Les Silhouettes de Sophie : Travels with Maman Pt 2.:Aix-en-Provence

The final stop of our first vacation was Aix-en-Provence. Aix-en-Provence is a charming city, much smaller than Marseille or even Toulon, but it feels very nice, clean, and young. Apparently, it is a college town so there were tons of young people out the first night we arrived. (We took the train in the evening, then checked into our hotel, walked around to see the restaurants and bars, and ate gelato for the second or third time). I could see myself living there; it reminded me of a smaller Lyon. It makes sense to me why I had a professor at Berkeley who studied in Aix (Professor McLaughlin!) and why I met a group of Chinese students in Cassis who were doing a masters in Aix.

some more French doors!

After our first tired evening, we had one day in Aix before leaving in the evening for Toulon. We started with a French breakfast (a croissant and a café au lait—well, a French breakfast would contain an espresso not the watered-down coffee that we Americans drink but you get the picture). After that, we went to le Musée Granet, the museum in Aix-en-Provence. It just so happened that, because the SF MOMA is closed down while they remodel or reconstruct it, the museum in San Francisco has sent different artwork to different museums and so the Musée Granet had a ton of stuff from the SF MOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). The main exhibition was American modern art, so we saw art by Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol

There were also a few Cézannes. Paul Cézanne (the famous French artist and apparently the father of modern art) was born and lived in Aix-en-Provence. He often painted the landscape of Aix, particularly Mount Saint-Victoire. I’ll include an example. So there were a few of his paintings, but the funny thing is that the curators of Musée Granet in the past refused to admit Cézanne into their museum (because they thought he was not talented) and so even though it is his birthplace, the museum is known as the museum “without Cézanne.”

Not Cézanne

Van Gogh

A portrait of a prince

Mom laughing hysterically in the bust room

Cézanne: Les baigneuses

Cézanne copies a previous painting

The busts!

Outside the musem

After the museum, we walked the streets to see the many fountains that are scattered throughout Aix. It is an important feature of the city.

Mom and a fountain!

Desserts in Aix

Because why not bring California to France

Pretty cathedral

Then we stopped in l’Occitane en Provence, which is a famous yummy smells store (that is the technical term), which basically means they sell lots of perfume, soap, shampoo, candles, etc all made in Provence. Provence is known for their lavender fields and other various scents, and so it was a must-stop.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a little place called Le Petit Bistrot and happened to get sat next to a couple from Australia, who now live in D.C. We talked with them almost the whole meal and shared a bit about our travels/lives. They got gelato after lunch and we accidentally ran into them there too! More shopping for Provençal things ensued.

Amorino makes gelato look like a flower!

Our last stop was a old house, Pavillon de Vendôme, from the 1800s (1900s, 1700s) clearly I did my research. Anyways, it was an interesting experience because, as we found out when we arrived, it was a "folie" or basically a love nest, where a man (Vendôme) kept the woman he was going to marry until he became some sort of position in the church and/or government where he couldn't have a wife. Again, my research is impeccable. But you can always use the internet, I suppose, to learn more. Inside the house was an art exhibit with all these cool pieces of hand-blown glass.