May 29| Aix-en-Provence

We stayed in Aix-en-Provence for two nights and were lucky to find a moderately priced room at The Globe. Our first night’s room was in the front, with a little terrace, big windows and light: definitely preferable to the second night’s rear room. There was a minimal charge to lock our bikes in the auto garage.

View from hotel window

I love Cézanne’s painting and he lived in and near Aix-en-Provence. The Granet Museum had a gorgeous show of his work and its relation to Picasso’s. We also visited Cezanne’s atelier, just outside of town, where everything remains just as it was when he died. It is a small museum, and there is one docent talk a day in English, but ours was in French, and I couldn’t follow it.

Garden at Cezanne's atelier

The old town in Aix is spectacularly beautiful, both the medieval city and the Renaissance development,  near the Granet Museum, in the Quartier Mazarin. The Renaissance homes are quite extraordinarily and the Cours Mirabeau as beautiful as every guidebook says.

Nighttime in Aix-en-Provence

Apt to Aix-en-Provence. 43 miles. Route: D113 to Fort de Buoux / D943 / D561 to Abbaye de Silvacane / D543/ D7n / D17 to Aix. If I did this again, I’d either take the D14 into Aix-en-Provence or follow the D543 straight to the D17. 

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