Tuesday, November 2, 2010

toussaint

i've been on vacation for toussaint for the last week and a half. i was also temporarily without internet for that time. but internet is back and so am i.
the first week we got some pretty great weather and ran around outside. then it rained for 3 days straight and we cooked and crafted and i biked around furiously in the rain. 


if you didn't know, cézanne is from aix (as is emile zola, but cézanne gets more attention for whatever reason) so a lot of the touristy things to do in aix are cézanne-centric. 
at the beginning of the week, we went to atelier de cézanne, his workshop and gardens in aix. it continually surprises me/makes me laugh how really old and significant things are just jumbled up with everything else. "look, there's a roman era wall, oh and there's a cupcake shop." instead of tearing down old stuff and building new, the new is just built on top. per usual, i didn't know where we were going and was being led along a typical aix street and was caught off guard when all of the sudden we were there. houses, cars, shops, apartments, cézanne's atelier. just through the gate and you're in his gardens where it smells overwhelmingly of lavender. the set-up was pretty simple, you can wander around outside, there's a room of a giftshop where you get a pamphlet about cézanne's life and then upstairs into his atelier. we had to wait a while to be allowed in, but once i got in i was appreciative that they were careful to make sure that people were able to experience the room without crowding. the information was sparse, it seemed more about enjoying the space (high ceiling and walls of windows with still-life objects scattered around) than learning about cézanne. 


continuing in the cézanne vein, we took a trip out to hike sainte victoire, a mountain outside of aix that cézanne loved to paint.first thought when sainte victoire came into view: that should be a painting. yep. 
it was a lot warmer than we were expecting


we didn't plan ahead to hike all the way to the top, so we just hiked for a few hours and went to refuge de cézanne.

note my authentic and appropriate hiking gear. 

 the next day madeline and i went to musée granet, the main museum of aix. it's not very big but very well done. there's an exhibition of pierre alechinsky right now, with whom neither of us was familiar, but both loved. and perhaps most importantly, discovered that we have the same museum pace. which is a big deal. 


friday was hands down my favorite day of the vacation, and probably my whole time here. we went to cassis for the day, with minor traveling problems, but arrived to such a beautiful village right on the water. the weather was perfect so i could put my feet half my legs in the water. 

we splashed around until they dragged me out of the water and walked out to the calanques. 

give me sunshine, water, and gelato and i'm a happy girl. 

then the downpour started and we holed up for a couple days making crêpes and crafting. which also makes me a happy girl. 

6 comments:

  1. Your blog has just done the impossible: make me want to be somewhere other than New York. Glad you're having a good time! I miss you lots!

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  2. You don't know how HAPPY it makes us girls in the u-s of a to hear that you are happy!!! You look like Mom with your feet in the water :)

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  3. Opposed to Kendy, I always want to be someplace other than NYC. But now, instead of the flea markets, I want to be in Aix!

    SEE YOU SOOOOOOOOOON!
    :)

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  4. Reminds me of when Missy and I traveled to an island off of Greece via local bus and hitchhiking! The water looks the same!

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  5. i love this post, the pictures are so beautiful! reminds me of another time where hiking to the top was never achieved...

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  6. kendy & michelle, i want you in aix too!
    and thanks, this was a very happy day!
    for the record, the pictures aren't mine, i'm sans camera at the moment, so they're stolen from friends.

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