, with a theme of art and design. There was a modern art museum (that we walked to in the rain, leaving little puddles wherever we stopped to look at an exhibit) that had a space-themed exhibition, featuring photos of the moon from the 19th century to the NASA moon shots. There was a bunch of other stuff too, some of which we may have been under-appreciative of :). There was also an industrial design workshop/exposition attached to a design school in the middle of town that we stopped and had a look at. By this time it had been at least hours since our last drink, so we find a bar in the centre of town, which started fairly quiet, but started getting noisy when they turned on the soccer match - the local team was playing away in the French Premier league, so the fans came to the bar to watch. We left when it became clear that St Etienne was going to lose, and we didn’t want to see the effect that it might have in the bar … and walked a block to a cheap’n’cheerful kebab shop for dinner.
Now, while all this seemed to be slightly aimless, we DID actually have a plan - to see Bourges, which had been recommended as a great place for tourists, with a lot to see but relatively unknown to most - maybe not good for them, but good for us! Here we got really lucky with the hotel, too … marked as a two-star, but just extensively renovated, and I suspect will soon be a three-star - the bathroom was brilliant, and there were (count them) 8 wifi access points for three floors!
Bourges lived up to its recommendation - a great cathedral (St Etienne, world heritage listed and not to be confused with the town above), a palace, and a bunch of other museums, including one for an artist (who I’d never heard of) called Maurice Esteve who impressed me no end. This was a great place to visit …
From Bourges it was back to the farm for a washing spree, and dinner with Peter’s neighbours Jacques and Helene, who were enormous fun … dinner went for a long time and many bottles.
After the one night back at the farm, it was time to think about catching a plane in Paris … but although our time in France was running out, there was still time for a couple more places …