More about Aix-en-Provence

We got up on the early side today so we could take a morning walking tour of Aix. Before we can do anything in the morning, Dick needs his coffee fix. Fortunately, the hotel has a wonderful Petit Dejeuner of croissants, rolls, sweet rolls, café au lait and orange juice. At breakfast, we saw the German couple that we met at dinner Thursday and had a brief discussion with them about American politics (they favor Obama for President) before we picked up the walking tour at the Office of Tourism. Lucky for us, there was only one other couple who joined us for the English speaking tour which made this a very personal tour.

Our tour guide is a student of the architecture, history and culture of the region. She is about our age and after raising her children she left Paris for the “country life” of Aix-en-Provence. She walked us up the Cours Mirabeau where we went inside some of the banking offices that used to be mansions for the wealthy of Aix. These mansions were built in the newer Mazarin section of town (otherwise know as the Beverly Hills of Aix). She described the architecture, interior designs and the lifestyles of the very rich of the 17th and 18th Century. One of the things that we learned is that the wealthy people and the aristocrats walked on the shady side of the Cours Mirabeau and everyone else had to walk on the sunny side.

Cours Mirabeau, itself, is located on the site of part of the Roman battlement that surrounded the ancient city. After touring the fancy section of Aix which is built on a simple grid design, we crossed over the Cours Mirabeau into the old city in which the streets meander here and there (and change names as they do, as we discovered on Wednesday night while we were trying to find our hotel!). All the streets in the old city slope towards the center and the gutter is in the middle of the street. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the homes in Aix began to install indoor plumbing. Every morning, people would empty their camber pots by throwing the contents out the windows into the gutters. The contents would run down the center of the streets and into a sewer. At some point, the city council of Aix decided they didn’t want people to do this anymore. The council passed a law requiring people to empty their chamber pots on their flat roofs so that the sun would dry the contents which would then be washed away with the rain or carried off by the Minstral Winds. Of course, the winds and rain did not always wait for all of the contents to dry so it was not always pleasant to be walking the streets of the old city! Our guide shared this story with us because the blustery cold Minstral Winds were blowing today.

She walked us through several street markets -- a flea market in the Place (Square) du Justice with the big clock tower, flowers in the Place de l’Hotel de Ville, and produce in the Place Richelme -- on our way to La Cathedrale Sainte Sauveur which was partially built from leftover Roman ruins. Our tour ended at the Cathedral and our guide left us there. We made our way back to the Cours Mirabeau for lunch and then visited the Musee Granet. Unfortunately for us, not all the exhibits were open. We did see several paintings by two of Aix’s favorite sons, Granet and Cezanne.

Tomorrow we drive to the Marseilles airport where we return our car and transfer to Arles to begin our cruise.

Some of today's sights. By the way, the bottom fountain is a hot water fountain from a natural hot spring.