A Weekend in Provence

As many of you are probably aware, I spent the past weekend in Provence. It was incredible, right out of the postcards and movies, but better! The countryside in France is just exquisite--when you are there, and especially in the South of France as I now know, you begin to understand the inspiration that fueled the Impressionist movement. There is light and color everywhere, and this weekend in particular, it was sunny and warm!

We started our trip with a three hour train ride on Friday down to Avignon, and arrived in the early afternoon. After wandering around for a while and having lunch, we went on a tour of the Palais des Papes, the Palace where the Pope was located for a couple hundred years from the 14th century after a division in the Catholic church. There are two different portions of the building, older and "newer" (still quite old) which form the palace's entirety. We walked through the inside of the structure, and were able to see some of the old frescoes and tiles that are still quite intact. But my favorite part of the visit was going up to the top of the turrets to see all of Avignon from the top. I love views, and on this trip to Provence we got to "climb" up a lot of structures!

Afterwards, we wandered around the city a bit longer and visited a pretty park on top of a cliff-like structure...the Provencial countryside is covered in rocky areas such as that one, and you can see for tens or hundreds of miles (I'm not quite sure) in all directions from these types of areas. It was gusty and beautiful up there.

Our hotel in Avignon was very charming, and had terra cotta floors and metal-framed beds. A lovely place to take a small nap before dinner! We went to dinner in a group at a really delicious-looking pizza place (I can't eat gluten so the pizza was not an option, but I did try the top of Morgan's pizza, which was absolutely delicious!), and then called it a night.

In the morning, we walked to another part of town to get to a bus that would tour us around the rest of the day. It was such a bright, cheerful day, and you could tell everyone in the group, and in the town, felt so happy! It was also very warm, and to be able to take off our coats is a special treat after the freezing cold weather we've been having in Paris.

We took the bus to the Pont du Gard, the most famous Ancient Roman aqueduct. We were able to walk across it even, on the top level! It is an amazing feat of architecture and of technology, and it was so exciting to see it in real life! After we walked around and on it, we were set free for a bit and explored the hiking paths and hillsides around the Pont. It really reminded me of a summer's day in Northern California, actually!

We headed to Avres, the town which is famous for its Roman Colliseum where they still stage bullfights, and for being the place where Vincent Van Gough cut off his ear. We had lunch at an adorable outdoor brasserie, and walked around the city. It reminded me a lot of Bath, England, because of all the remnants of Roman architecture. I think that is my favorite aspect of Provence, the Roman influences--those were the aspects of Bath that I enjoyed so much when we visited last summer.

The last stop of the day before heading to our final destination was by far the most incredible-- Les Baux. Les Baux is a medeival, hill-top settlement that looks like the home of princesses and knights. There are the ruins of an old castle, and the little village extends up the hill towards the summit, where you can climb the ruins and be at the highest point in the region for miles. We went up there right before sunset, which was absolutely gorgeous. The stairs up the sides of the buildings were so worn down from thousands of feet going up that it was a bit slippery and dangerous, but it felt like such an adventure, running around the top of the cliffs, and exploring all the ruins. I loved it there, and the wind carried all the sound away, which made you feel like you were in the middle of nowhere.

We finally arrived at our hotel in Aix-en-Provence, where we deposited our belongings and then headed to a three-course dinner as a group. We went to a nice bistro in the center of town, and I had an amazing tomato, mozzerella, olive oil and lavendar salad, a lavendar-braised lamb shank, and apple tart.

The next day, we went on a walking tour of Aix, exploring both the 19th century and Medieval sides, and then trudged up a large hill to visit Cezanne's Atelier in the hills of Aix! It was so neat to see the actual studio where he worked, and the inspirations in real life of many of his still-live paintings. The light in Aix is very condusive to art as well, and I can see why he chose to buy an atelier there.

After the walking tour, we visited an amazing open-air market in town that had hundreds of stalls of cheeses, meat, fish, vegetables, oil, lavendar, herbs de provence, and more. It was so fun to wander through and try samples, and to just smell the smells and observe everyone milling about with their children and dogs.

We took a train from Aix to Marseilles, where we were able to look out on the city and get a taste of what it's like (I really want to go back and visit!) and then took another train from Marseilles to Paris! It was a long, tiring weekend, but so incredible, and I cannot wait to visit Provence again one day soon!

For pictures, look to the albums on the right; I should have about 3 or 4 Provence albums up soon!

Bisous, Ashley