AIX EN PROVENCE

                                         A Charming French City

Aix-en-Provence, France is a city of fountains and tree-lined avenues, as well as the home of Paul Cezanne. On a walking tour it was hard to miss the sites from the famous painter.  Markets and monuments also highlight this ancient city. The city is often referred to simply as Aix (X). A town of water and town of art...Aix was built and developed around this dual identity. But the town also knows how to blend different eras and cultures. It is a city of human dimension where the preserved heritage and the city of tomorrow blend perfectly.  Color is sensation: the light of the sky, the golden stone of the facades, the transparent green of the fountains, and the shade of the plane trees all blend to create a wonderful atmosphere.     

In Greek, platanos  means big, a characteristic that the plane tree develops easily in favorable conditions. Plane trees, living up to 2000 years, is considered symbol of wisdom, stability, safety and strength. The main peculiarity of plane tree is a wide range of shades even within one log: from pink-grey to red-brown or even yellow. Fragrance of plane wood is used in the production of toilet water for its fragrance. The city was full of plane trees lining many of the streets.

Water, the source of life, is at the heart of the town and its history, Water has been channeled and distributed since antiquity. In a region where water is scarce and precious, Aix has been supplied by its many springs. But in the second half of the 19th century, works on the Verdon Canal and the Zola dam brought water in abundance through the basins of fountains.

From the start, from a simple basin, well or watering place, fountains found their illustrious history during the 17th century as ornaments of the urban landscape. Construction was restricted to specialists, fountain architects, hydraulics engineers and artists. Today about forty public fountains testify to the styles and needs of a town which has integrated them in its art of living. Aix means water and is the symbol of the city.

            In Provence house doors face the north and windows face away from the Mediterranean. The winds are frequent and can be very strong.

            The1860 La Rotunda fountain is very large.  A local guide explained that the three statues: justice, agriculture and fine arts adorning the fountain recall the main activities of the town. The fountain was a symbolic mark of the entry to the modern town, without rampart or gate, open to the world. Aix has grown and today the great fountain is at the centre of the town. The square, actually a large round-about, is the entrance to the once Roman city. It was never an important Roman city, but one can see ruins in several places. Provence is the oldest Roman city in France.

            Balconies on the buildings could not be added until after welding was invented, then a balcony was a sign of power and wealth. We saw a couple of buildings with columns and learned that they were considered power of the gods and were not allowed on the outside of a building so the ones we saw were added much later. Many of the buildings were made of yellow limestone and looking carefully we often could see fossils in the facades. The red and gold flag goes back to the 12^th century and came from Spain.  Provence joined France the end of the 15^th century.  The old wall and ramparts came down in the 19^th century and the ring road was built over it.

            After the revolution the city felt like sleeping beauty, but was revived in the 19^th century when the ancient wall came down. Until 1953 one could not move from the north to the south of the city without paying a fee through the tower at the market.

St. Sauveurs cathedral is built over the old Roman forum and showcases architectural styles from the 12-18^th centuries. The church and tower were finished by the 19^th century, but only up to the gargoyles, prior to that the style was neo-gothic. The bases of the marble columns are from the Roman forum. The pews in the front part of the church were quite different. Four distinct chairs were joined together with a single curved back board. The back of the chair was about shoulder high. The chairs then were lined up across the church; after several rows the pews turned into the benches we know today. The old cloister is now a lovely garden dedicated to Christ.      

Aix is a fascinating city with a lot of history and we had a wonderful time exploring it, enjoying the fountains and eating some wonderful French cuisine.