Practicalities for Aix-en-Provence

 I want to cover a few of the basics for our stay in Aix-en-Provence so I have them written down someplace when I forget them.

Hopefully I won’t forget the apartment-hotel we are staying at and hopefully they won’t change it at the last minute.  We should have a 1-bedroom apartment at the Aparthotel Adagio Aix-en-Provence Centre which is at the northwest corner of the historic center: 3-5 Rue Des Chartreux, 13100, Aix-en-Provence France.  

 The location is good since it is only a block or two from the Boulevard de la Republique which has several bus lines going to and from the town center and also out to the suburbs where the Carrefour and Auchan Hypermarchés are located.  Apparently the nearby supermarket, Casino, has closed.  Let’s see if I can do my marketing at the marché before language classes start at 9 am.  Update:  The Casino supermarché has been replaced by an Intermarché so we are good to go.  I only hope they have a fresh squeezed orange machine like Franprix did.

The apartment has a small kitchenette with a microwave, cooktop (hopefully 4-burner but maybe only 2), coffee-maker, teapot, cookware and dishware, and a dishwasher.  Unfortunately there is no washing machine and supposedly there is only one common one for all 89 apartments so we’ll see how that goes…. Maybe I need to look for a laundromat.  It does have an iron in case we have to « repasser » les vêtements.  It also has windows that can open so maybe we can string a clothesline from one window to the next…

At the beginning of our 6 weeks they will give us a public transportation pass for us to use.  The Aix en Bus system seems pretty good to me with multiple buses (03, 08, 13, M2) stopping near the apartment, although the British American Institute where we have classes is only a 12 minute walk away (that’ll be 20 minutes for us).  The best bus to take is probably the #8 which stops about a block from the school.  I’m assuming the majority of the time we will just walk to places unless it’s to a location outside the historic center of Aix, like to a Hypermarché.

Bus #8 from Adagio Aparthotel to the British American Institute 

There are also little buses that run through the historic center but frankly I’d be embarrassed to get on them …. Wait.  Maybe they wouldn’t be so bad since they are electric buses meant to cover the pedestrian areas that regular buses can’t get to.  They are called the Diablines and there are 3 routes.  You flag them down to get on them and they run Monday - Saturday, from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm.  They don’t run on Sundays or holidays.

I am quitting here because Blogger is a pain to use on the iPad when the posting gets too long.  It starts misbehaving.

A bientôt!