If you’re planning to spend several days or more in Aix-en-Provence, please don’t rely exclusively on the Tourist Office. You’re likely to miss a lot.
Instead, especially on Sundays, take an afternoon walk through town and be sure to make your way to Cours Mirabeau, the tree-lined main street. One time we stumbled on a terrific folk rock trio, playing in front of the Monoprix department store. A few Sundays ago it was a high-quality crafts fair. Today it was an arts fair. That’s why I’ve taken to calling this the Pot Luck City. You 
never really know who is going to show up with a great dish.
For the record, we were in the tourist office three days ago. We asked what was coming up. We got the monthly cultural events calendar. Did anyone mention today’s art show? Nope. But then, this is the same tourist office that on our arrival to Aix responded to neither my email nor my phone call when I asked for a press kit. Go figure.
We’ve missed some music in the past because we saw the fliers on city streets days after a performance. But frequent walks close the gap — and we also got an awfully good cream puff today along the way.
————————————————-
Speaking of dates, let me alert you to one right now: May 17 is Museum Night in Aix. It’s special. Not only are all the 
city’s museums open and free that night. There will also be a wide range of free music all over the city, from Brazilian and Flamenco to traditional jazz and Dixieland. Museum Night was one of our favorites when we lived here for five months in 2007. If you’re in the region, make a point of coming to Aix that Saturday.
Details of this event are in Aix’s monthly calendar of events. Go to the tourist office and ask for May’s “agendaculturel.” Or email — but you may not get a response.
Oh, yes. That’s my date, Kathy, in the picture. We’ve been going out for awhile now, I think 46 years.
—————————————————-
The flowers at Pavillon Vendome are always beautiful. But right now the roses are absolutely exquisite. This is my favorite park in Aix, and it’s worth the 15-minute walk from Cours Mirabeau or Place des Precheurs even if you’re in town for just a few days.
——————————————————
I continue to cherish my little conversations with the merchants of Aix. Today, when we stopped for that cream puff, the sales clerk asked us whether Americans and Brits really speak the same language. “Pretty much,” I said. The topic came up because she had explained to Kathy that a patisserie is “un-ne,” the feminine article in the slightly exaggerated parlance of Provence, and not un, the masculine. (We’ve found that pretty much every Frenchman or woman likes to play language teacher, which I find really helpful.)
At the art show we talked to a young woman from near the Luberon Mountains village of Rustrel who talked to me in English while I talked to her in French. She had spent two years in Australia and one in New Zealand and was excited to use her English. Her father did artwork similar the sand paintings we’ve seen in the Southwest, only he used ochre and other pigments natural to this region instead of sand.
The painter from Saint-Pierre-de-Boeuf along the Rhone River near Lyon told us we should visit there in June because the region has some great wine. When we bought three postcards of his paintings for $1.30 each to frame, he threw in a fourth as un cadeau, a gift. We would have loved to take one of his paintings home. They’re whimsical. But we’re already overflowing with stuff, and paintings are not easy to transport. His name, should you be heading toward Saint-Pierre-de-Boeuf anytime soon, is Jean-Michel Frossard. You can find his work here.
We also bought a small rendering of the poppies in front of Mont Sainte-Victoire from Christine Gaucherot, an artist who lives near the Marseille airport in Marignane. She taught me the word for bubble wrap, which I regret to inform you, I’ve forgotten. But she did bubble wrap her small work, done with a painter’s knife on canvas.
OK, I looked bubble wrap up — papier-bulles.
—————————————————————
My apologies for those two slideshows on the market yesterday. They didn’t slide. Once again, technology has gotten the better of me. The spam filter has stopped filtering. The slide shows have stopped sliding. The Facebook link isn’t linking. I’ve put out an SOS to Jared Bennett, the patient and hard-working grad student who built this blog and has been called on many times to troubleshoot since. He hopes to get things fixed tomorrow.