aix-en-provence synopsis:
saturday we hung out in the house in the morning and i started my first painting of this new era... in the late afternoon we walked around aix with amy and bob. there is a great energy in aix en provence. lots of people, beautiful, warm light. yellow houses. lots of very small streets and very much an upscale shopping town. it is a very old town with small windy streets, encircled with a ring road and then bisected by a shopping street called the “cours mirabeau” which is lined on one side with cafes. north of this is the touristy crowded shopping, restaurant area. south of this is the university area, which was very quiet – but it's still summer. we went searching for a crepe for hungry j, but couldn’t find any, it being late afternoon. she had to be happy with some french fries. then we went back to amy and bob’s place to prepare dinner. we got to eat on the millstone again. we had bought a rotisserie chicken and then cooked salmon and green beans and j made mashed potatoes. we had wine and a cheese course and then the 10 flavors of macaroons we bought in town. j wanted to try every flavor, so divided each one (only 2" diameter) into 5.
sunday was a beautiful day. we all went to “l'isle sur la sorgue” – a town that was famous for its canals and beauty but later made a name as the antiques town. many antique dealers here normally, but every year, the weekend of august 15 (assumption holiday), has a special antiques fair with many more dealers exhibiting in the open air. lots of crazy and fun stuff - like giant metal pergolas, a 1920's wrap around shower with 10 heads pointing in, tables made from antique doors and retired industrial machinery.
monday we went to marseille to tour around. saw the beautiful church on the hill, “notre dame de la garde” with a stunning gilt tiled ceiling and wonderful model boats hanging from it. (these accompanied many paintings of boats in storms - marseille being a sailor's town, people gave thanks to notre dame for being saved at sea.) gorgeous views looking down on marseille and the sea. then we headed to one of the nearby beaches – sormiou, where you have to park and then walk for about a ½ hour – up and down a big hill to get to the beautiful white cliffs and blue water. unforturnately, we had been having a bit of wind which cooled down the water temperature to “cold”.
tuesday we hung out in the house and i worked on the painting. in the afternoon, we went to another beach area, called “cote bleue”. the water was still cold...
wednesday we went to visit the pont du gard (huge roman bridge extending aqueduct over the river “gard”). we had a picnic lunch and then p and j swam in the river. we went to the museum afterwards, which was very interesting and well done. the romans were quite the engineers. the bridge was built with stones that were cut to fit and then were layed on top of each other without using any mortar. they built many aqueducts and this one happened to extend 50 miles (into town of nimes) with a very slight angle of decline. on exhibit were some very modern looking lead pipes that were made by the romans. one amazing video taken by parachutist and small plane followed the aqueduct from the air. most of the aqueduct was underground and you could see the indentation in the earth. apparently, after the roman empire started disintegrating and the aqueduct was not maintained, little by little the water in the system got muddier and muddier. eventually, people stopped using it. i finished my painting and have included it here.
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saturday we hung out in the house in the morning and i started my first painting of this new era... in the late afternoon we walked around aix with amy and bob. there is a great energy in aix en provence. lots of people, beautiful, warm light. yellow houses. lots of very small streets and very much an upscale shopping town. it is a very old town with small windy streets, encircled with a ring road and then bisected by a shopping street called the “cours mirabeau” which is lined on one side with cafes. north of this is the touristy crowded shopping, restaurant area. south of this is the university area, which was very quiet – but it's still summer. we went searching for a crepe for hungry j, but couldn’t find any, it being late afternoon. she had to be happy with some french fries. then we went back to amy and bob’s place to prepare dinner. we got to eat on the millstone again. we had bought a rotisserie chicken and then cooked salmon and green beans and j made mashed potatoes. we had wine and a cheese course and then the 10 flavors of macaroons we bought in town. j wanted to try every flavor, so divided each one (only 2" diameter) into 5.
sunday was a beautiful day. we all went to “l'isle sur la sorgue” – a town that was famous for its canals and beauty but later made a name as the antiques town. many antique dealers here normally, but every year, the weekend of august 15 (assumption holiday), has a special antiques fair with many more dealers exhibiting in the open air. lots of crazy and fun stuff - like giant metal pergolas, a 1920's wrap around shower with 10 heads pointing in, tables made from antique doors and retired industrial machinery.
monday we went to marseille to tour around. saw the beautiful church on the hill, “notre dame de la garde” with a stunning gilt tiled ceiling and wonderful model boats hanging from it. (these accompanied many paintings of boats in storms - marseille being a sailor's town, people gave thanks to notre dame for being saved at sea.) gorgeous views looking down on marseille and the sea. then we headed to one of the nearby beaches – sormiou, where you have to park and then walk for about a ½ hour – up and down a big hill to get to the beautiful white cliffs and blue water. unforturnately, we had been having a bit of wind which cooled down the water temperature to “cold”.
tuesday we hung out in the house and i worked on the painting. in the afternoon, we went to another beach area, called “cote bleue”. the water was still cold...
wednesday we went to visit the pont du gard (huge roman bridge extending aqueduct over the river “gard”). we had a picnic lunch and then p and j swam in the river. we went to the museum afterwards, which was very interesting and well done. the romans were quite the engineers. the bridge was built with stones that were cut to fit and then were layed on top of each other without using any mortar. they built many aqueducts and this one happened to extend 50 miles (into town of nimes) with a very slight angle of decline. on exhibit were some very modern looking lead pipes that were made by the romans. one amazing video taken by parachutist and small plane followed the aqueduct from the air. most of the aqueduct was underground and you could see the indentation in the earth. apparently, after the roman empire started disintegrating and the aqueduct was not maintained, little by little the water in the system got muddier and muddier. eventually, people stopped using it. i finished my painting and have included it here.
Love the painting. Was this in the town center?
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