We docked at La Seyne sur Mer then after a very early breakfast caught coach 5 (moving from coach 4 which we were at the back after they filled the coach without counting how many were on it) to Aix en Provence. Pretty scenery with hilltop villages and vineyards (first in France but the original grapes killed off by phylloxera worm so replaced from California and Texas).

Aix is an interesting place, rundown mansions slowly being restored by Unesco. Apple store like a glass pavilion on Mirabeau Avenue (Mirabeau was a dubious character who bought it during the French Revolution). One of our party tried sitting on a rising bollard which slowly descended under him and he slowly fell to the ground!

Aix has artistic connections - Cezanne walked each day to paint hills and his path is now marked by gold nails in streets. Emile Zola and Darius Milhaud and others have plaques to them. On our tour of the artistic streets we saw an elderly Frenchman 'park' by bashing his well damaged car into another.

We had some free time after the walk to the cathedral, and patronised some biscuit shops. As elsewhere being offered samples to taste forced us to buy something to take back for work and family. The biscuit shop sold empty boxes which you could fill yourself. We had a drink in a cafe on the Mirabeau avenue, I admired the electrical wiring in the section we sat in.