June 13 - evening

After our tiring but interesting visit to Les Beaux, we were hungry.  The only problem is that we are hungry when no restaurants are open.  France has kept the custom of closing the shops from 12 to 2 (and apparently has received a commendation for trying to keep this a "family" time, though this is just hearsay as I have not had time to research the particulars.  It was 4 o'clock and all we could find in the town of Mausanne was a little cafe that would serve us crepes.  We had had crepe a few times since we started our trip but the ones we had in this town were amazing!  You'll see.  Below is the town square

We walked around hoping we might find something to eat.  Of course we knew that everything would be closed but we wanted to see the restaurant that had been recommended to us.  It's below.

Here's the outside cafe that belongs to the restaurant.

 

 Well, we weren't going to get any food until 7:30!  We walked around, a bit hungry thinking anything sounded good but nothing was open.  There was a cafe in the square - below

 We stopped to see the church off the square.  And then we sat down at a small cafe.  To the right is the view from the cafe.  They weren't serving anything but crepes so we ordered two.  They are below.

These are the best ones we had during the whole trip - caramel with caramel ice cream and chocolate with bananas

 We lingered over our delicious "desserts" and then took a little walk up the street.  There we found one of the old washing areas that used to be in every town.  In this town they have a ceremony each year where they have a celebration of the old custom of washing the clothes in the town "vat."

As our walk continued, we thought perhaps we should buy a baguette as when we returned to our little cottage in Aix, we wouldn't find anything open.

There were beautiful vines and lots of trees - very few people around, even though we found out they were having a festival in the village that weekend.

This is an example of the beautiful trees that have been cut down on many of the main roads in France.

Down one street we found a hotel/guest house with a swimming pool so we went in to check the price.  This town really looked like a good place to spend some time and use for a home base.  I'm sure we probably won't ever go back as it proved to be rather an expensive place, but certainly it was fun to see it.  Come to think of it, May-June isn't a very good time to be thinking of swimming.

The next three are of  a friendly cat sitting up on a ledge on a wall in front of a house.

Somehow along the way we decided we would stay and go to the recommended restaurant for dinner after all - having eaten our dessert first.  It would only be an hour back to Aix, but of course, in the dark. I would pay for this venture by having to go up the narrow country road at night.  Well, I guess I had gotten a bit used to driving it.  The meal was good but this fine looking plate of cheese was a disappointment.  They were different cheeses, but all very young.  We like our goat cheese with a bite to it.  An exhausting climb up to the castle but finding this non-tourist town was very pleasurable.