It’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but we made one last week: When we get
back to Boston, we’re going to walk every chance we get.
We’ll walk the mile to Lexington when we go to the bank or post office. We’ll walk the mile to Wilson Farms when we go shopping there. I may even walk one way once in awhile to Alewife T station, about four miles from our house.
Why? Because we feel so much healthier in Provence, where I’d estimate we’ve walked an average of four to five miles a day since early January.
Last Friday is a good example. I walked to town at 7 to interview a baker. I walked to town at 10 to talk with the director of our former language school about the possibility of bringing Emerson students there someday. We walked to town at 3 to get a movie schedule. And we walked to town at 8:30 to go to a concert. Total distance? Probably upwards of 8 miles. But it didn’t bother me at all. We’ve been walking that much.
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Coming to Provence this spring? Try to catch an excellent art exhibit on through June 22 at La Vieille Charite in Marseille. It’s called Faces (Visages) and has separate exhibit rooms for “faces of society,” “faces of the intimate,” and “faces of the mind.” This exceptionally well-curated exhibit blends painting, photography and sculpture in portraying the isolation and sometimes alienation of individuals in the last century’s rapidly changing and often violent times. A final setting also compares the ways in which the human face is portrayed in the 20th century to how it appeared in antiquity.
The exhibit’s subtitle is “Picasso, Magritte, Warhol ….,” but in truth you’ll find the work of many other artists here — the photography of Brassai, for example, and the work of Giacometti. Very cool exhibit in an exquisite setting. Entrance costs $14.
On this, our third visit to Marseille with our new friend and former language 
instructor Marine as our trusted guide, we continue to be struck by what an interesting and diverse city it is, with the sights, sounds and flavors of northern Africa blending with the sights, sounds and flavors of Mediterranean France. We’ll bring visitors here in the weeks ahead.
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French Catholics we learned this weekend carry olive branches from the church service on Palm Sunday, not palm fronds.
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If graffiti is a form of self-expression and alienation, than there are many expressive and alienated young people in the South of France. Graffiti is particularly evident in the old city of Marseille and on all the bridges and walls along the auto route to and from. But even on our quiet and comfortable street in Aix, someone went to town last week, spraying graffiti on someone’s gated driveway.
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One of my favorite activities in France remains reading English translations of tourist and guide materials. It gives me hope that if I ever improve enough in the language I might make some extra cash in retirement as a translator. Here is today’s find, in the city of Marseille tourist office guidebook. It’s about visiting the calanques, or rocky inlets, along the ocean:
You are still in the municipality of Marseille, but you can see the contrast with the agitation of the city centre. For over 20 kilometers, nature recovers its rights and only a rambler can enjoy the landscape.