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Aix-en-Provence
August 22, 2005

Weds 17th
Arrived in Marseille - Not a particularly nice place - Really bad [as in rubbish - not wicked!] grafitti all along the motorway, the walk from the station to the hotel was like a mini Tangiers... A lot of homeless North Africans who, although probably harmless, looked pretty intimidating. But it was nicer by the old harbour and I'm sure it has a lot of nice areas but we were only there for a few hours.

Carpaccio [not bad - had better] and veal escalope. With excellent chips [sorry frittes!]

Aix graffiti

Thurs 18th
Bussed it to Aix-en-Provence - Did the Cezanne town walk to get our bearings. Not really much to see, but we found a few other interesting places along the way. More graffiti but it's getting better.
Nice rabbit in mustard sauce with Tagliatelli!

Fri 19th
Did the Chemin de Bibemus Cezanne walk and continued uphill until the Gendarmes stopped us and told us there was a very strong risk of forest fires breaking out and we shouldn't continue any further. Which was a shame as it would turn out that this was by far the most pleasant of the walks. The rest are along busy roads that have been built up around and look nothing like they would have done 100 years ago. Mind you it was 34 degrees in the shade at 9.30 that day! Had a tasty if chewy bouef daube on somebody's doorstep!

Cassis marina

Sat 20th
Trip to Cassis for the day to get a bit of sea air - Too much as it turned out as we went on a very hairy boat trip to visit the Calanques - Port Miou, Port Pin, En Vau I think! Decided to visit one of the many pizza places in Aix but opted for gnocchi and gorgonzola - Good job I didn't have it before the boat trip, the thing really would have capsized then!

Sun 21st
Caught a bus to Puyloubier to try and get some uninterrupted views of Saint Victoire - Beautiful little village, where we stopped for a half litre carafe of local rose and a bowl of olives. £2.60!!!Walked the Jas de Bouffan Cezanne route in the evening - Which is the shortest and least interesting of them all. North African cuisine this evening - A tagine of lamb, prunes and almonds.

Atelier Cezanne

Mon 22nd
It was a bank holiday in France so not much was operating and our planned bus trip to Le Tholonet backfired when the bus turned around a village early and returned to Aix! So we visited Cezanne's studio instead. Bought a picnic in the local market and ate it in the studio's garden. A really smelly cheese, pate, a couple of baguettes, tomatoes and olives. Fantastic.

After that we continued our walk up to De Lauves which had, by far, the best views of the mountain so far. Sat in the Parc Rambot reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas in the afternoon. Chez Maxime for carpaccio followed by duck breast. This place is good.

Rene Palermo poster

Tues 23rd
Bus to Le Tholonet - Discovered that the No 3 went the same route as the Cezanne walk [except on Bank Holidays!] - Visited exhibition in Moulin Cezanne - Was lucky enough to be shown around by the artists', Rene Palermo, godson. Well, maybe he shows everyone around, but there was only us there so it was like a personal guide. Walked back to Palette, the previous village to visit the local wine cave but the whole place was closed so conitnued back into Aix. Long walk, uphill! Detoured to visit Pont Des Trois Sautes, which probably hasn't changed very much, except I couldn't see a way down to the river.

Back to Chez Maxime for our last night, via a charming little wine shop to get some goodies to bring home. Four courses, including the Fois Gras this time, and Bouef a roquefort - With a bottle of Cuvee Valerie - £75 for two. Bargain! Bit of trouble getting to sleep after all that though!

Weds 24th
Killed time on the Cours Mirabeau waiting to go off to the airport. Bought that Stones Bootleg I mentioned earlier on the way back though...

More pictures in Flickr Set

Aha! It seems the Blogging bug has struck the Ginger DJ

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