The cons of air travel

So after one of the longer journeys I have ever taken, I have finally arrived in Aix and at my parent’s place. To say that everything went OK wouldn’t quite be true as USairways lost my only bag (thats what I get for checking it). So I pretty much arrived here at around 8pm last night wearing the same clothes that I had been wearing for almost 3 days and of course, no clothes into which to change.

Along with my lost bag, was the cable needed to upload pictures, so unfortunately you will have to bear at least one more post sans photos. I will say however that not having the backpack made my life slightly easier while navigating paris for the day. I probably left CDG at aroud 8:30 and made my way to St. Germain de Pres as I had to see what all of those lounge mix CDs were really all about. I had never seen St. Germain de Pres even though the last time I was in Paris I stayed about 10 blocks way.

I spent the morning walking around shooting pictures and walking some more. I capped my time in St Germain de Pres by sitting at a coffee shop and finishing the rest of the aforementioned Harper’s interspersed with long stares outside gazing at the comings and goings of paris. It was the most expensive espresso I have ever had (4,60 Euros) but probably the most enjoyable in a while. I made my to gare de lyon and caught the TGV to provence spending 80% of it completely passed out and probably with my mouth open.

I am now staying at my parent’s apartment which is small and quaint but has that distinctive provencal charm that you would imagine when you think french apartment. It is a 5th floor apartment and has a great view of the city and also the mountains in the distance. Everyone who is from Aix will tell you (with pride) that those are the mountains painted by cezanne, Aix’s prized artist. I am hoping to go out and explore provence a little bit more today and should my bag not be back by tomorrow (a very real possibility), also buy a cable for my camera so I can offload some pictures. Don’t be surprised if I am wearing jeans and a stanford alumni 08 t-shirt in all of them. And yes, I did bring an already deteriorating shirt to france so it could at least die (fall apart) somewhere nice.