Wars of the Roses

We headed up to Aix en Provence today. I?d been there before years ago but the place seems to have grown enormously since then. I remember a small elegant town with lots of fountains, which is still there, but seems to have been surrounded with the French version of Milton Keynes - with roundabouts every 50 yards or so.

The old town is still beautiful though, and an embarrassment of blipability. From fountains, to extraordinarily elaborate doorways, a mushroom exhibition and ancient buildings. All that will end up on flickr eventually.

But I've chosen instead to share with you what we will most remember about the place. Probably the best ice cream in the world. Often when food is sculpted, primped and preened, it's to draw attention away from the flavour. But here you had perfect texture, mouth-exploding flavours and a beautiful design. Even the cones were tasty.

Flavours from the top, clockwise, are strawberry, lemon and chocolate (already begun by a very eager boy who hasn't quite bought into the blip philosophy yet). Mine (passion fruit) was out of shot.

Foolishly we left town to get to our motel without having dinner, and then remembered that big big drawback with holidays in France: no restaurants open on Sunday night. After driving around for about 2 hours we eventually gave up and, unable to face all those roundabouts back into Aix again, ate in Macdonalds. Still, at least in France you can get a beer there to soften the pain.