Cote d'Azur NO, Aix en Provence (& Cassis) OUI

 Our time in Uzes was over and we were ready to move on to the Riviera.

We lasted a day. Period.

We had never been to the Riviera, a.k.a. (Cote d’Azur), but I had my misgivings. We felt we should go there since it was one of the few areas in France we hadn’t experienced. But my instincts told me that it wasn’t our kind of place. By which I mean, crowded, overpriced and ostentatious.

We had booked three nights in Juan-les-Pins, part of Antibes. We hadn’t even gotten to the hotel when we realized this was probably a big mistake. If there were 90% fewer cars and fewer people this area might be heaven. But overbuilt and overpopulated, it is more of a nightmare. After searching for a half an hour for a parking space (the hotel said there was easy on street parking) we ended up in desperation at a parking lot in a marina 1.4 kilometers from the hotel with a daily parking cost in excess of $37. The room in our hotel was about the size of our hotel room in Tokyo and you know about hotel rooms in Tokyo. Over an overpriced dinner overlooking one of the ubiquitous construction sites, which were blocking the view of the Mediterranean, we decided we had to bail. We called our next host and begged for two more nights in Provence. She granted our plea.

The Mediterranean from the promenade, with two construction cranes visible in the background on the left side of the photo.

As we were hiking the 1.4 kilometers to pick up our car we passed by this group in town for the weekend. Apparently it was biker weekend in Juan-les-Pins and the road to go back to the hotel was closed by this gathering. We did find an alternate route back to pick up our luggage and flee the Riviera.

Onward towards Aix

Relieved to leave the Riviera behind, we drove to Aix en Provence. Aix is a university town with a population of about 150,000 and a charming old town. Most famously, it was the home of Paul Cezanne. Our apartment was about a 20 minute walk from the old town and we spent a fair amount of time just wandering the streets and soaking up the ambience. One of our favorite landmarks in Aix was the Cours Mirabeau, a broad Boulevard, pedestrians only, which featured live musicians, break dancers, acrobats, jugglers, and almost anything else you can imagine. The street is lined with beautiful mansions/townhouses mostly dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries.

A statue of Paul Cezzane in the public square.

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This individual was exhibiting his acrobatic skills...

and balancing skills as well.

 We spotted this dolphin fountain on the way to the Saint-Jean-de Malte church.

This stained glass window was in the church, which was the first Gothic Roman Catholic church in Provence built around the 13th century.

This building was the College Royal de Bourbon founded in 1603 by Henry IV. 
Paul Cezanne and Emile Zola were inseparable classmates there. "We had friendship, we dreamed of love and glory..." wrote Zola.

This was only part of a wall hanging for Yves restaurant, created by a friend of all plant or seed material. We had one of our best meals in France at this small restaurant in Aix, prepared and served by the chef.

Léonard Parli has been making confectionary since 1874 in Aix. We stumbled into this store on our way back to our lodging. 

We would never have had the delight of tasting calissons had we not stumbled into the store.

This "Le Petite Chateau" was built in 1889.

I couldn't not take this photo. When we first came to Ajijic we were invited to join a group to dine. Over time the group grew exponentially and, even though we dined at night, we called it the Breakfast Club. 

Our time in Aix was not without its struggles. Yes, it was the car again. One morning, as we were set to head out to do some errands, the car was dead. I mean, totally dead. Like you couldn’t even unlock the doors to get in dead. By now we were beyond losing patience. Once again we began the endless round of calling the 24 hour hotline and repeating our tale of woe endlessly to different people whose grasp of English was marginal. They said they would send someone to get us into the car and to jump the battery (again). The man arrived exhibiting a severe case of ADHD and fervent love of Americans. He demonstrated this love by shouting Ooh La La Donald Trump goodfellow, loves people. We decided not to go there and try to focus him on the task at hand.

We now realized this car thing needed a final resolution. Having gotten nowhere with the 24 hour roadside service, we called the Paris location from which we got the car and begged for a phone number for the corporate office. They finally took pity on us and provided Isabel‘s phone number. Isabel was both competent and bilingual.  She comisserated with our plight and arranged for us to acquire a new car at the Marseille airport, which was only about a half hour away. Thankfully, the evil car started, and we were able to dump it and get a new, totally tricked out car in return. Now we could ramble without fear.

And ramble we did. Michael had wanted to go to the Gorge of Verdun, which are in a pretty remote area about two hours from Aix. Clearly we weren’t going to take the evil car there but, with our new ride, we headed out with confidence.

These Gorges are phenomenal and beautiful. Batting phobia number one (terror of heights) even I was able to enjoy the scenery. Michael’s photos will give you an idea of how spectacular the scenery was. People tend to think that Europe is all villages and cities, but there’s a tremendous amount of land that remains wildly impressive.

La Route des Crête (The Ridge Road) winds its way up to the best lookouts of the Gorge du Verdon. 

It also goes through the rock face of the Gorge.

The Gorge du Verdon was created by the Verdon river which flows through the Gorge, which is 25 kilometers long and up to 700 meters deep.

The Verdon river formed the Gorge du Verdon, known as the "Grand Canyon of Europe", over many millennia.

Vultures were taking advantage of the updrafts to float above the Gorge (or perhaps they were waiting for the climber pictured below to fall).

The Gorge may not be quite as impressive as the Grand Canyon, but it was certainly as scenic.

We cam across this climber going down the cliff face of the Gorge...

and down further...

and further, until he was barely visible on the cliff face.

I am not usually in the photos, but on this occasion the wife of the climber offered to take our photo. 

This photo gives one an idea of how deep the Gorge is with the river as a very narrow strip at the bottom.

The effect of erosion on the rocks creates colorful variations and caves within The Gorge.

The French Alps were not that far away from the Gorge.

The ability of life to exist in the most unlikely situations gives hope that no matter what we do, life will survive.

The Verdon River flows into the Lac de Sainte-Croix.

On the day before we were scheduled to leave Aix we decided to take a trip to Cassis. True it was close to, if not on the Riviera, but we were very interested in seeing the calanques. It was worth risking the crowds, the parking, and all that entitled to see the Calanques National Park.

It was well worth the effort. First of all, the town looked the way the rest of the coast resort might’ve looked 15 or 20 years ago. By that I mean, there actually was parking, there were no construction cranes, and you could actually get a seat at a restaurant. We booked our tickets for an afternoon boat trip to the calanques and then wandered the town and grabbed a bite to eat. The calanques are a series of high cliffs and small coves cradling the amazing, clear waters of the Mediterranean. In warmer weather, you could hire a boat, which would drop you at the calanques and you could spend the day swimming and sunning in the midst of spectacular scenery. The whole time, or most of the time, we were in Europe, the weather was uncharacteristically cool, sometimes even requiring a puffy jacket. But the calanques are spectacular, swimming or no swimming, and the day was fine from beginning to end.

There were 8 La Venus a la Flamme created by the visual artist Laurent Perbos for the Paris Olympics to designate the places the olympic torch passed through on its way to Paris.

Cassis showed there can be uncrowded beaches adjacent to the Riviera.

The Cassis Phare (lighthouse) was built in 1946 after the original was destroyed in 1944.

The upper stories of this restaurant was unique enough to qualify for an interesting photo.

The interior of St. Michael's church (so I had to go in and check it out). The monumental fresco was created by the painter Jean Lair. It is considered one of the largest and most beautiful in Provence.

This interesting statue of Madonna and child caught my eye while I was in the church.

The Cassis promenade along the Mediterranean. There was one high rise in the distance, but Cassis was far less crowded with high rises and people than Juan-les-Pins.

The calanques were formed 120 million years ago (and you think you are old).

The Masif de Calanques consist of white limestone going down more than 400 meters.

The water was so clear I was able to take this phot of a school of fish.

The ocean waves have carved out caves in the limestone.

Erosion has created strange formations like this one that looks like an eye.

The calanques have created miniature fjords and coves such as this one.

Another example of life existing in a seemingly inhospitable condition. This tree is growing despite the lack of soil.

Another interesting formation in the calanque. Is that a wolf's head?

Two more interesting shapes in the calanques.

This calanque had windows.

On the other side of the harbor the rocks were completely different.

Although it may not appear that way, but this climber was fairly high up in one of the calanque formations.

Coming back into the harbor you can see the square bell tower which is part of St. Michael's church.

We happen to be there on VE day which celebrated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. As we were headed to the car we passed by the beach. The beach was being swept and chairs were being set up along the promenade. French soldiers stood in clusters, chatting, smoking, and adjusting their uniforms. I will give it to the French, their sense of style is not confined to street clothes. We saw one soldier slowly, twirling around while a second soldier meticulously rewound a cummerbund which circled his waist at least four times. Not to mention the epaulets which were adorned with buckets of fringe which waved in the breeze. World War II was an ongoing feature of this trip and we’ll talk more about it when we get to Brittany on a later stop in our journey.

Some French soldiers gathering for VE Day.

The tourist trains.

Maybe it’s because we’re old. I know before we always made fun of them. Those little trains that cram tourists on and offer a tour of whatever town you happen to be in. But this trip we actually became devotees of the little trains. In part, it was because they give you an overall sense and orientation for the town that you’re in and let you pinpoint the places to return to that interest you most. In part, it was because I hurt my foot later into the journey and this reduced the need to walk 10,000 steps every day. So, that’s about it for this portion of the trip. Next stop will be our return to the Camargue and an amazing time delving into the interesting and peculiar mind and art of Salvador Dali.