Aix-en-Provence

It was another nice sunny morning - but about 7 degrees. We had our coffee in bed and quickly got dressed. We had our first porridge for breakfast since May.

We caught the bus into Aix-en-Provence town and quickly found the Saturday markets - one section food- another section clothes and accessories .

We had a coffee beside the market at the slowest coffee shop ever! We then continued exploring.

We bought a few vegetables, fruit and a couple of other things.

There was a plaza with interesting mossy fountains - apparently fed by warm water.

The town was started by the Romans and called Aquae Sextiae after the hot springs and the Roman commander Sextius. We saw Roman ruins under our feet through glass in one of the market squares. More is being found every day.

It was lunchtime so we found a restaurant Chez Charlotte in a quiet street where we were the only non French people. The waiters were very nice and asked if we wanted English menus - which we did.

We had the specials of the day - Glenn had black pudding and I had fish with orange sauce - both excellent. It was also very reasonably priced.

It was time to do some sightseeing - we followed a Cezanne walk through Aix.

Glenn liked the statue of Cezanne.

We then went to the school Cezanne went to. He had 2 famous fellow pupils - Emile Zola an author and Jean-Baptiste Baille a scientist.

The next location on our walk was the Granet Museum where the curator had told Paul Cezanne that he would be exhibited there ‘over his dead body’. Well that’s what happened - Cezanne was exhibited there after he died. A large exhibition was held there in 2011 on the 100th anniversary of Cezanne’s death. Unfortunately Cezanne didn’t really become famous until after his death.

We saw the room of Cezannes paintings including one of The Bathers - a preparatory sketch for the large version. This was on the entry ticket.

There were paintings from other eras - and some archeology too from before the Romans.

There was an annexe to the museum for the collection of Jean Plaques who worked for an art seller and was very knowledgeable in contemporary art. He didn’t have a lot of money but became friends with Picasso and other artists so was able to acquire some of their paintings.

The annexe is in an old church that was not being used.

There were quite a few Picasso. Here is one that I liked. Plus ‘The Bather’ by Hans Berger.

After enjoying all these paintings we caught the bus back to the campsite. On the way we passed many lavender fields that are no longer in flower.

Back at the campsite we decided to check out where a Roman acquaduct had existed about 15 minutes walk up the road.

The field that we walked through had the snails on the grass again that we had seen on Ile de Rey.

On the walk up I took a photo of Sainte Victoire - the mountain that Cezanne painted over 30 times.

When we got to the aqueduct site there wasn’t any structure left but there was a lot of what looked like a base of Roman concrete sticking many rocks together. We guess this is all that remains and any large rocks were purloined and reused in other structures.

On the way back to the campsite the mountain was a very different colour from 30 minutes earlier. I can see why Cezanne kept painting it.

The evening light made the Provence landscape look like a painting.

Back at the campsite we were not very hungry after our big lunch so had a snack dinner of cheese and crackers with a very good Muscat bought from the wine tasting in Monzambano near Lake Garda.

We didn’t see very much in Aix-en-Provence so we need to go back another year.