Lorgues to Paris

We drove to Aix-en-Provence TGV station to drop the car off and to catch the train.  We had wanted to detour slightly to see Le Vieux Cannot, a medieval hill town, but google wanted us to take a goat track, so we had to abandon the attempt this time.  We had a coffee at the roadside stop.  It wasn't quite as atmospheric.

We had a scramble to find petrol to fill up.  The only one we could find was a Carrefour petrol station which wouldn’t take the credit card.  Europcar will have to charge us.

At the TGV station we went to find the lounge – upstairs.  We took the lift but we were at the wrong end.  Go down, walk to the other end, go up.  We think this station was designed by someone who didn’t travel with luggage.  We went to the other end and found a corner of seating and were entertained for part of the time by a pianist.  Very relaxing.

The train hurtled towards Paris at up to 298km per hour.  We passed from Provençale pale stone buildings and thin cypress trees to red tile roofs and churches with conical steeples.

Settled in Paris, with supermarket run done and flowers bought, we had dinner at a very busy café on the corner.  Five waiters [white shirts, bow ties, black waistcoats, no socks] and a manager [suit] were running. 

At nearly 8pm the garbage truck came down the side street which is tiny.  We don’t know why the Mairie de Paris doesn’t use mini-trucks.  This one filled the street and the cars had to wait.  We noted that Veolia no longer has the contract.