Street adventures
Friday, 2 March 2018
Rainy early, so we got going late—no reason not to! As the skies cleared and the streets were still wet, we headed out for a wander, with no other destination than a meal when we became hungry.
Soon, the sun gave us light and shadow art.
And on a plaza, too.
Note the plane (sycamore-ish) trees…detest the severe pruning that makes them all knotty and knobbly.
We stumbled into this curving section of what is billed as a stretch of the medieval wall—the inside was to the right.
And, just down the way, this wall and tower, which must be from a later wall that enclosed a bit more real estate.
Note plane tree far right….
A street veg display. Most species are from France.
And, on that same corner, a lovely old sign above…. Your chemiserie destination.
Under the sign a mini-minibus waits for the bollard to descend and permit passage.
In the next block, a pawn-bollard was down. Love the paving-stone pattern.
The face fountain…I only gave you a face yesterday.
More plane trees….
On the other side of the same square, a human figure behind a pigeon screen, below a day-of-the-month device that’s way off.
Lunch break! This is my chicken breast stuffed with crayfish, sides of mashed potatoes and poêlée de champignons—which turns out to be fried/sauteed mushrooms. Yum. And a wine from this area, from a town a mere 17km from central Aix.
Full, we wandered apartment-ward, passing by this plaza undergoing rebuilding…in the process revealing the bases of old walls/foundations…apparently of the palace of the town’s count. Didn’t catch the date—17th, maybe 18th century?
After a siesta-like downtime, we headed back out to see the city under lights. Nice night!
Discovered that some plane trees are afflicted with a fungus tree types call canker (chancre coloré here), and soon will be cut down. That is a big problem in this town of many, but not exclusively, plane trees.
Yawn…tomorrow!