Saturday, September 12, Cassis and Aix-en-Provence

Here we are in Aix, and we are eager to explore this charming, small city, but first we decided (on the advice of our friend, Lynne Keran) to drive to the sea and visit the resort community of Cassis this morning and to explore Aix this afternoon.  It was a good plan.  The drive to Cassis was uneventful, mostly on the freeway, and we had little trouble finding our way out of Aix, which was a little surprising. Arriving in Cassis, we can see immediately that this is a special place.  It sits at the base of impressive mountains, and this is what you think of when you think Mediterranean resorts.  Of course, this being Saturday, it was crowded.  Our first challenge was to find parking, and this was a challenge.  We pulled into one parking lot by the casino, but it was completely full, then we followed other parking signs, which took us up higher and farther away from the city center.  Ultimately, we found a pay parking space on the street and took it.  When we went to the pay machine, though, it seemed to be broken.  A lady passing by who did not speak English pointed to another one up the hill -- ugh, I guess we will climb.  Then we saw a mailman delivering mail and tried to ask him if payment was required on Saturday (Samedi), he just answered, "Monay, monay, monay,"  which we took to be yes.  So we climbed up to the other machine and it too was broken.  We actually didn't see any parked cars with tags on their windshields, so we decided to take a chance and just go.

Our walk into town was all downhill, but soon we were in the thick of things.  There were throngs of people ... Saturday in a beach town, but it created a festive atmosphere.  We walked along the harbor and it is one restaurant after another.  We decided to walk up along the pier and discovered the beach (plage) and a nice place overlooking the beach for lunch, called Bada.  I had a burger and fries, while Rob had a chicken caesar salad.  A couple from upstate New York are seated next to us, who had taken a side trip from their Mediterrean cruise, and we enjoyed a nice conversation.  Here we are at lunch, enjoying a nice glass of rose:

After, lunch, we continued to walk around the port and took a few more pictures.  Cassis sits in a very dramatic location with large mountains, particularly to the east.

Here is the port:

We headed back to Aix in the early afternoon; it was not a very long drive.  Our plan was to complete a walking tour of Aix before we leave tomorrow (good news too: there is no parking ticket on our car...yay...free Saturday parking in Cassis!)

Aix, despite our terrible navigation problems from yesterday, is a really lovely small city.  We walked around the city center following the recommended route from our Michelin travel guide.  We began in the area south of the Cours Mirabeau, which is a gorgeous, tree lined street, kind of like Aix's mini-version of a Champs d'Elysee in Paris.  To the south, there are many restored mansions with courtyards that you can peak into.  Many are identified with historical markers.  One, in particular, had a long line of people waiting to enter, and it is an art museum (Caumont Art Center), which has a special exhibition of the artist, Canaletto.  We continued on until we came to a square which has a church and another museum.  Here is a view of the church, showing a typical street scene:

We entered the museum, called the Musee Granet.  One enticement was the fact that they were having a special exhibition of art on loan from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (currently closed to accommodate a huge contruction/enlargement project).  Part of the loan is art from the Doris and Donal Fisher Collection -- yes, the parents of our neighbor from Partrick Road.  Also, we wanted to see the Cezanne's in the permanent collection.  Aix was the home of Cezanne.  The Cezanne pieces were really nice, one landscape in particular, but we breezed through the San Francisco art.  I think we have seen most of this already.

After this, we continued our stroll -- there were people out and about.  It is a nice, sunny day. To the north of the Cours Mirabeau are narrow streets which are filled with high end shopping.  There are also many squares with cafes, such as at the Hotel de Ville (where this was a wedding underway).  We walk to the north and find a small artists' market.  I am drawn to an artist who paints landscape scenes in Provence.  He is from the town of Sisteron a little to the north.  One piece really struck me; it is an abandoned farm house surrounded by overgrown vegetation.  It reminded me of the places we had seen driving around the past two days, so we bought it.  It is an oil painting, painted on wood.  We are very pleased with this purchase.

We worked our way back to the Cours Mirabeau, where we stopped for a glass of white wine, then decided to return to our hotel for a rest.  Dinner tonight involved a return to the Place Ramu, where we had dinner last night (and was so charming).  Tonight we ate opposite the square at an Italian place called La Traditionale.  I had a pizza with tomato, cheese and proscuitto ham.  Rob had a pasta dish with tomato sauce with prawns and scallops -- very nice.  We strolled back to our hotel to turn in.

By the way, the view from our hotel room featured Mont St. Victoire in the distance, a favorite subject for Cezanne (Google this to see a plethora of art with this artist and subject).  This is not a great photo, but it does show the mountain in the distance: