Sept 14

Today was supposed to be a beach day but we woke up to thunderstorms and pouring rain. Not entirely a surprise to me the weather watcher. Avi wanted to do the typical morning walk as he and I were up first. We headed out into the drizzling rain for a short walk. Grabbed coffee for all of us and brought it back. Absolutely the worst coffee we've had yet. Pretty much undrinkable. 

After breakfast, we got ourselves ready and headed for Cassis, hoping that the rain would let up. The drive was beautiful and Cassis is a wonderful town with narrow streets and heart stopping driving. But since it was still pouring, we decided to head further south to Toulon. When we got to the public beach in Toulon, it was raining slightly less. We sat down for a drink of water and some coffee, only to find out that the coffee was even worse than the coffee we had this morning. I really did not drink mine, which rarely happens. Avi and Georgia changed into their swimming suits and headed into the water, only to be chased out immediately by the police. We weren't sure why until a woman who spoke some English explained to us that swimming is not allowed on rainy days due to pollution in the water. She directed us to a beach another 20 miles down the coast that she thought was open. Avi had his heart set on swimming so we hopped back in the car and headed out to Heyres, the beach she had recommended. When we arrived there, the rain had stopped but it was cloudy and cool. Nobody was swimming but there were quite a few kite surfers. Avi was determined so in he went. David followed in about 15 minutes. We had one towel for all four of us. I couldn't face the logistics of trying to change clothes in a honey bucket both before and after. I did feel sad that I haven't gone swimming yet and it is almost time to go home but I didn't feel that sad. Georgia and I sat and chatted on the beach while the guys swam. After they got out and changed into dry clothes with me holding the towel for a barrier, we started the 60 mile trek back to our place. The trip went quickly. Avi has been reading a book to us about the microbiome and he continued doing so to help the time go by. 

We arrived in Aix in the wrinkle that exists between lunch and dinner and nothing was open for food, just appetizers and drinks. We were all hungry and got a couple of sandwiches to share out of an open food truck. Of course, when we returned to the room, we ate David's prodigious fuel. 

Headed out to dinner after doing the required amount of research and found a place that had real food, didn't taste so rich and so much like restaurant food. David and I both had fish and it was delicious. Unfortunately, during dinner, I got an email telling me our flight from Marseilles to Paris on Air France was canceled. There is a one day airstrike for French air controllers on September 16 and our flight caught the axe. After we returned to our room, I started searching for alternatives to Paris and we settled on train tickets that would require our car to be returned to a different location. Trying to reach both Chase for a refund on our airline tickets and Budget to approve a different car drop location was fruitless so I eventually just went to bed and tried to sleep with all the adrenaline running through my body. Tomorrow is another day to try and solve our troubles.