I don't remember exactly what days I was in Aix, like 15-18, but I'm going to do them all in one felled swoop here. After my last post, Tim's host mother cooked us a very fine dinner. We started out with Apertifs, Claudio had some sort of champaign/wine spritzer, Tim and I a heavy, sweet wine, not unlike an ice wine.
Over these drinks and some small appetizers we chatted. I contributed little, speaking not a word of French. I did catch up a little with Tim, and through his translations spoke a little with his host. This went on for perhaps twenty minutes, and then we went to the table. The first course was a salad, mixed green, tomatoes, eggs, tuna, and onions. It was a fine salad, served with bread and glasses of rose wine, which I'm told was suitable for how hot it was outside.
The first course down, she brought out Ratatouille, and a platter of beef and potatoes. And of course more wine. For those of you unfamiliar, Ratatouille is a mixture of zucchini, tomatoes, and other things. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was spectacular. The beef was served with a pepper and cream sauce, and was delightful. I ate far too much, and winced when she brought out the cheese course.
I manned up and helped myself to a few slices of cheese and some bread. I was a little afraid that this was dessert, since I know how some Europeans like to consider cheese suitable for such endeavors. Fortunately, after I'd finished the last of my Bree, she brought out a chocolate cake.
And more wine. But the cake! It was very good on its own, but she served it with a sweet cream sauce that made it absolutely spectacular. Of course by this point I'd had something like five glasses of wine, so my opinion may have been skewed.
The meal was a great one, certainly the best I've had in Europe, which is saying something. It was the sort of two hour affair I'd been looking forward to, with delightful food and great company, even if I couldn't directly speak with some of them. The rest of the night we spent watching some films and generally lying about until we could walk again.
Claudio and I made our goodbyes and walked back to our hotel. He only got us lost once, we walked about two miles the wrong way up hill before he realized it, so instead of a twenty minute walk, we wandered about for near an hour.
The next day started late, as we only grudgingly woke from comas induced by so much good food and a sleepless night spent ironically in a sleeper car on the night train. We met Tim by the Big Fountain and had saw the movie Inception, which was quite good. After we had a light snack of some dessert crepes. We were due at a picnic in a few hours time, so we ate lightly, my crepe had but three scoops of ice cream!
We whiled away the hours until the picnic at Tim's host's house, and then helped her load the goodies she'd made into her car, and drove off. The picnic was being held for the students in the program Tim was doing, so Claudio and I were completely out of place, and of course I was the only one in the entire damned park that spoke no French.
We unpacked the picnic basket(s) and had ourselves another veritable feast. We started with a quiche, which tasted like what quiche should taste like. Claudio liked it so much he had three pieces. Knowing better, I took only one. The main course of this meal was a salad, but it was a very hearty salad. No lettuce, but potatoes, green beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, and generous chunks of chicken made it a serious contender for entree status. I had a few helpings.
Also there was wine. For the dessert course we had some of the left over chocolate cake from last night, and fresh melon. It was another fine meal, and I was glad to have had it. Afterwards we went back to Tim's to digest until the sun went down, and then we went to a few bars. We had a few beers at the first one, and then Tim decided we had to go get a Giraffe. A Giraffe is a three liter column of beer with a tap on it that you can buy for like 12 euro. It's essentially a big pitcher of beer.
After this Tim and I were somewhat drunk, and Claudio was mildly suggestible, so we walked around for a bit. We ran into some of Tim's classmates from America playing in a fountain between several crowded bars, and generally giving Americans everywhere a bad name. We watched them for a bit, and then Tim decided he needed to go to bed cause he had a test in the morning, or some such nonsense.
We stumbled back home, somehow not getting lost this time despite the booze.
The next morning we arose and again met Tim by the fountain (sort of the week's theme). After following him around for an hour as he tried (and failed) to get his travel arrangements situated, we had lunch at a place called Flunch. It was a sort of French Ponderosa, where you got a meal, but could also go to the buffet. It was pretty good. That night we were supposed to go to this Ethiopian restaurant that Tim had been talking about for days, but once we got there, he realized he'd been wrong and it was actually a Tunisian restaurant.
He decided he didn't want Tunisian food, whatever that is, so we went to a burger joint. I know what you're thinking, a hamburger in France? Is he mad? Yes, he's mad, but it was actually pretty good. I got a Texaco, which was a burger with avocado and bacon. It was very good, and the fries weren't bad either, but they were French Fries, I suppose.
The next day was a short one, as we had to be on the bus at 3. Basically we followed Tim around as he figured out what he was gonna do with the rest of his time in Europe, and then we had lunch. I had a giant ham and cheese sandwich on one very large piece of french bread. It was called a Croque Monsieur for no apparent reason. It was pretty good. Claudio got the Croque Madame which was the same, but had an egg on top, cause he's a girl.
The train ride was like 6 hours long, and kind of boring. There was some cool lighting on some Swiss countryside after a storm had blown through, but that was it. Today's my last full day in Europe, and I think Claudio and I are gonna hang out with some of his friends and play Halo, which seems fitting.
Tomorrow I get on my plane back to the States at 10:30, and I'll be in JFK at 1:30 somehow. It's a seven hour flight that takes three hours, or something.
This is likely the last post of the journey, so thanks for tuning in!
-Chase
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