Putting All Your Aix En One Provence

Laying Aix en Provence

I know. Bad pun. Couldn’t resist. After Monaco it was off for a day in Marseille with a mini-tour of Aix-en-Provence and Cassis. I’ll get to Cassis on Wednesday and Marseille next Monday. The reason Marseille will wait until next week is because I will reveal on Fun Photo Friday how my entries fared in the MS Ryndam’s photo contest.

Aix-en-Provence Fountain

We arrived by minivan to Aix-en-Provence well before this city of 143,000 had come to life for the day. As such the streets and sidewalks were pleasantly empty, and the cafés lightly populated.

Empty Streets one early morning in Aix-en-Provence

But soon after arrival the markets came to life, with street vendors selling fresh fruits, cheeses, and even a dizzying array of mushrooms.

Fresh Fruits in Aix-en-Provence

Say, “Cheese”

Q. By the way, what do you call a mushroom that buys a round of drinks for everyone at the local bar?

Fun Guys in Aix-en-Provence

A: A fungi.

The most prominent historical figure from this area was of course Post-Impressionist painter (and a personal favorite) Paul Cézanne. So revered is Mssr. Cézanne that not only is he immortalized in bronze, but even his common haunts are memorialized with little brass medallions imbedded into the sidewalks.