On Friday, the 7th of July, the Berkeley Folk Dancers trip came to a close and most of the dancers returned home but I headed for Aix-en-Provençe, only 40 minutes and 7€ away by bus but I had to take a 10€ cab ride through a seedy part of Marseille to get to bus/train station Gare Saint-Charles at the top of a hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aix is a city of fountains. In 123 B.C., when the Roman consul Gaius Sextius Calvinus wanted to lay siege to the walled city (oppidum) of the Celtic-Ligurians on a plateau about 3 kilometers inland, he chose a site with plentiful springs, some of which were hot. The camp was called Aquae Sextiae, the waters of Sextius, shortened to Aix in the local language.

The camp eventually grew into a Roman city with thermal baths, ponds and fountains to cool the narrow lanes. Some fountains today still bear the Roman markings. The old town now has 27 public fountains within the ring roads.

 

The fountain in the main circle (rotonde) is referred to by the locals as Place Charles de Gaulle

 

 

Main rotonde marked by big central circle in this map

Place des Augustins has water squirting from all four sides of the base

The water is warm in this fountain called Mossae by the locals

 

Restaurants surrounds this soothing and cooling fountain

 

Saturday I visited the big market on Cours Mirabeau but it was really hot so I skipped the tour of the nearby lavender fields. I walked back to the hotel to the music of the cicadas. Sunday was predicted to be even hotter so I got up early and visited the obelisk-fountain Place des Augustins and the “architectural masterpiece” Place d’Albers before 10 a.m. when the Granat and the Granat XXeme museums opened. It was already 90° by 10 a.m.

Renovation in Progress of Place d’Albers on left. Right side not yet renovated.

When the museums opened at 10 a.m. and I was so overheated that I was little disoriented. I had to get directions down Rue Clovis Hugues to get to the Granat Museum.

I had been standing in front of the Granat Musuem to take this picture but because the museum was not open, and it was 90° outside, I did not recognize it. I was mesmerized by the parishioners arriving for 10 a.m. Mass at Saint Jean of Malta.

I really loved the Granat XXeme Museum and it merits its own post. I was looking forward to lunch at the bistro near my hotel but was dismayed to discover that, because it was Sunday, the cafés were closed. It was also wicked hot, 37° Celsius (close to 100°) with 38°C. predicted for tomorrow so I spent another afternoon in my hotel room taking cold showers. I did not have in-room temperature controls and I was too torpid to realize that I needed to call the front desk and negotiate a room temperature in Celsius. My coconut oil, which melts at 78°, was liquid the entire time in Aix.

Monday, another really hot day, I visited the Tapestry Museum and was delighted to be charged only 4€.

Back to the hotel for Monday afternoon to hide from the heat and to contact the bank to make sure my credit card transactions worked for hotel in Aix and the following night in Frankfurt. Frustrated that I have to use insecure networks to reach my bank because I can’t rely on them honoring the travel plans I filed. I ventured out for dinner around 7 p.m. but the restaurants were filling with groups of couples and families with two small, beautifully dressed, well-behaved children. Sitting my myself, sweaty, seemed undignified and poorly-planned. Aix is a place for love and connection, not solitary adventure.

On my walk back to the hotel, the air was filled with the squawks of tiny conures, a deafening din that rivaled the jungles of Guatemala. I learned that the SCNF train arrives in the middle of town but the TGV requires a bus connection that runs every 30 minutes. The airport bus stops at the TGV station.