Greetings From Home:
I guess it is true, home is where the heart is. So, for the moment, home is Aix-en Provence. We’re about 5 minutes south (sud) of the center of Aix-en Provence and 25 minutes north (nord) of the center of Marseille. We’re less than five minutes from a commercial center, which is a large Walmart-type store (Carrefour – pronounced Care-foo) with about 10 other retail stores and a McDonalds (Mc-Dough as the French say, but then they call Coca-Cola simply Co-ca). Between our house and the commercial center is farmland and a vegetable store. So, the area is somewhat diverse.
In our part of the world there are lots of trees and our house is at the top of a rolling hill. Not far away, however, you see more barren land with sand stone cliffs and it really looks like a lot of Arizona. We were warned it would get cold. This morning it was 30 degrees, though very clear and sunny, and by early afternoon it was 65 degrees. So, there’s a little desert climate here, though when you’re 30 minutes from the ocean, that has to play a factor, also.
Thought we’d send a few photos of our temporary residence. There’s probably an acre of land, which is totally fenced in (so is every other house, no matter how large or small). There is a swimming pool and some nice views. In one of the photos (if you work at it) you can see Ste. Victoraie Montaigne (a mountain), which connects to the artwork of Paul Cezanne, which connects to Van Gogh, Matisse, and others. You can look it up, if you’re bored. The beige stucco is the popular choice for houses in the south of France. Most houses are somewhat plainer than the one we are in. Most of the nearby houses have large plots of land, swimming pools and there are a few tennis courts. So, it’s a moneyed area. We’re guessing our house is probably worth nearly one-million U.S. dollars. Housing is pretty pricey in the south of France, though they’re not giving anything else away (except wine and cheese). We put the pencil to paper and discovered that a Big Mac meal (large fries and large soda) is just over $9.00.
So many topics to share......sandwiches, Marseille, drivers, flies, radiators, Nimes, banks, Avignon, and on and on. More later.
The Wilsons
