Cezanne Day!

This is the pool at the hotel.

Today is Cezanne Day! We started our day with an 8 am art history class. This prepared us to walk in the steps of Cezanne. Our first stop was his family's home in Aix-en-Provence, the city where we were staying. His family's house was set back far from the road. This is the gate to the property. It is open to the public but we did get the property to ourselves before the public was allowed to visit.


The family home, Jas de Bouffan, was a three story building in the French tradition. His art studio was on the third floor in an attic-like space.

Our group walked down the long front lawn to the estate.

There were many beautiful statues adorning the property.

There was a reflecting pool that appeared in a few of Cezanne's paintings.

After a fabulous audio-visual presentation in the home we were given this sheet with the paintings that were done on the estate and a map of where he stood to paint each one.

By the pool our group listens to the guide.

A fountain by the pool.

Cute fish!

Our guide Stella led us through the grounds and noted the areas that were in the paintings.

This photo is at the same angle as one of Cezanne's paintings.

More information about Cezanne's life.

One of the famous white horses of Provence.

Our next stop was the place where Cezanne painted the Mt. Sainte-Victoire.

When Cezanne painted on this site, there were no homes near here, but now this is a luxury home site and the residents tolerate the pilgrims of Cezanne in their neighborhood. This is a poster of the artist in action on this site.

This is Mt. Ste.-Victoire that figured so prominently in many of his paintings.

Here is one of the paintings that he created on this site.

Then we went to his art studio next. It was wonderful and was left the same as when he was alive.



We couldn't take any photos inside of the studio.










The apartment of Paul Cezanne on the third floor in Aix-de-Provence. The window was the same as the one in his art studio. His art studio was just a ten minute walk from here.

A plaque noting this is were he lived.

One of the little shops with lots of cookies and other goodies!

Wonderful fish dinner!

Avignon: Palace de Papes and the Pont du Gard aqueduct

On our way to Avignon on May 30th! We started with a class at 8 am on the 14th century in the South of France.



We arrive at the Palias des Papes (Palace of the Popes) the center of the Roman Catholic church for 100 years durng the 14th century.

This is the chapel part of the medieval masterpiece.

One of these turrets on the other side of the building was where the barbecue was located. It had a large area to put the grill to cook the food, which was usually birds, because they were considered closer to God.



Another building across the plaza from the Palais des Papes.


When the Vatican moved back to Rome, church leaders took everything with them, but left the paintings and murals. Many were destroyed throughout the years from fire, theft, and other means. Here is part of a ceiling mural.



The Pope would stand in this window to address the people. Avignon had a population of about 5,000 before the Pope moved there, and it rose to about 200,000 with all the people needed to service the cardinals and their families.



Here is our guide Maria explaining the expansion of the buildings over a 20-year period and the seven Popes who lived in these castles for 100 years including two anti-popes. They were considered anti-popes because there was a sitting pope in Rome at the same time. Both were elected by the cardinals.



Sitting in a window in the castle. Outside was a grassy area between the buildings. Inside the buildings was incredibly peaceful.

The artitecture was amazing. This complex was constructed in three parts by three different popes.

We had time for lunch on our own. We got quiche and a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. Intersting that Cokes were 3.50 Euro which was about $5.00 and the quiche and sandwich were 2.80 Euro! This was an outside cafe with a glaces (soft serve ice cream) too!

This is the Theater in Avignon.

This looks like Wil Shakespeare!

There was a carousel in the city square too.

This wall went around the whole city to protect it.

More vineyards!

Our next stop was Ponte du Gard, the aqueduct that was part of a 30-mile water system developed by the Romans 2,500 years ago.

This is a 1,000 year old olive tree on the grounds. There were two others in the same area.

A closer look at the aqueduct that had a 60 foot drop in 30 miles. An amazing engineering feat! The water flowed on the top part and was covered to keep it clean. There was a regular cleaning process for the tunnels to keep the water safe to drink.

It is also a receational area for swimmers and kayakers.

The water so clean and cool. Just beautiful!

This was an interesting decoration of one of the rotaries.

This is an emblem in the sidewalk that notes key areas in the city Aix de Provence in the life of artist Paul Cezanne.

Dinner on our own-rosito and chicken.

The inside of the restaurant.

Our part of group Margaret, Kathy, Jackie, Freddy, and Mary and Dave.