9 August Marseille & Aix en Provence

Another early start to get us via a 40 minute coach trip to Aix En Provence. The Royal family join us again with even more of their entourage. I am surprised they would risk this as this was a walking tour, but we felt safe with all the minders though if anything went down we would probably be collateral damage (“red shirts” for all you trekkies). Aix en Provence try to be seen as independent from the rest of France and have a mild dislike of anybody in Marsaille even though they are just 20k from each other. What figures? Today being Sunday, most of the shops are closed but with a few busloads of paying guests it is market day at tourist prices. Aix en Provence is also the home of Cezanne. Six of us plus the Saudis had coffee at Les Deux Garcons where Cezanne hung out. The photo of the island fortress/prison is “Chateau d’If “This is where the Count of Monte Cristo was set. Had an interesting experience with a Romanian lady outside one of the churches. She came up to me wanting money for food. We had been warned. She showed her crucifix and stared at me piteously. In the bible it says if a man asks for food, don’t give him a stone so through our tour guide I was happy to give her food, but I will NOT give her money. I figured it would reveal her true motive. We took her to the market with our tour guide to buy her some fruit. Gave her some strawberries and then she complained as she wanted money, so she was then given the short shift. If she was genuine she would have been grateful, but obviously she had an ulterior motive which was a shame. It does not encourage us to help. Begging is big business.
On returning to the ship we decided to try a new restaurant called L’Olivo. A pay restaurant for general passengers but free for us .It is Mediterranean a la carte with goodies from all over the Med. Smart casual dress code and again like our experience at Raffles in Singapore we discover that trousers were required and not the shorts Bill was wearing. If he didn’t change he wasn’t going to be granted entry. This will be our restaurant of choice for the rest of the cruise. The food is truly delicious. After lunch we explored the public area of the ship. There are 3959 passengers on board and many areas are very crowded especially the pool areas. In the Yacht Club on the front of the ship we have exclusive areas which are very quiet. We have access to the rest of the ship as well if we so choose. Tomorrow we sail to Barcelona in Spain.