Day 8: Paris to Chateau/Villa La Coste (Aix), Paris Observations

 Day 8:  Paris to Chateau/Villa La Coste (Aix)

Quote of the Day: This is one terrific hotel

Weather: Cool when we left Paris, hot in Provence

You'll have to push harder if we're going to make the 10:37 train

Gare de Lyon

Most tap or scan in, not for our train

Our tickets were scanned after departure. No security in station other than a few gendarmes and a dog-sniffer

It’s a wrap on Paris, and we had a great time. This morning we dine on warmed up pastry and melon, take a short ride to the Gare de Lyon and easily catch the 10:37 to Aix (aka Ex, or maybe Eggx?) en Provence. A high speed train, fortunately not as fast in Japan (those bullet trains made THB avoid looking out the window, everything is a blur).

We're in first class, very comfortable, $60 pp for a 3 hour ride

Convenient baggage compartment across aisle; that is our lunch in the green bag

Mauve is the restroom color of the moment

Interesting terminal design: sun shield!

One stop just before ours, and we’re off the train on schedule at 1:45. We prepared a picnic full of our favorite foods: bread, two types of pate, aged Comte, even a bit of butter, and two squares of chocolate, water and a mild limeade; free (well, all leftovers).

Car rental is in small building just outside the terminal….our first exposure to direct sun in the south, and it is hot! Rental is slow, and where to find the car is not easy to understand in Frenglish. 

2008 Peugeot, even Cecily could push this one around; the hummers on either side are the Villa La Coste shuttles

Only one wrong turn, quickly corrected, and in a half hour we’re at Chateau La Coste (the winery and museum) and Villa La Coste (the hotel).

Rooms on either side, ours is on left with valley view

When looking up from "back" at restaurant level

Restaurant on site (there's a connecting bridge and inside sitting with same menu)

Note garden roof tops

We had considered a 5 hour round trip drive to a Fondation of art on a small island on the French Rivera; after see Villa La Coste, that’s too much time to be away from this spectacular spot so we sign up for the on-site art and winery tours for tomorrow afternoon instead.

Our room

Our room is beyond lovely, it’s minimalistic and ethereal. Huge, with a deck overlooking the valley, a sun court in front, a giant bathroom, complementary drinks and laundry, and four restaurants.

Time for a dip in the pool, several levels down from where the main reception is located and where our room is set among a row of “suites” on the view side and a row of “studios” on the non-view side.

The place is loaded with art (this before the tour of the Ando designed museum and the myriad of sculpture spread all around the grounds and vineyards):

At side of mini-cafe...unfortunately no soft-serve

We think this is a JR piece

More Bob

Much L Bourgeois around

Hirst spin painting (Nick had one at Joe Boxer)

Dinner down near the Chateau at Francis Mallman, an Argentinean meat place; we ate at one of his 8 restaurants in Mendoza on a very hot night a few years ago. Tonight is pleasant: we share peach and burrata salad, grilled octopus, and German rib-eye steak (having Polish beef would’ve been 14E cheaper!). All very good; with two pisco sours, two glasses of La Coste Argentinian wine, $180 (resort prices in effect now).

The chefs are speaking Spanish 

Now that's a  bread plate

Peche salad

Octupus, grilled

Smashed potato

After shuttling down, we walk back up the hill, in the dark. Gives us a chance to see another art piece:

the world is yours

Paris Summary

·      Smoking: seems to still be a thing in Paris. Tons of smokers at the outside café tables, plenty of people walking around smoking and a few vaping (not many). At the restaurants, no smoking indoors and at kitchen ter(re) they didn’t allow smoking at their outdoor tables because the whole front of the restaurant was open.

·      Crowds on sidewalks: OMG! Has it only been four years since we were in the Marais (in late May)? It’s a slalom ride on most two person across sidewalks because of the foot traffic, the scooter traffic, the barriers along the curb to keep cars from parking on the sidewalk. We felt privileged if there was a lull on the sidewalk or street and we could walk unencumbered. A miracle! On other hand, who wants to be in a giant, energetic city without people watching?

·      Using buses and Metro: Really easy to use, very inexpensive, and savked THB the trouble of avoiding the myriad of scooters trolling the streets. In fact, THB kept expecting to see some accident involving some combination of a car, a scooter, a bike, a motorcycle and a few pedestrians. Never happened.

·      Pleasures of apartment life: Our apartment was probably 1400 sq feet, easy to navigate, in a great location, and around $450/night. Highly recommended! Downside: the company managing the place seemed to be made of teenagers that refused to respond to e-mail or answer their phone. Sort of a first for us, normally the companies are very responsive.

·      Prices: As several of you have noted, prices seem pretty reasonable. The euro is about $1.10 (very easy to convert). Museums and restaurants are on a par to what we would pay in most big US cities. Transportation and food in markets is cheaper. Some luxury items (e.g., eyeglasses) are cheaper. All restaurants include tax and tip, so what you see on the menu is what gets billed. Most places take AMEX (no explicit exchange fees), everyone takes VISA or MC. Coins: given VAT calculations, most retailers’ charges come out to odd number of cents. THB quickly accumulated 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent and maybe even 10 cent coins and then couldn’t work fast enough to get rid of them. The pile stayed in the apartment.

·      A Week: We had modest goals for the week: get over jet-lag, visit with MB and DB, avoid too many pre-commitments, no more than one big meal every other day (excluding pastries), take in as much art as we could. Modest! Accomplished! MS, our art guide (and as it turned out, our best restaurant guide) was terrific. Our big meal at Arpege was terrific. Even the Eiffel Tower glowed all night long at Les Ombres (which was quiet enough for the four of us to hear each other the entire meal).