Another trip in the City

Well, on Friday morning, I set out to figure how to get us a bank account. The place to start is La Rotonde. It is bang in the centre of the town with this enormous circular fountain (Fontaine de la Rotonde) in the middle. Its a stunning piece of sculpture.


Right opposite that is l'Office de Tourisme (the Tourist Office). That's where you get a bus pass. For 20€ you get unlimited travel for a month in Aix.


Thought I get a bank account made. But the French like their lunch and so they take a long lunch break, which means that most offices generally close from 1230 ish to 1330 ish. Well it seems to be common in this part of the continent and it got passed on to the Goans when the Portuguese came there :)

Though the bank officials hardly knew English, they tried quite hard to explain things to me. One guy was actually blushing because he couldn't find the right English words to say. Finally figured what their requirements are and what they could offer me.

Then as usual, I took off on a random walk that brought me to another of the big supermarkets. Lost my way after that and took a bus to the city-centre. Then back to home.

Next day was the orientation session at IAE where there were quite a few speeches in French by the Dean and some others. Got to meet a lot of people, many of whom I'll be attending classes with. An interesting mix of students.


The people here take their holidays really seriously. Within an hour of the session ending, they were all packed and ready to go, and the campus was shut down.

More about an eventful Sunday ... tomorrow.