Lost in Aix

Thursday, September 27, 2007

I’ve decided that Aix is a fantastic city to live in if you have no place to be at a certain time. On the other hand, if you’re supposed to be somewhere, there is a very high chance that you will get lost. No wonder the French are always late. The downtown of Aix is an old medieval city. This means that there is a tangled web of narrow streets going in no particular order and in no particular direction surrounded by three or four main streets bordering the old city. There is absolutely NO organization. No one here uses street names as directions. I am led to believe that not even the locals know the names of the streets.

I’m in the market for a bike at the moment, and while trying to find the main sports store, I asked the lady working at the Student Life Office. I have a map that she drew for me. It has the main street labeled and then little offshoots that twist and turn sporadically and are most certainly not labeled. I think she sort of gave up with drawing the map while she was trying to give me directions. Translated, the conversation went as follows:

Lady: You know the main street, le Cours Mirabeau?
Me: Yes, I know that one.
Lady: Okay, well there is a road to the side; I think it’s called “Thiers”.
Me: (Thinking to myself: There are a thousand roads to the side. You ‘think’ that’s what it’s called?) Okay, yes, “Thiers”.
Lady: Yes, I think that is it. Turn on that road; it is near the end of the street. There are a few streets that you have to follow after. I don’t know the names of them.
Me : (Are you kidding me? Why don’t you just say you don’t know how to get to the store?) Okay, in which direction?
Lady: You will find it. It’s in the middle. Just follow the tiny streets. It’s in that direction.
Me: (The "tiny streets"?! Lady… there are a hundred tiny streets. Some of them aren’t even on the map! In "the middle"? The middle of what?! There are three main "middle" sections in the downtown area.) Okay I’ll try. Thank you for your help, (...which was utterly useless, by the way).

As it turns out, I didn’t use her directions at all. I used a real map. I like to think I’m a brilliant map-reader. Give me a map and I’ll get you where you need to go. Well this was a disaster! At first I didn’t want to pull out the map because I didn’t want to seem like a tourist. Then when it was absolutely necessary, I used it. I’ve never doubted my map-reading skills so much! After double the time it should have taken, I found the store and bought my new silver and red cleats (men’s of course because they don’t sell women’s cleats)! I didn’t find the bike I was looking for, but I’m pumped to start soccer practice on Monday.