Aix En Provence - home and inspriation for one of France's finest artists

We arrived in Marseille with just enough time to drop off our luggage at the train station, in order to catch the next train to Aix En Provence, where the main attraction was the Cezanne exhibition. For the first time ever, over one hundred and seventeen of his art pieces have been gathered from all over the world to celebrate 100 years after his death and the importance of his work to modern artists worldwide. With such acclamation, it was some thing worth missing Marseille for. As we finally reached our destination in Aix En Provence we quickly made our way to the back of the long ticket line, here we learnt that we may not be able to get tickets for the show that day, as all of the tickets were almost sold out. It was not something that we wanted to hear, but were hoping that we would be able to get one of the last tickets sold that afternoon. Waiting in the blistering sun with no idea if we would even be able to see his work on the only day we had plan to be in Aix En Provence was difficult to say the least, and as the line dwindled we began to run out of hope. However, we did manage to get a couple of tickets for the 4:30 showing that afternoon, so it was not all a loss. With tickets in hand and a growling stomach, we decided to hit the streets for some grub. We settled for sandwiches and sat at one of the many fountains scattered throughout the small but lively city center, to devour our lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the streets. Besides the fountains and the main shopping strip there was not much to this town. It was just as well since we really came to see the Cezanne exhibition.

La Rotonde Fountain – at the center of town

One of the many fountains in town, this one using the natural hot springs and has moss grown all over it

A visit to any city in France is not complete without visiting a church so here is the Cathedral St-Sauveur

Interior shot of one of the side alter space at Cathedral St-Sauveur

The Roman influence as the introduction of the dome and fenestration allowing more natural light to enter into the space

Quiet different! As a myriad of different styles of columns support the second floor overlooking the court yard

In total we spent about 2 hours weaving in and out of countless other patrons to get a closer look of Cezanne’s work. There were quite a wide range of art pieces ranging from some very early sketches and what seemed to me to be unfinished works, where he was developing his techniques, but to the art world some would call these master pieces. Photography was a definite “NO NO” so you all will have to just make the trip for yourselves. Speaking for myself, I was not really that impressed with his work, it may be due to the fact that there were so many others viewing his work at the same time that you do not get to look at any one painting for any extended period of time. This is not how one should be viewing art! It was impressive to see just how a single place can be the source of inspiration for one individual to influence the way we subsequently view the world, as Cezanne used the surrounding regions of Aix en Provence as his muse.

Chunger the unemployed bum…