When I sit in my sit spot and imagine my feet firmly attach to the ground and start growing roots, I had this strange feeling that I my legs and feet would penetrate the soil and then the crustal surface all the way until the other side of the globe back to my home across oceans and continent. Also root in a biological sense is differently from it in a cultural and literary sense, but I actually felt more calm, at ease, and reconnected to where I call home when I was doing this imaginary exercise.

The tap water in Aix is especially safe to drink. Aix is know as the city of fountains, and the name Aix actually means water in Latin/old French. People in the antiquity used to believe that the natural sources of water in Aix are sacred and can heal people’s diseases. The drinking water in Aix comes from The Canal de Provence, a network of canals from the Verdon River built in the 1970s that now brings water to Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and Toulon. The water is treated in two water treatment facilities: Sainte-Marthe and Saint-Barnabé. The main operations performed by the treatment facilities are pre-chlorination, clarification by flocculation with a coagulant, sand filtration and disinfection with ozone and chlorine. In my household, the energy used to power the lights and heat the water is from the Provence power station, which is coal-fired power station, which I don’t believe is sustainable, but I think France has a high percentage of the usage of renewable energy in general.