Ox en Provuhnce

I have to say though May has been the best month yet. If I had to be apart from the family I love at least this month has been easier. This post is to tell you all of a great place I got to go on Pentecost weekend. I drove down to Aix en Provence, France. This is about 30km from the French Riviera. I went down there on Sunday morning. It took about four hours to drive through the French country side.


Backup to the night beforeI left...my boss had kindly offered me his GPS to go with his car for the weekend. I turned it down thinking "I don't need no stinking GPS". That made the trip a bit more exciting. First, if you ever miss your exit in Europe you are guaranteed to have to drive 10-30km to the next exit. Even when you get to the exit you are not guaranteed to be able to turn around. To make matters even worse, you can sometimes pay a toll to get off and then back on the highway!! So, let's say I contributed a few Euros to the maintenance of the fine French autoroutes.


I eventually got to my hotel which was very close to the city center. The roads in this town are incredibly small. That evening I jumped in a taxi and told the driver that I would like to go to Rue de Masse. He kind of laughed, drove me 5 minutes down the street and then said "Rue de Masse here". Seven euros to go a couple of blocks but that's what you pay for ease. I walked down the street to the church where the International Christian Community of Provence meets. I walked in and was greeted. I then got to meet Darron and Julie Jones whom I had seen before at Voyagers Church where our family attended in Irvine.


Everyone was very kind and the church service was excellent. Darron spoke on James 5 and greed. Very good stuff. Convicting. Darron was kind enough to put me with a couple of other families who were going to dinner after service. I went to dinner with Neil and Anita as my main hosts. I also met some others who were with us. Neil talked me into a Chwarma from a North African restaurant. It was really good! I loved it.


The next day I got off and around the city. Walking around was fairly easy but I noticed there were quite a few homeless teenagers types there. Nothing dangerous. Just people who were obviously hurting, strung out and probably in need of some motivation.


I found a tour tram that went around the city for six Euros for a 45 minute guided tour. That was a lot of fun. I saw some amazing buildings and hearing the history of the city was just a blast. I also walked down the main streets were the market was open with all of the local goods.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffgerhardt7/AixEnProvence?authkey=0yklKT-4F5Q