At the beginning of 2024 I decided to manifest a trip to France for myself.

I hadn’t been since March 2019, which was also my last international trip, and after enduring a global pandemic, having a baby, and two moves (one of which was cross-country), I decided it was time. I knew we weren’t ready for an international trip with a three-year-old and I was so so so lucky enough to have a good friend interested in and able to take a girls trip. She is a mom of two and this trip was a very special occasion for both of us.

After I had visited Paris twice I started scheduling trips to visit other parts of France. I’ve visited Mont St-Michel and Lille on previous trips. This time I booked two nights in Provence and a day trip to Giverny to see Monet’s house and gardens. I chose Aix because it is easily accessible by train from Paris and it is a very walkable city.

I learned a lot about what to do again and what to do differently when booking train tickets within France. I booked through SNCF and I had to wait until about four months before the travel date to book tickets. I was unlucky in that the seats I booked on both trains were rear-facing, and upon further research it seems it’s almost impossible to know if you will have a forward- or rear-facing seat when choosing them. We never had our tickets checked and I don’t think we needed to pay extra for oversized baggage (we had carry-on sized suitcases) but I do recommend paying in advance for the Wi-Fi. I had also done a bunch of research and planned to try to take the Navette bus from the TVG station into Aix but I couldn’t figure out where the bus dropped off in Aix so we just went with an Uber when we arrived.

Somehow, miraculously, we had no jet lag. Maybe it was the full travel day we had once we arrived in the UK/Europe. We arrived in Aix in the early evening and lucked out with a friendly Uber driver welcoming us to Provence. Aix is a lovely little city. It is extremely walkable and if you want to shop I have not encountered a better city to do so. In addition to all of the food, flower, and flea markets, there are hundreds of popular stores: Longchamp, Saint James, Sezane, Fragonard, just to name a few. Delicious food, so many bookstores and boulangeries. I absolutely loved our hotel and would definitely stay there again. My personal highlights were Les Vieilles Canailles and Mon Chat Pitre. Hopefully the next time I go Cezanne’s house will be through renovations.

Shop
Thursday markets (flea, food, flower)

Mon Chat Pitre
books, cats, cute tote bags

Eat
Loubon
zucchini flower, œufs mimosa, cod with ratatouille, cookie with ice cream and olive oil.

MANA
chai with oat milk, tartine au beurre d’amande

Madelines de Christophe
chocolat, nature, almond

Les Vieilles Canailles
You must call for a reservation but it is worth it.

Farineoman Fou
baguette, chocolat sourire

Do
Hotel de Caumont
went for the art but they were between exhibits. The garden was beautiful and worth going for.

Saint-Pierre Cemetery
Cezanne’s grave