Bridges and Wine!

We’re still in Avignon, since that last blog post was getting a little long after the Cathedral and the Popes’ Palace! As you’ll remember, those two places make up two out of three elements that make up the UNESCO Site in Avignon. The third is the bridge, which we walked down to see after we left the palace. It has an interesting history, this bridge, especially the story behind why it was built. We learned the story after we got our audio guides and climbed up the century-old steps onto the bridge.

The Pont d’Avignon or Pont Saint Benezet, was built between 1177 and 1185. It’s called Pont Saint Benezet because of a legend about what inspired the building of the bridge – besides the fact that there wasn’t one across the Rhone anywhere near Avignon, so people had to try to cross the perilous river in small boats. The legend goes that Benezet, a shepherd boy from a nearby hamlet, was tending his sheep when he heard the voice of Jesus asking him to build a bridge across the river. He went to Avignon and publicly told everyone why he had come. They all laughed at him. Then the priest he’d made this public announcement to asked him to prove his divine calling by laying the foundation stone of the bridge, using a large boulder he pointed out. Benezet walked over to the boulder much too big for 5 men, let alone a shepherd boy, picked it up and walked it all the way down to the river where he thought the bridge ought to be built. He won support for the building of the bridge and was able to form a Brotherhood to oversee the construction. When he died, he was actually buried on the bridge in a small chapel.

 Some believe he was granted this divine mission because it would be essential when the papacy came to Avignon, which happened 150 years later. The bridge was an important link between Avignon and the area just north of there on the other side of the river where many Cardinals had homes. At that time Avignon was a populated citadel that was unfortunately considered by some to be “the most foul, stinking city on Earth” (the poet Petrarch) and anyone who was wealthy enough to afford it had a house in the hills on the other side of the Rhone. This was only possible because of the bridge. It was also a big part of one of the most important pilgrimage routes between Italy and Spain, since it was the only bridge between Lyon and the Mediterranean that crossed over the huge river.

It originally had 22 arches, but over the centuries it has gotten beat up quite a bit, particularly in the early 1600s. During a flood in 1603, one of the arches collapsed – and three more in 1605. They didn’t try to start repairing it until almost 20 years later, and because of an epidemic of the plague that slowed the work, it wouldn’t become usable again until 1633.  Two months after it reopened, two other arches were swept away by the Rhone, and by 1669 even more of the bridge had been lost. By 1674, they removed the relics of Saint Benezet for fear they would be lost when the bridge finally collapsed. The remains of the bridge never did collapse, but there are only 4 of the 22 arches left and it doesn’t actually cross the river anymore.

There’s a well known song called “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” which has existed in various forms since the 16^th century. It has, of course, undergone many, many changes throughout the centuries, and the current form has very little to do with the original, but it has remained popular. In its current form, it’s a popular children’s song:

But I’m particularly fond of this video of a contemporary dance to it on the actual bridge (just the music, no lyrics) because the main lyric is “Sur le Pont d’Avignon, on y danse, on y danse” (basically we dance on the Avignon Bridge) and they’re actually dancing on the bridge:

At the very end of the audio guide we could listen to the original song from the 16^th century, which was actually for use in a Mass in 1503 – and it was very, very different from what we hear today. It was a fun way to end our tour of the UNESCO Sites in Avignon.

Our plan was to see one more UNESCO Site that day: the Roman aqueduct that was only 20 minutes away. We decided since it was still early enough we could squeeze in a wine tasting before we headed out to Pont du Gard. We drove out to Chateauneuf du Pape, a town about 20 minutes from Avignon that is well known for wine tasting. We hadn’t chosen a specific winery, just decided to randomly turn up one of the long driveways that had a winetasting sign out on the road. There were a lot of them and I randomly chose one – and the long, winding driveway led to a large castle on a hill. It was quite picturesque, this castle on the hill surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye could see! 

We had a lovely tasting, and decided to buy a bottle of one of the wines that we would save for our final evening in France. Later on I wondered about the history of the building. To be honest, it seemed a little too perfect to be authentic, so I looked it up a bit later and couldn’t find it on the list of historical monuments in that region. I think it is actually a modern building made to look like an authentic castle. It was pretty cool anyway!

It was about 6:30pm by the time we were done with our tasting, but we knew that Pont du Gard was accessible until dark, which was almost 10pm this time of year, so we headed that way. The official tourist center was closed by the time we got there, but access to the actual aqueduct doesn’t really close, so we walked out to the river to see it. We’re going a lot further back in history than even Avignon when seeing Pont du Gard. It was built by the Romans in the 1^st century AD as part of the Aqueduct that carried water to the Roman colony now known as Nimes. It carried an estimated 8 million gallons of water a day 31 miles, for 6 centuries. Eventually the other parts of the aqueduct weren’t well maintained and the water couldn’t flow in some parts, but the bridge (Pont) was well maintained because it was also a toll bridge. The local rulers (lords and bishops) kept it maintained so they could charge a toll for people who wanted to use it to cross the river.

 It’s a spectacular representation of Roman engineering at 160 feet tall, 1,180 feet long at the top, with a slight descent of 1 inch over the length of the bridge, just enough to keep the water flowing.  It has 3 layers of arches, with an even number of arches on each level. The bottom, and thickest, layer had a road attached to it in the 1800s – and that’s the part you can walk across today.

The river below is quite shallow these days and it’s a popular swimming hole. The pebbled beaches are nice for sun bathing and enjoying the view of the amazing bridge. If it had been earlier and still so warm out, we would definitely have taken a dip in the river. As it was, we just got our feet wet before hopping back in the car and heading home.

 At this point in the road trip, we’ve seen 3 UNESCO Sites!!

 Next: Orange and its Roman Theatre!

Avignon (UNESCO # 2)

Avignon was the next stop on our road trip, and we wanted to make sure to get there in time to attend Mass at the Cathedral, part of the ensemble that makes up the UNESCO site. We left at 8am and made it to Avignon just as the clouds were threatening rain. We parked the car in a large lot just outside the city wall – the historical center of Avignon has a defensive wall around it – and made our way in towards the Cathedral… or at least what I thought was the 

Cathedral and Palace together

Cathedral. I didn’t realize that the Cathedral and the Pope’s Palace were all connected, so we ended up at the wrong church just as it started to rain. We figured out we weren’t at the Cathedral and headed back out to find it. 
Once I realized the two monuments were connected, we found it easily and got there just as Mass began, only a few minutes late. The Mass was lovely, and I particularly enjoyed the Homily, which was on the subject of the Holy Spirit – being Pentecost Sunday and all – and how we are able to see manifestations of all 3 elements of the Holy Trinity within ourselves.

After the service, we stayed a little bit to see the church, and then headed out to see what else there was to see – after a coffee/crêpe break, of course! The UNESCO site is technically the “Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge” and we were on to the Papal Palace. It’s known as “the most well-fortified house in the world” and was chosen by UNESCO because it is “one of the most outstanding examples of medieval architecture in the world” according to the UNESCO description.

Well fortified!!

Why is it the most well-fortified house in the world? Because of the people it was built for and their position: the Popes’ Palace was built, you guessed it, for Popes. But the Popes live(d) in Rome! Well, back in the medieval times, the seat of power didn’t stay in Rome at all times. It was an “itinerant” and would reside in different cities that made up its states. When the archbishop of Bordeaux became Pope Clement V, he decided to have the Papal seat stay in Avignon more or less permanently. He was able to systematically promote French Cardinals until they were a majority in the Sacred College. He hoped this would make it so that the Popes to be elected in the foreseeable future would be French. His plan worked and the next 6 Popes were French – ending the domination of Italian Popes. They all decided to keep the Papacy in Avignon, making Avignon basically the most important city in the known world for about 70 years. Gregory VI was crowned in Avignon, was determined to diplomatically bring together feuding heads of state all around him and brought the Papal Seat back to Rome in 1377.

They actually only recently found this hidden
chamber under the floor of a bedroom in the Palace!!

He died in Rome a year later, and that began the “Western Schism” when a faction of dissident Cardinals protested the election of an Italian Pope (after 70+ years of French Popes reigning) by electing their own Pope, Clement VII. He and his successor both resided in the Palace at Avignon. The second Avignon Pope, Benedict XIII, was confined to the palace that was constantly under siege. He was able to flee and took refuge with a sympathetic monarch, the King of Aragon.

We learned all of this as we visited different rooms in the palace. The interesting thing is that the rooms are all pretty much empty! Usually they’d be furnished with period-specific pieces, but these were all empty. It worked out well though, because this place gets an insane amount of people visiting each year and the upkeep would be near impossible. The empty rooms allow for more people to visit, and we were still able to see what it looked like in the 1300s when the Popes lived there! How, you may ask? Great question! They gave us “Histopads” to use as our guides. These tablets are SO COOL. Here’s a video I took to show you: 

 In the audio we learned that peacocks were an expensive delicacy that only the extremely wealthy ate. After they were cooked, they were redressed with their feathers so they looked nice and exotic while on the table. When we went into the kitchen area, the audio talked about how there would be a large section of hot coals in the middle that would be cooking meat – which you can see in the video below.

It’s not easy to take a video of a tablet while walking around and holding the tablet and the phone, but I thought it was so cool and wanted to show you the newest thing in tourism technology. They also had this cool app at the end where you could take a selfie and it would put your face in a medieval image... here I am as a medieval maiden :) 

 Stay tuned for my next blog, which will be about the last of the 3 parts of the Avignon UNESCO Sites, plus the Pont du Gard, which is a separate UNESCO site about 20 minutes from Avignon.

Les Baux de Provence

As promised, next stop on our road trip is Les Baux de Provence, which is listed as one of “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France” (the most beautiful villages in France). I’ll explain a little bit more about this designation later on in the blog when we visit another place with this designation. I was going to do it here, but then this post got a bit long ;)

Ready to climb, climb, climb!

So, we were winding up through the hills trying to figure out where this little village was when we saw it dramatically perched at the top of the hill ahead of us. The road we were on hugged the side of the hill, with a steep drop to the left and a steep climb up to the right. Cars were parked along the right side, as it had a large shoulder that seemed to have been put in solely for that purpose. Being in a tiny little Fiat 500, we were easily able to get a spot near the trail that led up the hill.

It was quite warm out, even in the late afternoon, so we made our way up the steep hill promising ourselves that ice cream was in our very near future! Once we climbed our way into the main part of the village, which was about ¾ of the way up the hill, we headed straight for the tourism office to find out what there was to see. We hadn’t done much research on what there was to do in Les Baux, figuring we could figure it out when we got there.

View from 1/3 of the way up. The name "Baux" comes from the
Provençal word bau meaning craggy cliff - visible in this picture. 

We learned that there was a multimedia art show that had one show left that day, projecting the work of Van Gogh set to music. We also learned that there were ruins of the Dukes of Les Baux’s large chateau up at the very top of the hill. We’d only have time to do one of them, since they each took about two hours and closed around 6pm. At first we went back down the hill a little to the multimedia show, but while waiting in line we changed our minds. We climbed back up the hill, and then kept going all the way to the top. We paid our entry fee, picked up our audio guides and headed in. When the woman said we only had an hour before we had to return the audio guides, I wasn’t worried. Once we got all the way into the grounds, I realized that I had underestimated the size of the site and we’d have to prioritize.

The fortress was built in the 10^th century by the Lords of Baux. The domain was originally named for the Baux family that held the title from when it was created in the late 10^th century, until 1426 when the direct family line in France ended. At one point a branch of the family moved to Naples and is still known as a powerful family even today – although as the del Balzo family. The domain was no longer ruled by the “Lords of Baux of the House of Baux” but inherited by the Counts of Provence. They were technically still of the same family line, just didn’t carry the name anymore, so then the area was ruled by what they called the “Lords of Baux of the House of Valois-Anjou”. The first of these, Rene I, was also the king of Naples - the Les Baux/del Balzo family was extremely powerful. The second, Charles I, was the end of the 500-year line of the Les Baux stronghold in France. It was 500 years of constant conflicts that ended with Charles retreating to Italy when the French king, Louis XI, seized the domain and added it to the holdings of the French crown.

The Les Baux Dukes had given the money to start the Abbey at Montmajour that was the subject of my previous post, and they were of course heavily involved in all of the political & religious tensions in the area. The most important of these was the Avigion Papacy, which is when 8 successive Popes lived in Avignon instead of Rome. That will be the subject of another post, since the next day of our road trip takes us to Avignon to see the Popes Palace and the other UNESCO sites in the area.

One of the workshops on display - food prep!

While we were walking up to the ruins of the chateau, we saw a couple of guys demonstrating a sword fight, and some stalls that were set up so we could see the blacksmith’s, saddle maker’s, shoemaker’s, etc. shops. We also saw some of that time period’s most well known weapons of war. One of these was a huge battering ram for breaking down chateau/citadel gates and doors. There was also a trebuchet which is a huge catapult. We missed the demonstrations of how they work because it was later in the day, but they do perform them so people can see how these weapons worked. We didn’t linger, as we wanted to go to the very top of the highest tower of the ruins (of course) and we didn’t have a ton of time.

As we were walking up we learned about the different parts of the fortification. We also learned that, after the French king took control, local religious wars and familial feuds brought the decline of the town until Louis XII ordered the fortress closed and partially destroyed in 1633. 

Obviously in use for 1,000 years! 

The stone steps we walked up to get to the top of the fortress were tiny and so worn that they were extremely difficult and dangerous to climb. 

They had actually put in some metal grills on some of them so we could climb them. At the top, there was actually a woman that was in 4-inch stilettos and I could not comprehend how she managed to get up there  those steps in heels!!

 Once we got to the top, we had the most amazing view of the entire region! It was obvious why the Les Baux family chose to put their fortress up there! They built it actually into the rock of the mountain, making it impenetrable, and they could see all around them for hundreds of kilometers in case any enemies might be coming their way.

View from one side.

View from the other side.

When they thought the heart was near the stomach.

We climbed down and had about 20 minutes left with our audio guides, so we went over to the ruins of the living area and learned all about the way kitchens were run, how they lived and worshiped in the chateau, medicine of the time, interesting things like that!  

We handed back our audio guides and headed back down the hill to our little Fiat – stopping for the previously promised ice cream of course! It had been a long, full day and we still had a 2-hour drive back to our AirBnB in Aix. Our plan was to leave for Avignon by 8am so we could make it to Mass at the Cathedral, which itself is a UNESCO site.

But that will have to wait until my next blog post!

If you'd like some more pictures and views from the chateay, this video is only 2 minutes. I did not take this video, and the music is a bit obnoxious, but the pictures are nice! 

Road Trip = Unplanned Awesomeness

As a reminder, at this point in our road trip, we’ve just left Arles and are heading towards Les Baux de Provence, a town I’d been told to go see if I was in the area. 

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of driving in France, one of the things I appreciate is how well their signage is! Every major intersection or roundabout will have signs indicating which direction to go to get to the nearest major town or city. Another thing that will be indicated is if there is an historical monument nearby. If there is, there will be signs that will lead you directly to it!

One rule of this road trip was that if we saw an historical monument site that was less than 10 kilometers away, we followed the signs. As we were leaving Arles towards Les Baux, one such sign appeared, and we didn’t even have to go out of our way, it was right on the road towards Les Baux!

The Abbey from the top of its tower.

 We saw the Abbaye Montmajour from the road and had to stop to visit! It’s up on a hill, as many such places were, and huge! We decided to pay the 8€ to visit – and I’m so glad we did!

The site was originally a necropolis (a large tomb/cemetary) with a couple of chapels built in the 11^th century. One of the chapels was actually cut out of a natural cave in the hillside, and it was connected to the other chapel by underground paths and rooms.

Here you can see best that it was originally a necropolis.

 In the 14^th century, a tower was built above the old cemetery by the Abbot-Cardinal, who wanted some protection due to some turmoil in the area; the papacy being moved to nearby Avignon being one thing, issues with the les Baux dukes nearby (we’re going to Les Baux after this and we’ll learn all about them). In the 15^th century, they added some buttresses to support everything.

At the beginning of the 18^th century (in 1703) the monks of Saint Maur, who had taken possession of the abbey in 1643 per the wishes of Louis XII, started the building of the large monastery. 

The 25-meter high stone building was finished in a mere 15 years and had 5 levels with richly decorated rooms. We were able to climb all the way to the top of the tower – and the views of the valley were amazing! The tower itself is quite tall, and we were already way up on a hill. I particularly appreciated the herd of white horses hanging out in one of the fields. I did have a slight moment of pause while I was taking pictures when I realized that if I dropped my phone from the ramparts, it would most definitely fall through the holes and end up in little tiny pieces way down in the stone courtyard! I took less pictures and just enjoyed the view after that! 

Van Gogh's “Sunset at Montmajour”

 It was all so picturesque that it was no surprise to find out that it was a favorite place of Van Gogh’s to go to draw and paint. The most recent Van Gogh painting that was “discovered” is actually entitled “Sunset at Montmajour” and it rocked the fine art world when it was officially attributed to Van Gogh in 2013, after 2 years of authentication efforts.

We were also able to go down into the original cave/chapel/hermitage from the 11^th century. It was interesting to see that it was a fairly primitive half cave, half chapel, and quite a small space. There were some windows where you could see out into the valley from the cave, which were lovely views. 

One thing that annoys me though is when I visit an historical monument like that and see that people have carved their name into the stone.

 I think takes a particular level of arrogance to carve your name into a 1,000+ year old monument, contributing to its deterioration… seriously Terry: you’re not cool, you’re a jerk.

The location was classified as an historical monument in 1927. On some of the signs it says that the Abbey is a UNESCO Site, but as I’m well versed in those that are in the area ad hadn’t heard of it, I was doubtful. I looked it up later and it turns out that when the Roman sites in Arles were submitted for UNESCO review, they actually included Montmajour as part of the proposal (the proposals are all available to the public – as are the decisions). The two Roman sites were accepted as a grouping, but because Montmajour is a little ways out of town and not from the same century as the other two monuments, it was not included in the listing, nor re-proposed as a site in its own right.

 

360 views like this = not bad!

It was an absolutely beautiful side stop on our way to Les Baux, which was supposed to be the subject of this blog, but I got distracted by the Abbey! So Les Baux is the next blog, promise!! In the meantime, you can watch this video about the Abbey - the imagery is great!

First UNESCO Site!!

Roman Amphitheater and Theater in Arles

My first official day of vacation, my friend Angela and I picked up the rental car and headed out to Arles, a town about an

hour and a half west of Aix. We went to Arles because it has a UNESCO site, of course! There are actually two sites that are part of the UNESCO classification: the amphitheater and the theater. The theater is older by a century, having been built at the end of the 1^st century BC. Theatrical performances were an important part of the Roman culture, especially in the widespread colonies. One of the ways that the Romans helped appease newly colonized peoples and integrate their colonies into Roman culture was to build theaters and amphitheaters, and then stage performances that were accessible to everyone, and free to the public – including slaves. 

The Roman Empire scheduled a specific number of theatrical performances that were to be performed in every theater throughout the empire – it was more than 70 per year, which means multiple performances were held each week! The Romans also used these as a distraction from political discussions amongst the local inhabitants. These performances could be mimes, pantomimes, poetry readings, or farces. Because of this, being an actor was a good job and taken very seriously – as were the performances. The performances were taken so seriously that if there was a death as part of the performance, at the last minute they would replace the actor with a prisoner on death row and actually kill him on stage!! The theater and the amphitheater were at the center of social life for inhabitants of Rome and its colonies. They continued to be a central part of life for everyone in the empire until 391 when the Catholic Church decided they were “uncivilized” and it all came to an end.

The acoustics in these theaters were amazing. Angela and I tested it – I stood in the center of the stage and she went all the way up to the top of the seating area. I said something in my normal speaking voice and she was able to hear me with no trouble. It’s amazing how well the sound traveled. There are a bunch of rules that the architects followed in order to make that happen, including that the rise of the seats had to be done in a uniform manner so sound could travel equally. This particular theater does not have its back wall anymore – only 3 of these Roman theaters that are left standing in the world still have their theater wall: the one in Syria, the one in Turkey, and the one in Orange, France (we’ll visit that one a bit later in the trip!!). Even without the wall, the acoustics still work!

In Arles, as in most major Roman towns, there was also an amphitheater, which held very different events from the theaters. While the theaters were for music and plays and such, the amphitheaters were for activities that were considered more like a sport. The amphitheater in Arles is particularly well known for bull fighting. They used bulls that were different from the ones in Spain; smaller and smarter. It was a test of agility and skill on the part of both the participants – and the bull was not killed at the end. The amphitheater was built about a century after the theater, so about 90 AD, and was the center of activity in the large Roman settlement. 

The main event was, of course, the gladiators, who entertained the people by fighting other gladiators, animals, or prisoners already on death row (so it didn’t matter if they were killed…) While we were visiting, there was a group learning about how the gladiators would fight as entertainment. I could hear the instructor (acoustics in amphitheaters are also very good) explaining the showmanship and exhibition aspect of what they did.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the amphitheater in Arles actually became a refuge for the people of the area, keeping them safe from roaming bands of barbarians. In the Middle Ages four defense towers were actually built – not a normal part of an amphitheater, but they weren’t using it for its intended purpose by that point. The local community actually started building houses within the walls of the amphitheater and eventually there was an entire little town built inside its walls. Three of the four towers are still standing, but a lot of the stone they used to build the houses came from the seating area of the amphitheater, so the original seats and some other parts are gone. The amphitheater housed the majority of the town for hundreds of years.
In 1538, King Francis I went to Arles while he was campaigning again Charles X and complained about the state of the amphitheater – as did Henri IV in 1609, who ordered the town inside the amphitheater be evacuated and demolished, but it didn’t happen.

A map of the houses that were built within the walls of the amphitheater

 In 1735 the local government stopped issuing building/renovation permits for structures within the walls of the amphitheater. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that they removed the town from inside the amphitheater and began restoring it to its former state. It has been in almost constant renovation since then.

UNESCO recognized the ensemble of the two Roman monuments as sites with universal cultural value worthy of protecting for humanity in 1981.

We only spent the morning/early afternoon in Arles, so afterwards we decided to go to a town I’d heard about from friends – Les Baux de Provence – because it’s listed as one of the most beautiful towns in France. It’s not a UNESCO site, but it is well worth the visit and the subject of my next blog post!

 Stay tuned…

Fresh French Food!!

I love that in France, they have open-air food markets all the time! The one in Aix-en-Provence is open every morning from 8am to 1pm – except the first Sunday of the month. I’d decided that while I was in Aix, I would try to avoid restaurants and take advantage of the market. I couldn’t do that on our first day because it was actually the first Sunday of the month – and Monday was packed with orientation activities, so I couldn’t make it that morning either. Once Tuesday rolled around, I still had some fires to put out with the students as they started their classes. 

I met up with one student at 8:30am and walked with her and the rest of the students the 45 minutes to their campus, which is separate because it’s the art school. There were a few teachers leading them, but I needed to walk with her because her SIM card wasn’t actually working, and I figured that it was a good time to try to figure it out. We walked all the way out to her school while I tried to figure it out. I ended up having to call customer service to get them to fix it. It finally worked right as we got to her school. Then I was way out of town, but determined to get to the market that morning!

Fresh market ingredients

I’d asked one of my students who has an open schedule in the morning if she wanted to join me at the market. She and another student chose to have a semi-independent housing option, so they’re in an attached apartment and will be cooking all of their own food. I promised to help them navigate food shopping in the first few days. We met at 11am and did a tour around the market to see what everyone had and think about what we wanted to get/make. One thing that the region is known for is their strawberries, so that was definitely on the list! We also grabbed everything needed for a hardy salad – including fresh goat cheese. The woman at the cheese stand had a picture of her daughter with the goats that she raises for cheese. We asked her what cheese she would recommend for a salad and she suggested the super fresh, plain cheese that she’d made the day before. It was a great choice: very light and perfect for a large salad.

Another day, my friend Angela (who flew out from California to join me for the vacation portion of my trip) and I decided to go to the market specifically for cheese and sausages that could last for a few days of lunches/dinners depending on what was going on. The kind woman at the cheese/sausage stand let us taste a bunch of them both to help us decide. We ended up getting 4 different sausages and 4 different cheeses. That with some baguette made up a few of our on-the-go meals or picnics.

One such picnic was for when we went to the beach in Marseilles. We took the bus that runs from Aix to Marseilles every 15 minutes, walked to the Vieux Port, hopped on a boat out to Frioul Island. It was really windy, so a bumpy and wet ride out there – but it was a beautiful day! We sat on the beach and had a picnic – not a fancy setting, but it was yummy! 
We didn’t really want to do any specific site-seeing in Marseilles because we didn’t have time to do it justice. We just swam a little and enjoyed the sunshine for a while before heading back to Aix in time for dinner. 

Exploring Marseilles will have to be for another trip!

On Frioul Island

In Cézanne's Footprints

One thing that Aix-en-Provence is super well known for is being the home of Paul Cézanne – you know, the famous painter. He was born there in 1836 and died there in 1906 – and on the subject of Provence he said; “When you are born there, it’s hopeless, nothing else is good enough.”

So, in between helping students with SIM cards, figuring out the bus, and making sure everything was going well, I was able to visit his studio just outside the city center. 

Because Cézanne is the town’s most famous son, there is a great deal to see about him: museums with his work, old places he hung out with his childhood friend Emile Zola, his childhood home, and his final studio. I didn’t have time to do them all, so I decided to go to the studio. It was where he spent the final years of his life working. He moved back to Aix from Paris in 1901 when his mother was ailing and had the studio built to his detailed specifications. It’s a bit outside the city center, but the lighting and setting were perfect for the work he wanted to do.

 The room he made for painting is one large, square room that has 2 walls without windows, one wall that is pretty much one large window, and one wall that has 2 windows with shutters that he could open and close depending on how much light he wanted from that direction. He had the walls painted a muted bluish-gray, and the floor/ceiling an unobtrusive wood so that there would be no interference with how the colors looked on his canvases.

 It is still set up just as he had it, with a large easel and ladder, and many objects scattered around that he used to inspire his paintings. It was interesting to see the actual objects, such as skulls and fruit bowls, which are prominent in some of his most famous paintings. We were also able to see some of the personal affects that he kept there, and some that were added for visitors, such as a letter he’d written to his friend Monet.

I learned that he would go to the studio every morning to paint for a few hours, walking there from the house he lived in located in the city center. We walked there as well and it took us about 15 minutes. He would walk back into town for lunch & a nap, then go back for the afternoon/evening light.

  Many days he would spend the late afternoons and evenings up at one of his favorite outdoor painting spots, Lauve’s Hill, which he particularly appreciated because of its superb view of Mount Sainte Victoire. We walked up there from his studio so we could see what he did as he painted. Mount Sainte Victoire is the subject of around 80 of Cézanne’s paintings!

It was interesting to see how he had everything set up in his studio, which was preserved just the way he left it. This is because his family basically abandoned the place after he died. One October day, Cézanne went up the hill to paint, but got caught in a violent thunderstorm. He had to be carried back to his apartment, but even then, he still went out the next day to paint in the garden of the studio! He came back very sick and died the next day. 

His death was such a blow to his family that they couldn’t bring themselves to touch his studio, so it sat there for 15+ years. It was sold to a local writer, who lived in the lower apartment, but didn’t do much with the studio.

 Finally, in the early 1950s, a couple of American biographers who were passionate about preserving locations important to Cézanne’s life, founded the Cézanne Memorial Committee and bought it with funds they raised from American donors. Once they did so, they actually gifted it to the Aix-Marseille University, which would open it as a museum in 1954.

What a lovely way for people to learn about such an important artist!

Getting Oriented!

Our first day in Aix was, as you can imagine, a pretty quiet one. We all tried to sleep late because we didn’t get in until so late (early?). The Institute for American Universities (IAU) who is the host university, had a welcome reception at 5pm for everyone to just see each other casually for the first time and see some of the staff members they’d been messaging back and forth with. Host families were also invited. Two of my students were being taken there by their host moms, and the other two wanted to get out and wander around a bit beforehand. I met them around 2pm and we searched for a place to eat lunch. We had a nice summer salad and enjoyed the sunshine for an hour and a half or so before we had to head to the reception. Their host mom met them there and invited them to have dinner with her and a few high school students she was hosting for dinner the next 4 nights – to give them a taste of French life without having them actually stay with a host family. As much as they wanted to, they couldn’t go to dinner because they were in more independent housing and had to go shopping so that they’d have something to eat the next day. They promised they’d have dinner with them another night.

 

Yay for summer salads!!

We left the reception at about 6:30 and went to the only grocery store open on a Sunday evening. Come to find out that it was only open because it wasn’t actually staffed on Sunday evenings. You just do your shopping, use one of the self-checkout machines, and then you had to use your receipt to open the door to leave. Interesting… the only issue was that the checkout machines kept malfunctioning, and when that happened, you had to press a button to call an operator and have them fix it by giving them the store number and then the machine number. There were two security guards who were trying to help everyone, but 5 machines that were malfunctioning in turn. The one we used worked fine for the first set of things and I was able to pay no problem. Then we went on to the students’ things, getting about a third of the way through the stuff, (we had about €100 worth of stuff) and it stopped working. The guy tried to help us, and it took about 15 minutes to get it back up and running. We were able to finish scanning everything, but then when we went to pay, it stopped working again. Another 10 minutes go by and it’s unblocked again and we go to pay… the CC that had just worked didn’t work the first 2 times, but then finally worked on the 3^rd try. We were finally done about 8:30! 

The two students living together and making their own food headed back and were pleasantly surprised that their host mom was still out in the garden having dinner with the high schoolers, so they were able to join in the dinner after all! The other student and I were headed in the same direction for a little while, and then she went another direction to get to her host mom’s apartment. I found at the next day that while waiting to cross the street at an intersection, some university-aged people in a car driving by threw eggs at her while yelling something about America/Americans! Don’t know how they knew she’s an American, but even so… Why? No one has any idea! It was understandably upsetting for her, but she has a really nice host mom and I think she helped to calm her down. But what a disappointing first introduction to the French and their culture :(

Orientation Time!!

The next day was orientation at IAU, and I thought they did a great job organizing it. They have almost 200 students here this summer, so they started in a large room with everyone – doing introductions of the staff, general logistics about classes, etc. For the afternoon sessions they broke them up into 3 groups: Renoir, Cezanne and Van Gogh. They rotated between a walking tour of the center part of town where the different class buildings are located (it’s not like a US university campus – the buildings are spread out in the town), an info session on culture shock and the basics about French culture, and a session specifically about navigating living with a French host family. I attended the sessions more out of curiosity and wanting to have the information to give potential future IAU students. I particularly enjoyed seeing the classrooms in the different buildings, mostly because our guide had a great French sense of humor. 

He was showing the student lounge and said “There’s a coffee vending machine down there… industrial coffee, so, you know, disgusting coffee!” All of the classrooms in one building are named after famous French authors. One is Simone de Beauvoir, another is name after; “Camus, you know, the crazy French philosopher.” I chuckled at that one, since I read a fair amount of Camus during my Masters program.

 It was a long day, but I was proud of my students for being attentive and respectful, which I can unfortunately not say about many other students during the orientation. I was particularly annoyed at the students who would snicker when a French staff member of IAU was speaking in English – for their benefit no less – and made a mistake. I was so tempted to turn and ask them if their French was as good as the woman’s English – which was very good! They were the same students who chatted through some portions of the information and then asked questions at the end because they hadn’t been listening. Sigh. Not my students.

After orientation, a couple of my students – and another student from a different school – decided to go get French SIM cards and change money. We arrived 15 minutes too late for changing money, but we were able to get SIM cards. We celebrated with ice cream, and then we called it quits and everyone went to their respective homes after a long day – with no repeats of the egging incident.

Getting There

Traveling…

The worst part of traveling is the actual getting there part! Especially if things don’t go smoothly, and that’s exactly what happened on our trip out to Aix-en-Provence. I’ll take you along on our crazy adventure – just be happy you didn’t actually have to experience it, ha ha!

We all got to the airport okay and eventually found each other. There are 5 of us total: 4 students and myself, so at least it’s a small group. Checked in with only a little glitch using the automated check-in stations. But we got our boarding passes and went through security, no problem. Wait for a couple of hours, get on the plane. None of us are seated near each other, but that’s not a big deal. I have a middle seat in a 4-seat row. I’m surrounded by other students going on other study abroad programs – to Spain, Italy, and France – so we’d have things to talk about!

We waited a while in the take-off line, so we were running a little behind, but they thought we’d make up that time in the air, no problem. It’s finally our turn to take off, and off we go speeding down the runway, and I’m thinking the plane is shaking a bit more than I remember, but whatever. 
Right as we’re going to liftoff, the pilot hits the brakes, aborting our takeoff! It wasn’t a smooth stop, since we were going so fast, but the pilot managed to do it safely and staying on the tarmac, so we were all shaken, but grateful. The pilot comes on and says that something was wrong; the plane isn’t supposed to shake that much.

We taxi back to the terminal and after about 30 minutes, they have us deplane. I asked the flight attendant to thank the pilot for us as I left the plane – it’s not easy to stop a jumbo jet like that!! They told us to wait in the area because they weren’t going to cancel the flight, the mechanics are just going to fix something and then we’ll get back on the plane and be on our way. It was an evening flight and we were supposed to have dinner on the plane, so they ordered food to be brought to the gate for everyone. I had the airline give the students food vouchers so they could get what they needed in the terminal since some of them have major food allergies.

In the meantime get a message from the airline saying that because of the delay, I’ll miss my connection from Madrid to Marseille, so they rebooked me on another flight out at 4:50pm, so I’d still make it to Marseille at a decent hour. My students get a message along the same lines, except that they’ve been rebooked on the 9:30pm flight instead of the 4:50pm flight and would arrive in Marseille at 11:10pm. So while we were waiting, I went to customer service, and the person standing right behind me in line is a student going to the same program as my students, but traveling solo and had been rebooked on the later flight. He was in line just trying to confirm that he did have a spot on the later flight, since he was having trouble confirming. He was going to have to coordinate getting to his host family by himself since the university representative wouldn’t be at the airport that late. I was giving him the pointers on getting the bus and a taxi and such. He then asked me to help him with the agent, so when it’s finally my turn, I explain that I have to be on the same flight as my students. The woman tells me that both of the flights to Marseille are full and she can’t move me. I remembered that the student behind me had a seat on the later flight, but it would be so much better for him to be on the earlier flight so the housing coordinator could still meet him at the airport and his host family could pick him up. So I called him over and asked the agent to trade our seats. She wasn’t thrilled about the extra work, but in the end we were able to get it done and I got a seat with my students! We’d have a 9 hour layover in Madrid, but at least we were all on the same plane. Phew!

Airport sights!

After a couple of hours, they tell us that the mechanics are just finishing up the final inspection of the new front tire they had changed, but that we were then waiting for a new pilot. Once he comes, we’re good to go. We get back on the plane when he shows up and we head out, no problems on the take off this time. It’s 4.5 hours after we were supposed to leave. One bonus out of this was that the women who were sitting in the window & aisle seats next to my row decided not to go on that flight anymore, so I stole their seats! Got both to myself and was better able to rest on the flight than if I'd been in my original middle seat.

We arrive in Madrid around noon, and our next flight leaves at 9:30pm, so we had some time to kill. Since it was our first port in Europe, we went through customs. I was glad because we’d get to Marseille pretty late, and then we didn’t have to worry about customs. 

I get €120 in food vouchers from the airline and decide to save it to have a nice sit-down dinner before our flight. They gave us “breakfast” on the plane just before we landed, so we weren’t terribly hungry or anything, just quite tired. We find a place where we can sprawl out a bit to wait and rest a little. I have a pretty good group of students who are mostly laid back and going with the flow – even though most of them haven’t traveled much. A little frustration here and there, but in general it was okay. I spend some time coordinating with the university and the host families, letting them know about the delay and figuring out the logistics of getting the students to their respective host families that late at night. We decide on a Japanese restaurant for dinner and enjoyed some good food right before getting on our final flight.

We board our next flight at about 9pm, and the sun was just setting, still pretty light outside! We had to wait on the tarmac for a long time and took off about 40 minutes late, so we got to Marseille just before midnight. We didn’t have to wait long for the luggage, so we got on the last shuttle bus to the train station in Aix.

 It was about 1am when we arrived and 2 of my students’ host lives right there, so we all walked about 5 minutes to drop them off. I left them in the capable hands of their host mom and took the other 2 students back down near the train station to hail a cab. We get a cab easily and head to the host that is the farthest away, but we have trouble finding her and contacting her, so the taxi driver gets annoyed. I decided to go on to the next student’s host and we’d try again for the other one. When we got to the other host family, she was there waiting, so that student was handed over to her host mom. The taxi driver had another call, so he decided the leave us there – refusing to take us back to the other host mom. I wasn’t amused.

The other host mom responds right as the taxi is driving away telling us exactly how to get to her place – not the easiest to find, but not that hard once we knew where it was. The student is in tears by now, just out of sheer exhaustion and frustration as we have to walk a few minutes to a main road to get another taxi. I called a taxi company and they sent a car right away for us. It’s about 2am when we finally get to the host’s apartment, and she came out to get the student. I apologized profusely for the late hour! I was glad to have found the place and that all the students were now safe and sound with their host families! 

The taxi driver was nice enough to wait for me, so I jumped back in and gave him my address – on “Rue de l’école” and off we go. I had it up on my GPS because I’d been using the GPS to find the student’s apartment. I notice the taxi is going the opposite direction than he should. I think maybe he’s detouring slightly around a closed road, but then he still goes in the wrong direction.

Rue de l'école

 I told him he was going in the opposite direction. He says, no, it’s 14km from here. I said no, it’s only a 14 minute WALK from where we were. I could have easily walked it, but I was so tired. He says, “No, my GPS says it’s 14km to Rue des écoles.” I reiterated that it was “Rue de l’école” not “Rue des écoles” – which is the plural of the first one and they were not the same road! I had him turn around and I guided him to where I needed to be, but got out when I realized that because of a road closure, it would be faster/easier for me to walk the final 5 minutes. Even in my state of sheer exhaustion I stopped to admire the 12th century church I walked by to get to my apartment. 

I rented an AirBnB and my host had sent me instructions on where to find the key that she hid, since I wasn't arriving at a decent hour anymore – and I was so thankful that her instructions, while a bit complicated, were very clear. Finally, at about 2:30am, I was in the apartment I’ve rented for the next 10 days! I emailed our arrival confirmation to my office back home, took a shower and went to sleep – 30 hours after we started the journey!

It was certainly not a “bon voyage” but we’re all here!