Woke up at 11am; C told me that I had missed phone call from J. J told me to meet her in 40 minutes at Rotonde, so I took a shower, skipped breakfast, and got on a bus. We were too late to pick up the rental car, so we cruised the marche. We found our way to the food marche and while J shopped, stopped in a sandwich. What's my rule? In France, food will always always always take longer than you think it should take. I asked for a panino with sausage and cheese; after chatting and a cigarrette break, they handed me a panino that was beautifully and unnecessarily cross-hatched. Seems like a waste of time to cross hatch something that's wrapped in paper, doesn't it? What ever. Anyway, we prepared a picnic of bread, goat's cheese, blue cheese, dried cured pork sausage, tomatos, melon and cherries.

We found the rental place, and since it was still closed for lunch we went to the Casino next door and bought water and pink grapefruit Mentos.

We finally got the car, checked it out, and were on our way when we realized that we didn't even print out the house for sale info that we wanted to check out. So we came back into Aix, parked, went to the Cyber Cafe, and tried to hit the road.

There was a little delay until J finally was able to put the car into reverse.

We hit the road and drove for a couple of hours, got stuck for a while behind some construction, and then had a hard time finding a picnic area. Stopped at a tourist stand for muscat; bought a bottle after the dude had us taste five. He kept insisting that we just toss out the rest of our shot glass, so we could move on, but I didn't want to waste. Besides, I was the copilot; not the pilot.

Anyway, we finally had our lunch around 5pm at the side of the road. The bathrooms were the starting blocks. Fun! We decided there was no way we were going to see the house for sale, so we went to Menerbes, took some pictures, went to Lacoste, and then headed back to Aix.

We tried to park in Aix so we could have dinner, but by then it was 10pm, so we decided to just go home. We tried to take a short cut through the old town (that is a joke) and then finally found our way to my place. I had what was left of diner, a slice of pizza-not pizza made from leftover ratattouille. Delicous. Cheese, and pear yogurt.

Pear is my favorite fruit right now, especially in desserts.

Tomorrow, J is coming by around 9 to pick me up. Fontaine de Vaucluse, Gourdes, Roussillon, maybe les Beaux.

Having fun, but can't wait to get home. Family is cool, but maybe next time will stay in a hotel. Ideally, I'd stay in an apartment where I can cook.

Menu for friday night: Melon, pork/shrimp lumpia, tomatos with salt, cucumbers with soy sauce, steamed rice. Dessert will be banana lumpia with ice cream.

Tomorrow we'll find out the 2012 Olympics will be in...London. Luther Vandross has died; Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring. What is this world coming to.