Day 28- Mount St. Victoire

It’s our last day in our apartment, oh no! Not yet!  I woke up feeling much better then I had on previous days, missing the wine tasting was well worth it. Our plans for the day were to visit Mount St. Victoire. This is a place in southern France where famous artists such as Cezanne and Van Gough would go for inspiration to paint. This mountain has been on the “to do” list for Aix from the day we received our acceptance letters. It’s about time we got around to it. When we got on the bus to go to St. Victoire, the machine to take the fare was broken, so it was a free ride there. We have REALLY been getting lucky with the free thing, who would have thought?! In total this weekend we have saved 71 euro!  We asked the bus driver the best stop for the trail we wanted to go on, and off we went. 

On the side of mount St. Victoire, there is a cross, about 15 meters tall, which looks out over the town of Aix protecting it. It’s not possible to see from Aix, but it’s there.

Mount St. Victoire

Grassy Trail

 We started our hike on a slight up hill with a 4-foot wide path, it was smooth and easy. We would be at the cross in no time! As we progressed closer and closer to the mountain, the terrain changed, rapidly. We ended up going straight up the mountain on a narrow rocky path, in 90 some degree whether. We wore our sneakers, but were not prepared for this. All four of us huffed and puffed as we pressed our selves up and up the side of St. Victoire, excited to reach the cross and have our picnic. After an hour of uphill torture, we finally passed otherhumans! Yes other people are on the trail! With sweat dripping from our foreheads, and our feet on fire from the hot rocks beneath them, we asked the locals how far we were from the cross. Surely we must be close. Not quite, he replied, “oh its only about an hour maybe and hour twenty from here.” We laughed no way, “only” he said it so nonchalant as if we weren’t hiking straight up the side of a mountain! I suppose we should have expected his so calm attitude, the couple had on legit hiking boots, back packs with built in water supply, visors, double walking sticks, and hiking clothes, matter of fact, they looked like the were about to head to Mount Everest and give that a go.

With out going on and on, we were way under prepared. So we took a few more steps, decided we would probably never find a nice shady flat spot for lunch, and made camp in the middle of the trail. I ate the most well deserved sandwich in the world. After lunch we decided to head back down the trail, to try and catch the next bus back to Aix. Silly us thought that going down the side of the mountain would be much easier and relaxing. But we ended up having to go at a snails pace as to not slip on a rock or go sliding down the mountain on our bottoms. We made it safely, and on time, the bus arrived about 5 minutes after we got to the station.

Safe back at our apartment we took our last showers and started to pack up. L Every time I would put something in my suit case I’d look at Jill and say “this is so weird” it felt like we just arrived, how are we already packing and leaving this perfect little abode that we have called home these past 3 weeks? I guess we fell to hard for our little lovely apartment.

While we packed and cleaned like little Cinderella’s then decided we needed to have one last taste of Aix before leaving. We got a box of Macaroons that we so light and tasty, I’m sure they had no calories in them at all ;) 

with our bags packed the place felt empty, and less homey. Just a spot for the next people to come in and use for a week as tourists, I’m sure there wont be many others that will become as attached as I have.

Sad Faces

Packed up