Soldes! Soldes! Soldes!

It's the winter sales in Aix and many of the shops were open specially on Sunday. The crowds were much quieter today and people strolled more calmly down the not quite so busy streets. We wandered aimlessly visiting stores that looked intriguing...noting which ones we want to go back to.

One such intriguing store was a candy shop! The displays were spectacular...beautiful! Free samples abound and we had fun translating the labels...

The streets are very narrow and most are pedestrian only. Cars are allowed on the road that forms a ring around Aix. We don't know where we were, but when we hit a road with cars, we found a new street to work our way back to the center.

Josie couldn't wait to have a crepe in France. The wall of Nutella drew her like a magnet...

After just two bites she said blissfully "Mom, your crepes are terrible". Thanks Josie! But, I'm okay with being terrible compared to the real thing. Nutella oozed out of every gap in the crepe and eventually a big blob landed on her coat. We decided that was a sign to wander back to our apartment, eat the crepe with a fork and knife and clean up her coat.

I had read that the doors of Aix were special...and I have been noticing some beautiful doors...ours included. In addition to the doors, there are interesting sites nearly everywhere you look...I won't get bored walking around here!

For dinner we decided to stay home and enjoy our little apartment. It was getting cold, dark, and cloudy out. Caroline had left us a frozen quiche (tarte 3 fromages), so I embarked on figuring out the oven and translating the cooking instructions from the box! A new challenge! The oven... Three knobs, no words, just pictures....can't be too difficult? wow...who knew you could have so many choices for how to turn on your oven? You can set it to cook a chicken, a roast, a pot, a cake, etc....but none of the little pictures looked like a quiche! Finally I chose what looked like a convection symbol and voila! In the cupboard I found the instructions for the oven...in English! Now, to read the box...hmmm...very small print and dim lighting...must use headlamp! French words I don't understand....how about Google translate. Picture this...Gigi in a chair with laptop in her lap wearing a headlamp and studying the box of a frozen food product...ha!

Dinner was a great success....

Notre premiere diner dans notre petit appartement

Alas...dinner was followed by an attack of time zone change and I couldn't sleep until 3am! Must get myself on French time!