French Food, Fountains, and Flowers

This is one of the 94 fountains in the city of Provence. We pass by this fountain each time we go to Cours Mirabeau, which is the large main street of Provence where there are many shops and wonderful restaurants.

Dinner at the Grand Hotel Roi Rene in Provence-our first day in Provence-May 26th.

Other alumni trip participants at dinner on May 26th L-R
Kathryn Colclough, Sue Pynchon, Claire Monier and Rita Norander.

Cathy LaFortune, Freddy Harper, Marian Rivers, George Rivers, Michele Laffert.

Day 2 in Provence. Our history "class" with a professor from the University. He was very funny and provided a great overview of history of Provence from the Greeks and Romans in 600 BC to the current city of today. Interesting note that hundreds of dinosaur eggs were found all over the Provence region. Some are on display in the Museum D'Histoire Naturelle.

Here the professor is bidding us good bye until our next lesson on Sunday. This building is over 500 years old and the family who lives in it has done so for hundreds of years. The wrought iron railings are incredible and in the back of the building is a beautiful court yard. It cannot be seen from the street.

After our class we split up into two groups and our tour guide was Marie. She showed us the high school where Paul Cezanne attended and some of beautiful architecture of the newer side of the city and then over to the very old side with winding narrow roads.

We are in the court yard of a french mansion being used as the city's performing arts high school. It had a large wall and very tall gates surrounding it.

Our meal after the tour was tapas in style. We had eight different selections to try and then a wonderful dessert selection. Our tour guide Fred is on the left side of the photo.

Here is part of our group at the Place de 4 Dauphins. We are headed over to the Musee Granet to see the Cezanne paintings. It is just down the street to the right in the photo.

This is the outside of our hotel Grand Roi Rene. Roi Rene was a famous king in the region.


Here is a photo of a street in the "newer" part of the city. Most of the large windows have shutters that protect the windows. The streets are very narrow with only two car widths side from side to side.

This is me at the Dolphin Fountain on May 26th.

This is the main street, Cours Mirabeau. Before Cezanne's time there were no shops lining the street it was private homes and apartments. Now on one side there are many shops and restaurants. One where Cezanne ate at was Deux Garcon. We had a snack there this afternoon-May 27th but he wasn't there!


There are many, many fabulous bakeries in Provence with beautiful desserts displayed in windows or huge cases.

Another bakery in Provence.

This is the Place de la Rotonde Fountain. It is huge!

A statue by the Rotonde Fountain.

King Roi Rene statue.

Some ballet they had with the dancers in plastic bags!!?? Weird.

This is the chamber of commerce office building on Cours Mirabeau. These two statues are very old!


These are the doors of the same building. See the door knobs--in the middle of the door. How Hobbit-like!!

This is where Cezanne's father had his hat manufacturing business.

Another fountain.

The huge flower market.

More flowers!

This is the front door of La Cathedrale St. Sauveur built in the 5th century. These doors were added later in the 16th century. They have shutters over them to protect them and we were lucky to see them. After we left the cathedral the shutters were on the doors again.

A beautiful stained glass window from the La Cathedrale St. Sauveur.