Aix en Provence - Footsteps of Cezanne

The final port of call on the cruise was Marseilles which I decided to bypass in favour of Aix en Provence http://en.aixenprovencetourism.com/aix-en-provence.htm, a town a short drive away and birthplace of Cezanne, an artist I love.  What a charming town!!  From the port, we caught a taxi to the Marseilles bus station and then a local bus "up the hill". The bus dropped us near the centre fountain.  The first statue we came across was of Cezanne himself where I realised we'd forgotten the camera!!  Luckily we were travelling with friends who were so accommodating and took lots of photos of my favourite bits and pieces (more doors, cobblestones and lamp-posts!), so I will end up with a record of my visit.

Armed with a map of Cezanne's haunts we walked in his footsteps for the day, meandering around the town past cafes and houses where he frequented.  Stopped for a fantastic lunch on the main street - the wine in Europe is so light and easy to drink! (And it's the cheapest beverage!) We came across the market - unbelievable and it's there every day!!

I insisted on buying a baguette and walking around with it just to feel like a local. I bought a cheese and punnet of fresh raspberries (yes, perth-ites, fresh raspberries for about 3 aussie dollars!! - note for non Perth people - not possible to do here! You are lucky to get fresh blueberries at extortionist prices, otherwise we rely on frozen berries and fyi blackberries are on the no-grow/pest/banned list here.  Imagine my excitement when I stumbled across a couple of late blackberries with my cousin Sarah in the woods at Welwyn Garden City!!!) to take back to the ship and have with our evening cocktail!  Deee-lightful-deee-vine! 

Now I want to go back and study French in Aix en Provence!  My bucket list includes learning at least one foreign language.  I learnt German at school and have studied French and Spanish at different times.  I am hopeless at French pronunciation!!  Absolutely pathetic.  Here are my bucket list language ideas - German in Vienna, Spanish in Madrid or Seville and French in Aix en Provence.  I'm also interested to learn Arabic...perhaps Casablanca?!  Although my sister is moving to Qatar, so who knows! I would love to be multi-lingual!

So it was a gorgeous day.  And I have this lovely French throw to remind me of it.  I spied a little shop with wonderful homewares so ducked in and in all of 5 mins, picked a throw, paid for it and left - by then we were needing to get back to the ship. So here are pictures of the detail.  It is covering the sofa in my mezzanine space - it's a perfect fit!