This not-terribly-clever title is a reference to Peter Mayle's book A Year in Provence, a funny narrative of an Englishman's adventures buying a house and living in Provence. I recommend it as good light summer reading if you haven't read it already.


This post comes to you from behind the window at top right, in the city of Aix-en-Provence.

Happy Summer Solstice! I hope everyone enjoys the longest day of the year with some nice sunny weather, relaxation and cold drinks. It is still very hot here in the South of France. Although I acknowledge the inherent wrongness of complaining about this, honestly we aren't loving it. We love the sunshine, but both of us are sweatshirt-wearing, Starbucks-sipping Pacific Northwesterners and we simply wilt a little in the heat.

Unfortunately we also don't love our current hotel, although as you can see it is certainly pretty on the outside. It is an apartment hotel of the same chain that we enjoyed so much in Clermont-Ferrand and with our previous happy experience in mind, we'd planned to stay here for a full week and take it easy. But this apartment is much smaller and uglier and has no air conditioning. It's in a historic stone building but unfortunately that doesn't seem to make it any cooler. Our room is on an upper floor and very hot and muggy, although happily it does have a fan!



Tomorrow: Nice is Nicer (We Hope)

So, we've changed our plans and tomorrow morning we are leaving for Nice! We'll spend the remaining five nights of our relaxing-in-Provence period there instead. Nice was one of the main stops on our honeymoon and we really enjoyed it, so we're excited to go back. David was already planning a day trip from Aix anyway. I've found us an All Seasons hotel that has air conditioning and is just on the edge of the Old Town, not too horribly far from the beach.

Yesterday: Not Much

In the meantime, we spent yesterday dutifully relaxing as planned. We read novels in our hot room and in the hot courtyard most of the day, and it was mostly OK. It was best after dark, when it finally got cooler and we sat at an outside table reading by the light on our building and rooting for three little lizards hunting bugs on the wall. We didn't sleep very well thanks to our wimpiness in the heat, though.

Today: Aix-en-Provence and Silvacane Abbey

Today has been better. We got in our air-conditioned car this morning and drove in to explore the town of Aix (pronounced, I am almost certain, as "Ex"). It's quite attractive in the old center, with nice shops, well-dressed skinny French people and tourists, and a cathedral with a wonderful cloister.


Streets of Aix-en-Provence


Cathedral cloister


David and St. Peter in the cloister.


Ancient (6th century) baptistery in the cathedral


After visiting the cathedral we wandered in a few shops, picked up a couple items from a bakery (seriously delicious chocolate brioche for me; a croissant for David) and then picked out some handmade fresh pasta from a little shop and fresh fruit from the outdoor produce market above. Good times.

We came home for lunch and the Formula 1 Qualifying Race, then this evening we took a 40-minute drive to a Cistercian abbey called Silvacane (12th century). We enjoyed high-blast A/C in the car again, and some of the old buildings of the abbey were nice and cool. Ironically, the coolest place was the old Warming Room, whose stone fireplace oddly still smelled of wood smoke. The abbey is no longer in use and very nice. I even got to chase a big orange butterfly through the cloisters.





And now to begin on all the catching up I neglected while we were busy taking day trips in Orange.

Tuesday 6/17: Churches and Such

Our first outing from Orange was on Tuesday, which started out on the freeway in the pouring rain. It continued to rain most of the time we were inside our first church, but got gradually nicer throughout the day. That church, an old cathedral in the village of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, was an ideal place to wait out the rain because there were sculptures, murals and mosaics to keep us busy! It was very dark inside so we both had the tripods going, too.


The most interesting feature of this church is a 13th-century floor mosaic in the apse that depicts the city of Jerusalem. Mosaics from this period are pretty rare.


Also fun are the stone figures high on the interior walls that are busy pulling stone curtains aside.

Our second stop was the parish church of La-Garde-Adhemar. It's in a pretty little village atop a hill overlooking a green valley (and TGV tracks). It has no one great feature, but some very nice architecture and a great location.


Side view


12th-century Madonna made of wood.


And there was a kitty to visit in the village.

The last stop of the day was by far the best. It's a small town called Vaison-la-Romaine, which has a Romanesque chapel, a Romanesque cathedral, and extensive Roman ruins. Plus, the sun came out and stayed out. Plus, in a very full parking lot we scored a great spot right next to the bathrooms, which we needed. There is also a castle on a hill nearby, which we didn't visit but took some photos of from the roadside.


The Romanesque chapel (Chapelle St-Quenin) was along the road as we came into town. It was an easy and quick stop, especially since it was locked.


It had some strange sculptures way up high on the east end.


Then we found our great parking spot and visited the facilities, which were unfortunately the usual for non-urban France - not very clean Turkish toilets. I don't generally mind the Turkish part, but clean would be preferred.

Then it was off to find the cathedral, which turned out to be a short walk right alongside the Roman ruins! There are actually two different archaeological sites in town; this is the one called La Villasse. There is admission to enter, but you can get a great view over the whole site just by walking around the outside of the fence.





At the end of the Roman ruins you turn a couple picturesque corners, and then you're at the cathedral.


The Romanesque cathedral is very pretty.


Visiting the cathedral interior is free but there is a charge for the cloister (€1.50), which is worth every penny. It is small but absolutely beautiful, with a nice little garden in the center and lots of interesting sculptures on the capitals.




I'll have to leave the next two days' trips, which include a great day in Avignon and a really nice lunch in a small town, for a later post.

Labels: aix, church, france, hotel, provence, vaison-la-romaine