Burgers, sunshine, carnival

Remember this line from Pulp Fiction? "You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?... They call it a Royale with cheese." Well, Friday night Mme G and I got dinner from a nearby McDonald's. When I saw that #2 was called "Royal Cheese", I just had to have it.

The burger itself tasted pretty much the same as American McDonald's, but the fries didn't. Here, they use less salt and fry the fries in olive oil,which is healthier than the stuff used in the U.S. As a result, they taste more like potatoes than fries, but I'm less likely to get fat.

According to McDonald's, the meals here are significantly healthier: the French burger has five fewer calories, and equivalent-sized fries have 40 fewer calories than those stateside.

Saturday was another beautiful, sunny day, so the center of town was packed with tourists—I heard lots of people speaking English and gazing at tour guides—and the park was packed with students doing absolutely nothing. Well, sunbathing perhaps.

Sunday, the center of Aix was closed off for a carnival. There were dancers, floats, silly string, balloons, and gallons of confetti that ended up all over the streets. What the carnival was in celebration of, I do not know, but it made the regional news on France 3 last night.