Aix en Provence

Today (Friday) we met out friends, Sharyn and John, from our Australian/New Zealand cruise last year, for breakfast at 8:30 AM.  They are sailing  back to back cruises having been on the ship for the previous cruise.  It was great to see them again and to meet their friends.  We made plans to have dinner together during the cruise and to get together on sea days since we’ve  made different plans for excursions on port days.

Today we’re taking a ship’s excursion (something we don’t do very often) to Aix en Provence – a lovely University city with a beautiful ‘old town’ area.  We  were in the check-in area early  so got on the first bus out.  We immediately headed to the old town, enjoying the shops, architecture, cathedral and typical french squares.  The map showed the way to the Cezanne Museum which I really wanted to see (being a real fan of his art and knowing that I might not be back this way in the future).  So often we went, meandering down little streets trying to follow the few signs going in the right direction.  We stopped in a pharmacy to make a purchase and asked the way to the museum.  Either we didn’t follow directions well or the clerk didn’t give them correctly, but….we walked almost to the top of a steep street before I resurrected my high school and college French and asked a young man who was parking his bike if we were going the right way.  NO, he said pointing us back the way we had just climbed.  So down the hill we went, turned the corner and headed up another, equally steep hill – we were just about to admit defeat when a nice lady pointed across the street to a door in a wall and said “you’re almost there”.  Art was a very good sport to put up with my intent to find this little museum which is the actual studio where Cezanne painted many of his still lifes and pictures of trees and flowers.  It was an emotional experience to see his actual paint smocks, the bowls viewed in his pictures, the windows through which he saw the trees, his easels, etc.  We also saw a very well done video (in French) that was remarkable.

Then we walked back down the hill, stopped in a Boulangerie for a sandwich, stopped in a cafe for amazing French hot cocoa, bought lovely olive oil soap, continued our walk window shopping and with another stop for coffee.  As the sun went down on a lovely day, it got quite cold and we looked forward to the return of the bus and our trip back to the ship.

Another good dinner….but we think we may try to switch back to traditional dining.  Chatted with some friends; realized how tired  we were from the afternoon's hike and headed back to our cabin.  Tomorrow Barcelona on our own.  One of our favorite cities which we’ve visited several times – we have a few things still to see then plan to relax on the ship.  And so it goes….