Aix & Apt en Provence, France, June 5th - 7th, 2009

The wedding of Ashley Searle and Ciara Vlanderaan brought us to the south of France at the beginning of June. Seeing as this was going to be our first trip to that region, we were definitely up for the long weekend trip.

Our hotel in Apt

Kathleen (Eric’s boss and also an out of work friend) and her husband Bruce accompanied us to the airport for our stupid-o-clock flight to Marseille. We arrived quite early and had a heck of a time finding the rental car and then getting out of the airport. It was good that we found it when we did though, because in true Wilson-style, it began to pour.

We spent the day up in Aix-on-Provence as that had been recommended as a cute, French town that is quite chic. It didn’t disappoint. We strolled the narrow, cobble-stoned streets and took in the sights of a few of the old buildings before we stumbled upon a small square with a fantastic market! Eric and I love markets and to make our own meal with fresh market food is a definite must in each city that we visit. The language barrier here was a bit more of an issue as most of the people in this tiny village didn’t speak much (if any) English. It gave me a chance to practice the French that I had been learning for the past 5 months or to hide behind Eric as he tried to order. I successfully did a little of both.

Towards the end of the day we headed back to the Marseille airport to pick up Jimmy and Jason who were arrived late afternoon. As we drove through Marseille, we were a bit disappointed that we had been told to skip seeing the city. I love water (and boats) so it seemed like a cute little port town waiting to be explored. However, we had been told it wasn’t worth it so just did a drive-through on the way to the airport. Big bummer, but gives us another reason to come back in the future.

We picked up the boys and headed northwest ( I think) and arrived in Apt a few hours later. The journey there (via Tomtom) was quite scenic and a bit windy (not windy, but windy like curvy). It was so windy that we nearly had a sicky in the backseat. Upon arriving in the quaint, little town of Apt, we quickly found our Hotel Le Couvent (exactly as it sounds, an old convent). It was such a cute place with the nicest owners. They spoke a little English and were able to recommend a nice place for dinner – I think called Paris (oddly.)

Wandering Apt

The four of us navigated the tiny streets to the center of town – the center being a few restaurants and one little bodega type shop. The restaurant was pretty empty so we ended up picking a table outside, just as it started to rain, hard. The waitress was really sweet and tried hard to translate the menu for us, but got it a bit wrong when it came to Eric’s order. There was a specialty on the menu that was a local delicacy. The waitress pointed to her backside and said, ‘Rognon.’ Eric took this to mean ‘rump steak’ and thought he would give it a go. About 15 minutes later, the chef delivers Eric’s order personally and says in broken English, ‘I hope you like.’ You could see on the chef’s face how excited he was that someone actually ordered this dish. After about 30 seconds of the chef departing, Eric then realized that the plate before him (which looked like a pile of mushrooms in brown sauce) was actually a big plate of kidneys. Poor Eric was such a good sport. I’ve never seen him complain about food, ever. He didn’t want to be rude especially after how proud the chef was so he scarfed down every last bite.

Post- dinner, we met up with Maggie Buggie (another wedding guest staying at the convent) and her boyfriend Chris who also happened to be having dinner at the Paris Restaurant. We tried to meet up with her pre-dinner so that we could all dine together, but no luck in connecting. We made our way to the one bar that was still open. The looks that we got when entering the biker, tattoo, and raunchy bar were priceless. I felt like I needed a Tetanus shot just to be sitting in the booth. The time between when we got our drinks and finished the last drop was absolutely excruciating. I though the clientele were either going to break glasses over our heads or feel up Maggie and me. What the atmosphere lacked, the amount of alcohol in the drink made up for. Following the dirty, scary bar, we made our way back to the hotel and had another drink. They had both an ‘honesty’ bar and a decanted bottle of wine waiting for us upon our return. In additional to the decanter full of wine, we managed to finish off a few other bottles that were bought by Maggie and Chris on their trip to the wineries earlier in the trip. Soon after, Eric and I retired for the evening knowing we had a big day ahead.

Massive cheese wheels at Apt Saturday market

The next day we were told that the entire town of Apt turns into a big farmer’s market every Saturday. It was amazing! There were selling everything from fruit to goats! Maybe not really goats, but there was a goat and you could pay money to touch him I think. We decided to make a meal out of the goods (and bought an antique-looking clock in the process) and made our way back to the hotel to enjoy our haul.

Later on that day we left for the wedding which was the real reason we were in town. The wedding was in the town hall of Apt – a cute little building that held about 50 people seated and 15 standing. The wedding itself was performed, in French, by the Mayor of Apt who gave a lovely little speech about Ciara and Ashley and how lovely it was that they chose to have their wedding their and how they would always be welcomed back with open arms. The ceremony itself lasted about 15 minutes and the bride looked absolutely beautiful.

Following the ceremony, the guests walked for about 15 minutes to Ciara’s parent’s country house that was beautifully decorated and had a giant tent (or marquee as they call it) in the backyard. The cocktail hour lasted for 3 and was a great way to start the evening’s festivities. Since we had actually started drinking pre-wedding around 1:30, I knew we were in for a long night.

Waiting for the ceremony to start in City Hall

I don’t remember a ton of the details from the reception, but I can confirm the following: beer, wine and champagne were a flowing, every course of the meal was round (and delicious), the dance floor was packed, and Eric became best friends with one of the men at our table who lived in China, but had lived in Chicago and all over the world. I began to dislike him as soon as he offered my husband a cigar. About halfway through that cigar, I got mad at Eric for acting funny and actually used the phrase, ‘You’ve changed; I don’t even know you anymore.’ The Brits that were in earshot of this phrase thought it was quite funny and evidently told a lot of people I said that. Now that quote precedes me whenever we see mutual friends both who were there and not there at the wedding.

Ciara

Ciara and Ashley know how to throw a party so it was no surprise that their many guests knew how to enjoy said party. The reception lasted until 6 a.m., but, luckily, I was able to convince Eric that he had had enough around 4 so we got a taxi back to the hotel.

I don't even know who you are any more!

Sunday was spent recovering and enjoying a nice leisurely lunch in town before heading back to Marseille to catch our flight home. We dropped J&J off at the port and made our way to the airport , but not without some bread, cheese and cherries to nibble on. The food alone would make me visit France time and time again. Thanks Ciara and Ashley for giving us a reason to visit the south of France and many happily married days ahead!

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