the carnival is over (Aix-en-Provence)

French driving school.

Well, actually, the carnival is yet to start. Monday is yet another French public holiday and this is a big 'festy' weekend across the country. It will be interesting to see if the Pentecost celebrations translate into big numbers in church on Sunday. I am somewhat skeptical. But, in every town and village there is some form of celebration. In Vaison, the carnies have moved in and taken over the car park. In Aix there was a stage set up in the main street.

Aix-en-Provence

Aix (pronounced X by locals) made the list because it is the home of St Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Back home, we are fortunate enough to be an Oblate Parish. And what a beautiful city Aix is. The sun was shining, the people were out, the cafes were full (it's pont day, Monday is a public holiday). 

One of the many fountains in Aix.

Every street was narrow and the shops were lovely. It was a real delight. If it wasn't so expensive - thanks to the beautiful people of Hollywood - it'd be a great place to retire. There are literally hundreds of fountains, Aix is known as the city of fountains. There would have been five in one block of the main street. So majestic and dominating, some small and under-stated and others being put to good use to chill the bubbly.

A fountain being put to good use.

 

The Oblate chapel.

We set out on our own pilgrimage because the Tourist Bureau hadn't heard of St Eugene. Apparently the old saints are cool, the new ones, not so much. So, we found the current Oblate church in the main street. Its steps are used constantly by people stopping to rest and at lunch time it becomes a meeting place for the Uni students. I hope a few of them wander in through the doors occasionally, the steps and the plain facade hide some really beautiful features. The vaulted ceiling is amazing and creates this beautiful light space. 

Just across the road and down about 75 metres or so, was the original Mazenod mansion where St Eugene was born. Jayne picked it from a black and white photo. It really hasn't changed that much over the years, although the trees are taller.

The former Mazenod mansion.

We continued our pilgrimage in search of the Church de la Madeleine. And while we found it, a decent photo was difficult to get. The sun was in a bad position and the front area was a car park of sorts, where an enterprising young local lad was procuring a few € for 'watching your car'. As it turns out, there is only a facade of the original church where the young Eugene attended with his family.

The facade.

Next on the list was the Cathedral de St Sauveur. Everything was really close, fortunately, because the temperature was rising and lunch time (read closing time) was approaching rapidly. The church itself reflects a number of different architectural styles and is obviously a tourist spot because we witnessed two Japanese tour groups go through. Eugene attended here as a parishioner and returned as a priest to preach, amid some controversy. The facade is dirty and crumbling in parts, while other sections have been cleaned. But again, the facade does not indicate what's inside. It was amazing. A massive organ that dominated one side of the church. Beautiful stained glass windows, a side chapel that had a vaulted ceiling that was lit by natural light.

St. Sauveur's.

The organ

The apse.

And with that, it was lunch time. Our mini-pilgrimage was complete and the Cathedral closed for lunch. Truly. We headed back to the car that was craftily parked a couple of kms out of town, above ground, and drove back home to see the remaining sights of Vaison. You'll be surprised to know that it too, is a Roman town.

Vaison-la-Romaine

Despite the fact that we have driven and walked through the main street a couple of times, the extent of the Roman ruins is really hidden by their clever use of geography (and a couple of latter day fences). Much of what we saw was similar to Orange and Arles so I won't replicate photos or go over old ground, but Jayne was surprised by the advanced use of glass back in the 1st century BCE, so there here's a photo of a glass bowl.

If you're looking for something witty, you've missed out.

The other point to being here was that we actually were able to walk around the ruins, with an audio guide. The weather was perfect, unlike our time in Orange when we didn't really get to look closely at the ruins. And, although we saw the Arena at Arles, it was not close to its original form. Vaison doesn't have an arena, it has a theatre, but it is brilliantly preserved and looks original (even if parts of it aren't), so it made up for the Arles experience. And this venue is also in current use for choir recitals (without the iron scaffolded seating).All in all, it was great day.

The view from the top.

And tomorrow ...

Sadly, tomorrow is pack-up-and-move-on-day. We haven't managed to do everything that we wanted to in this part of the world since we lost two days to rain. So, the good news is that we'll have to come back! Yay! Anyway, we need to do Cannes when the Film Festival isn't on. So Western Provence still has much to offer us.

Tomorrow we are off to the Burgundy region, to a little village in between Autun and Beaune called Dracy. It is about 400 kms and four and half hours away. We'll be there for four nights, before heading towards the Champagne region. And so tonight, we celebrate tomorrow's departure with a bottle of Champagne. Just waiting for it to chill at the moment.