Aix-en-Provence. French people always remark that I speak without an accent, or that I have a tiny american accent that you have to listen closely for. Tonight they told me that I have less of an accent than J, which is surprising to me, since her French is way better than mine.

Anyway, as a linguist, I've always wanted to correct them, and tell them that I do have an accent; a French one, because all accents are relative, just like time and space. I think that would blow their minds, though.

Anyway, dispite my ability to approximate native pronunciation, I wonder if it's wierd to people that I sound like I come from their country but I don't understand them and often can't express myself. I feel like an alien in the movies that came down from space, learned conversational English from the TV in a day (5th Element, or Jeff Bridges in that movie Starman). What a phony.

Today I told my French family that French people correct and Americans don't correct and it's all ok, so don't worry about it. Spanish people correct (not me) but Mexicans never.

Anyway, breakfast was Earl Gray tea and buttererd cake. I also snuck a stick of spice cake. Maybe I'll look for a spice cake recipe when I get home. A student called to tell me that everything was ok. Tomorrow I'll call the homesick one.

Supposedly it was just as hot today as before, but it was breezy, bordering on windy. I was even chilly this morning.

J called, and I took the bus to meet her at the Rotonde in front of the Office de Tourisme. We got some information about renting a car, and then we came back to my place by bus; the number two.

Speaking of numbers, I've lost count how many times I've seen the number 13 repeated on this trip.

Lunch was delicious; farsi, which is stuffed tomatoes, zucchinis, and eggplants. It was served with rice but there was, as always, the left over tabouli. I remembered at the last minute to tell V that J was vegetarian. Oops. Oh well, they get along. Same wonderful cheese plate; I don't exactly remember if there was a dessert.

Then we all hopped in the car with M and headed to Cassis. We got on the 5 Calanque boat and took places in the front. The capitan reminded us that we might get sprayed a little.

We got soaked. I would have stayed there and got soaked, but I was afraid for my camera, and when I went aft and saw how sunny and breezy it was, I thought, forget it, I'm going to dry out.

The calanques themselves were a sight, but mainly I enjoyed the boat ride. The first calanque was a curved inlet; the second was a peacefull lagoon, the third one was just a half moon but the rocks were high high high, and the formations made it seem like there were faces looking down on us. The fifth was a big one too. There were a lot of caves.

The capitan to a more seaward route back into port, so there wasn't much spash. I was covered in salt. We got off and walked for a few mintues in town. Basically the same warm colors and narrow, curved streets, plus the waterfront plus a some hillyness. I like Cassis a lot. Must be nice to be able to tie up there. Still, I wonder if it's enough for the rich and beautiful to be rich and beautiful.

We got home and I took a shower to get rid of all that salt. We had dinner close to nine o'clock, because we were waiting on a quiche. I was served a ricard and some sliced cured sausage. Then the salty quiche with lardons and a lovely salad with a mustard vinagrette. I had some cheese by myself, as V and D had to run to catch their movie. I had a melon slice for dessert.

Today was the first time I thought, wow, this is a long time. I still have 10 days to go. I've seen the major monuments; I think we've moved on to the secondary monuments, and franchement I'm not all that interested. I only go so I won't be accused of being lame.

V is helping us get in contact with a certain Prof R. Sounds like a cool dood, so I hope we can get him.

When I get home I am not going to waste my summer. I'm going to work on a set, learn guitar, and clean the crap out of my house.

We saw a wild fire on the way to the camlanques today, and counted four fire planes that collect water from the med and dump it on the fire.