On Day 17 my hiking buddy Mariella went back home, taking advantage of a handy and inexpensive Flixbus connection. We had a proper cooked dinner and a bottle of Provençal rosé to celebrate our 350 km together in our charming airbnb, a garret flat right next to the clock tower. So close I can hear the seconds ticking, in fact!
View from our terrace
We're in the "Crème Éclipse - Cirage á la Cire" building, an attraction in its own right. And the flat is decorated with a collection of "Cirage á la Cire" ads, in keeping with the theme.
There are plenty of fading ads painted on the walls of Aix. These and the morning flower and produce markets make it a very colourful city!
I did a walking tour "in the steps of Cézanne" organised by the Visitor Centre. Our guide was very informative and told us lots about the city and its history, and why Cézanne was "a bad painter" and none of his works were included in the collections of the museum in his home town.
Musée Granet XXième, in a deconsecrated chapel: you won't find any Cézannes there. On the other hand, there's a load of Picassos!
Our guide took us to a square where archaeologists are surveying ancient layers of the city below street level prior to starting redevelopment work.
Here they have found some giant amphoras or food containers of some kind.
In the afternoon I returned to the cathedral to take the free tour of the cloisters, with their beautifully carved capitals illustrating stories from the Bible, all explained in two languages by a very kind volunteer.
And now to polish off the leftover ratatouille and rosé from our dinner last night.. and pack up my clean laundry, ready to get back on the road!
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