That title ought to pique some interest!

A little background history: I had asked many questions of this forum as we were planning our trip to Provence. The trip changed many times. Travelling companions backed out. My husband decided he did not really want to go to Provence at this time. My adult son said he would love to go with me. Then my sister said she would also love to go to Provence with my son and me. So, that was the plan. All reservations were made, confirmed, etc. By the way, I take great pride in my planning abilities and my research. (Just thought you needed to know this !)

Three weeks before our departure date, my sister died most unexpectedly from an aneurysm. We were all terribly saddened. Jane was so looking forward to this trip. She was an excellent artist, and watercolors were her favorite medium. She would have been so inspired by the beauty of Provence. My son and I decided that Jane would not have wanted us to cancel our trip. So we proceed with our plans.

We flew from home to Atlanta, to Paris, and on to Marseille. Of course, the airline forgot my son's gluten free meal for the long flight from Atlanta to Paris. But we had brought provisions - this has happened before to us. No big deal.

As we are coming down the escalator in the Marseille airport, going to baggage claim, I see a sign with our names on it in red lights. I know this cannot be good news! My son said he would go wait for our bags while I went to Information to see what they wanted. I told him I had a feeling there was no need to go to baggage claim! Yes, I was right. Our bags had not made the connection in Atlanta. But we were assured that the bags would be brought to us in Aix by 6:00 p.m. They handed us two little emergency dop kits.

Following the good advice received here, we took the Navette to Aix, We are dog-tired, and think how nice it is that we are not struggling with our bags. After all, they will be delivered to us by 6:00 pm!

From the bus stop in Aix, we take a cab to our first B and B, the lovely Pavillion de la Torse. As the cab pulls up the very long plane tree-lined drive, the owners, Marie and Francois come out. I am thinking how nice it is that they are so happy to see us. No, they are wondering who is pulling up their driveway. They tell us they are not expecting us until the next day. I panic and wonder if I am a day off in all my reservations. No, it is their mistake. But they are all full. No room for us. Hot, tired, and luggage-less. Now we have no room.

So, the embarrassed Marie and Francois park us in the gazebo and bring us a big carafe of wonderful wine. They go inside and try to find a place for us to stay. Any Seinfeld fans out there?? My son is now using his Jerry Seinfeld voice and replaying the episode in which Jerry and Elaine are at a car rental counter: "You know how to TAKE a reservation. You just don't know how to HOLD a reservation. And that's really the most important part OF the reservation - the HOLDING part!"

Then he wonders aloud if maybe Jane really did want us to take this trip...

After a few glasses of wine, we are seeing the humor in this situation. Even the gluten free crackers we are sharing are starting to taste darn good!

Marie and Francois come back. They have found us a room at Le Mozart, just a "five minute walk up the hill." She explains that it is only a two star hotel, but it is clean and comfortable. They then think twice and decide that perhaps they should drive us to Le Mozart, which by the way is very, very nice. Marie and Francois explain that we are only sleeping at the Mozart. We will have happy hour and breakfast at the Pavillion.

We take a short nap, then we go and explore Aix before we need to be back for "happy hour." We get to meet the people who are sleeping in our room! We also are expecting to retrieve our bags which should have been delievered by 6:00 pm. Right. No bags were delivered. Marie puts together an emergency kit to augment the measley supplies Air France gave us. Off to dinner, then back to Le Mozart for bed. We know things will definitely get better tomorrow, right?

Wednesday: More Trials and Tribulatioons!

Yikes! What made this appear three times? I will keep my replies to this one. Hopefully the others will disappear. And the title was supposed to finish with "and a Wonderful Trip".

Great start. So sorry about your sister

I wouldn't worry about posting triplicate threads - gremlins happen. But you might want to e-mail katie at [email protected] and ask her to delete the other two threads. Otherwise some folks are bound to post replies on them and you'll have 3 trip parallel reports running.

It's good to know that the trip ended wonderfully. I too am sorry to hear about your sister's passing.

Can you post some links to both of the hotels in Aix in your next installment.

I love this report so far Kansas. I was in tears about your sister (OMG how sad!) and then a couple paragraphs later I was laughing out loud at your Seinfeld quote (one of my favorite episodes.) What a rollercoaster! Can't wait for more!

Aix-en-Provence has a very special place in my heart.
I can tell your trip report is going to be a good one...

rollarcoaster is right!
Sad to hear about your sister.
Happy to know there's a happy ending.

kansas, I am already enjoying your trip report and have that sinking feeling that there may be more trouble ahead with the luggage -- I hope I'm proven wrong!

I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. It must have been bittersweet to take the trip but I'm sure you are correct that she would have wanted you to go. Sudden deaths are so hard to adjust to -- my condolences.

My sister and I are very close. My heart jumped right into my throat reading the beginning of your report. Please accept my condolences. How awful to lose her.

I <i>am</i> glad you and you son decided to make the journey to Provence. And I have done the navette to Aix from Marseille airport hop before. I remember taking a taxi from the bus stop to my hotel, dog-tired as you say. I can't imagine arriving after all that to find no room at the inn! You are made of strong stuff.

Looking forward to more.

Thanks for the comments. Just a quick note before I go off to babysit for my grandchildren. Here are the links to the two places to stay in Aix, both of which I would highly recommend - two different price points.

www.latorse.com for the Pavillion de la Torse. There are a lot more pictures on TripAdvisor. We loved the people, the house, the cocktail hour (it is always fun to visit with other travelers), the free international phone, and the free internet available.

www.hotelmozart.fr for Le Mozart. Marie told us this hotel is popular with visitors from Great Britain. For the money, it is a sure winner. Elevator, A/C, and electirc blinds that block out the sun. Perfect for a nap for the jet-lagged. We also had a small terrace. The breakfast room also looked quite nice.

More later on Wednesday's fiasco!

Hi Kansas,

I was so so sorry to read about ure sister, how hearbreaking for you and your son to go on the trip knowing that she should have been there but you were right to do it, im sure she was watching over you.

Enjoying the trip report, look forward to the rest!

so sorry to hear of the death of you sister. Wishing the best.Check my trip report Ah Provence-rough start great cities food poisoning, broken ankle, hospitalization, permanent discomfort but still love france and Provence. Enjoy the lavender.
I missed the festival in Ferrasierres-I was operated on that day in Cavaillon.

I too send my regrets about your sister's passing but I am sure she was with you in spirit for this trip!! Your son sounds so great with the Seinfeld impression..thanks for giving him a voice! Looking forward to hearing more.

Sorry about your sister. What a wonderful experience to have with your delightful and humorous son, one you both will cherish and never forget.

I, too, am so sorry about the loss of your sister but I am eagerly awaiting the rest of your report. I like your style and sense of humor (and your son's).

Add me to the list of those who were saddened to read of your sister's untimely passing, but awaiting more of your trip report ...

Wednesday, June 17th

Dan and I get up and check out of Le Mozart. We toted our meager belongings down to La Torse. If Marie and Francois think this is a five minute walk, they sure walk alot faster than we do!

We have breakfast in the beautiful dining room. Marie made pancakes for me, and eggs and potatoes for my gf son.

Then off to explore Aix some more, and the Cours Mirabeau.
Then it is time to pick up our rental car from Europcar right in Aix on the Boulevard de la Republique. We have no trouble finding the place. The woman at Europcar took our drivers' licenses, re-ran our credit card, and then just happened to mention that they had NO automatic cars. I had ordered a compact automatic car and PAID for it in February. I told her we HAD to have an automatic car. Being most unpleasant, she informed me that there was NOT ONE automatic car in all of France at the moment.

She then took us outside to show us a nice little car. Now, we have reservations all over Provence. We HAVE to have a car. Dan has driven a standard car before, but it has been many years. He is looking at the traffic in Aix, and knows for a fact that he will certainly stall the car, and we most certainly will be rear-ended.

So, we go back inside, and I tell her that if we take the car, she has to take the second driver off the rental agreement. I cannot drive this car. She must have gotten some vibe from looking at my son's face, because all of a sudden she says, "Well, I do have one automatic. It is the one right out in front." I turned around and there is this HUGE, GIGANTIC mini bus sitting there. I said "No Way!" My son immediately pipes up and says, "We'll take it!" That is how nervous he was about the standard transmission car...he was willing to drive a tour bus around Provence.

So, I make sure that Europcar notes all the previous damage on this ridiculous vehicle. They are none too pleased with me at this point, nor I with them. Dan is still looking rather green.

The plan was to go to Cassis and La Ciotat and drive the Route des Cretes. Unfortunately, I left the cord for the GPS back at La Torse. We cannot even manage to find our way back to La Torse. We cannot seem to find the ring road. How can you not find this??? I think Dan was too nervous by this time to be thinking straight. You know how those arrows pointing to Centre Ville point more to the road, and less to the direction? That was our undoing. Anyway, I finally convinced Dan to forget the GPS. I had good maps, let's just get going.

We actually did quite well. We even managed to park our bus on the street in La Ciotat. We were savvy enough to know how to get the ticket to lay on the dashboard to pay for the parking.

Whoops. That posted before I was done...

We then found the Route des Cretes - a gorgeous drive. Then we came back to Cassis. We loved this little fishing village. It was so colorful. Again, our luck has turned around. We found a good parking space. The only open spot in the parking lot and Dan is actually able to manuever our bus into the spot! We could not find any place to pay for parking. We can hardly believe that this is a free lot, but decide if we get a ticket, we will deal with that later. (As it turned out, this was a free parking lot!) We walked down to the port and our timing was perfect. A boat was just getting ready to leave for the Calanques. This was the trip to see 3 Calanques - a great boat trip, gorgeous scenery.

After the boat trip, we knew we better start heading back to La Torse. Marie was making a special gf appetizer for Dan. We needed to be back about 6:30. We left about 5:15 for a "30 minute" drive. On the D41 we are stopped dead. It was probably the longest lasting traffic tie up I have ever seen. Cars going the other way were motioning the cars going our direction to turn around. Some people were even shouting that we would never get where we are going. Lots of cars start giving up and turn around. No way can our "bus" be turned around We were stuck for about 2 hours. For some reason, the autoroute A50 to Marseille was completely closed. All traffic was being diverted to the A52 to Aix, etc.

We finally made it back to La Torse about 7:45 pm. We started to tell our story of the car to everyone at the Happy Hour. Francois says, "That's not a Mercedes out there, is it?" ("Out there" being the parking area way down toward the middle of the long drive.) Yes, it is a Mercedes. He told us that car had been to the house before, and the previous "lucky" drivers called Hertz and got a smaller car. Then they brought this one back to Europcar. Francois told us that we COULD NOT take this car to where we were going. It would not work. Francois said we HAD to call AutoEurope and get them to correct the situation.

Thank goodness for the free international phones at La Torse. 8:30pm in Provence was 2:30pm in Maine, the home office for AutoEurope. It took some doing, but there was, in fact, an automatic in France! We just had to bring the 9 passenger vehicle back to the Marseille airport and Europcar would have a Ford Fiesta waiting for us.

By now it is around 9:30 at night. We still have not had dinner. So, we walked up the street and ended up eating at the same place we had the night before.

And for some more good news: while we were out to dinner, our long lost bags were delivered! Tomorrow we wear clean clothes!! We were so thankful that Francois pushed us to get the car situation solved. And he also made numerous calls to the airlines about our bags. He explained to them that if our bags did not reach us by Wednesday night, they would never be able to catch up with us. Even thought Marie and Francois had made a mistake with our reservations, they truly were amazingly helpful and they are wonderful hosts.

The saga of the bus made me laugh out loud. Eagerly awaiting the next installment ...

Oh, please come back and tell us more!

My heart just fell when I read about your sister. My sister was my best friend and we traveled Europe together many times. She, too, passed suddenly. It's so hard to deal with that I'm glad you had the distraction of the trip.

Anyway...

on to your story, which seems to be getting happier and happier!