Aix-en-Provence marks the spot

We left the French Riviera for another wonderfully French region, Provence. Aix is pronounced like the letter X and it is ‘en Provence’. Our hotel was in a great location at the edge of the old town that used to be surrounded by medieval walls, which are now gone. We stayed four nights and by the end were very familiar with the streets and shops.

Our room was tiny, but very modern and had a small kitchen, which we took full advantage of by cooking every dinner in. This was a great break from all the rich French meals and loaves of white bread.

The main street is the Cours Mirabeau a wide tree lined boulevard with many old mansions (called Hotels) and several fountains. One of the fountains includes the hot water fountain that is supplied by a natural hot spring. Aix is full of fountains, we counted 30 on the map and saw about half of them.

This behemoth of a fountain is The Rotunde that lies at the end of Cours Mirabeau in the middle of a main traffic circle. This is where Aix’s love affair with fountains reached its summit.

Every other day there was a farmers market in the square in front of the Hall of Justice. To get there you had to wander through these winding lanes of shops. The produce was excellent and much cheaper than the supermarkets. Each stall gives you a little plastic bucket to fill with what you want, then you hand it back and they weight it.

This is an example of some of the “Hotels” that are in Aix. This is Hotel De Caumont, built in the 18^th Century, and is now a school. In front is an enclosed courtyard, which is characteristic of many of the Hotels. Many Hotels do not have courtyards and several date back as far back as the 16^th Century.

This is the Church Saint Jean, the original part of the church dates back to the 12^th Century and with other major construction during the 17^th Century. To the right of the church is the Museum Garnet, which houses a collection of fine art paintings.

This has to be the smallest public transportation vehicle, you can fit four people comfortably and maybe six people max. It sort of makes sense because Aix is a pretty small town and a lot of the streets are extremely narrow.

This is a beautiful square in front of the Hotel De Ville (Town Hall in French) with the attached clock tower. To the left is an old hall that is now a post office and commercial offices upstairs. Behind and also to the right are some shops with really nice old school storefronts. The clock tower is very ornate and has this little king in it.

We stumbled upon this building that was an old mansion and now holds an exhibit about the history of Aix. The two guys working there were super nice and tried to give us some good information with the little English they knew. The interior has an open foyer that has a staircase that leads to some rooms upstairs with original fireplaces and decorative moldings.

The Cathedral St. Saveur has portions that were originally built in 6^th Century. It has some really neat features like these dueling green organs. Someone was practicing when we were there giving it church a really cool atmosphere. Another of the older sections included the following circular, pillared rooms, some of pillars dating back to Roman times.

Leaving the central part of town, we ascended up the hill to the north to visit Cezanne’s last studio. It sits on a good size plot of land with a nice wooded garden. The house itself is pretty basic, as he never actually lived there, with his studio on the second floor. The studio itself had very high ceilings, included some of his original still life objects, easels, palettes, jackets, and his artists backpack. The back wall has a huge almost floor to ceiling window as well as a slit in the back that he could slide paintings out of to move them in and out of the studio. We had a really good docent who told us all kinds of interesting facts about Cezanne. Cezanne’s life and career was pretty unique, but we’ll just direct you to his Wikipedia page if you want to learn more.