Creature comforts....

While planning this trip I tried to balance budget and comfort.   Some locations are more expensive than others (cough cough LONDON).  As a general rule I tried to keep the weekly rentals to 1000 Euro/week.   I blew the budget by a lot in London, by a bit in Paris, and by a smidge in Nice.   Even then I had to compromise... My non negotiables were: Wifi and Washing Machine.  I skipped the 2nd bedroom in Bologna in favor of location.  (No regrets - we were where we wanted to be.)   I skipped AC in the Northern locales - which was an issue during the heatwave in Prague, but not an issue in Berlin, Amsterdam, or London.

I skipped AC in Nice.   And an elevator.   Even with those compromises it was just over my 1K euro threshold because I wanted to be in old Nice, close to the beach and market.  It was on the 3rd floor (4th floor for Americans) and at the top of a big hill...   So to run out for some food or wine meant a lot of stairs after a hike up a steep street.   It was hot in Nice - so there was no relief after climbing to the apartment.  And there were mosquitos and party goers outside our windows... so the choice at night was drunken young people and mosquitos, but a chance to cool the apartment, or quiet and HOT.   I found myself doing a dance of timing when to open and shut the windows...  Leave them open in the evening and mornings and the start of sleep time... shut them around midnight when the partygoers would make their way to our dead end pedestrian hill as a "private" place to party.  Then re-open them around 3am when they were gone.    Sleep was not the best in Nice.

Contrast that to the apartment we just arrived at in Aix-en-Provence.    AC.  Elevator.  The nicest apartment so far.   Lots of space.  Good working kitchen.  And a few blocks from Cours Mirabeau - the main drag in Aix-en-Provence.   It feels like luxury.   And it's 150Euro cheaper per week.

I guess I'm dwelling on this because we had a TGV train coach with no AC.  We were able to poach seats in other cars till Toulon - but were forced back to our seats for the last 90 minutes of the ride.  It was over 100F.  The good news is that we'll get "compensation" if I can navigate the SNCF website to request it.  It should be about 6Euro/ticket compensation.  Oh... and they gave us free water bottles.   LOL.

I love AC.  It's 85 outside now (was over 90 when we arrived - but it felt cool compared to the train). The landlady left us a nice bottle of chilled Rose.  The kids are quiet in the other room on their screens.   Life is good.