{"id":12465,"date":"2012-05-11T01:48:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T08:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=12465"},"modified":"2012-05-11T01:48:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T08:48:34","slug":"12465","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=12465","title":{"rendered":"A City and A Painter Linked Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

AIX-EN-PROVENCE — In Hollywood, famous people get their "star" or a handprint on a sidewalk. In this pretty little place, Paul Cezanne gets the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>You wouldn't likely find Aix-en-Provence (pronounced "ex-on-prah-vence) unless you took a guided tour from the Oceania Riviera<\/a>, moored 28 kilometres away, like we did. By extension, you also wouldn't see the footsteps of Cezanne, stretching along Rue Cardinale from where he went to school to where he painted, at the School of Fine Art. As you can see, they're worn. People following in the footsteps of….get it?<\/p>\n

Paul Cezanne is big in Aix-en-Provence<\/a>, as its most famous citizen. For those of us not so \"\"<\/a>well educated in the world of famous artists, he was among the group of impressionist painters in the late 19th century. At the moment he died in 1906 of pneumonia, he was painting one of his favorite subjects, the Montagne Saint-Victoire.<\/p>\n

So everything Cezanne touched here is legendary. There's the "bastide" or villa where he grew up in affluence, now a national monument owned by the city, with walls that he painted…and not with latex. There's his studio and his schools and, of course, there is a statue in the main square.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yet the most important monument, according to Marie-Pierre the guide, is the cathedrale. In French cities, it always is. An interesting anecdote about this one, and probably others, is that the sculptures of that era treated it look a book, because not everyone could read and they had to be taught about ("and even frightened by") their religion.<\/p>\n

A walking tour of Aix-en-Provence delivers much more.<\/p>\n

The fountain in the main square links and depicts three cities: Marseille<\/a> (commerce), \"\"<\/a>Avignon (culture) and Aix (justice). Another much more modest fountain is the first one in France that was ever built in the middle of a square, a progressive step in plumbing. The Museum of Natural History here has dinosaur eggs (they must be "grande") and the local market sells a unique Provence candy called "calisson" which is very sweet and very good.<\/p>\n

Trust us.<\/p>\n

But despite the herbs that grow in the fields, the olives that produce the oil and the grapes that make the wines, Aix-en-Provence is all about Paul Cezanne. He was a great friend of the French novelist Emile Zola, until they had a falling out when Zola wrote about a French painter who was not successful and Cezanne thought it was him, terminating the friendship.<\/p>\n

If Cezanne was indeed Zola's fictional subject, it's too bad Emile couldn't see what they think of his old friend in Aix-en-Provence today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\tHolland America Ryndam<\/a>
\n\t7 nights
\n\tJune 23, 2012
\n\tLondon<\/a> (return): Oslo<\/a>, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Ulvik
\n\tInside:  $599
\n\tCost per day: $85<\/strong><\/span>
\n\twww.hollandamerica.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AIX-EN-PROVENCE — In Hollywood, famous people get their "star" or a handprint on a sidewalk. In this pretty little place, Paul Cezanne gets the sidewalk. You wouldn't likely find Aix-en-Provence (pronounced "ex-on-prah-vence) unless you took a guided tour from the Oceania Riviera, moored 28 kilometres away, like we did. By extension, you also wouldn't see… Continue reading A City and A Painter Linked Forever<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,25,31,19,15],"tags":[914,915,72,86,23,862,336,811,916],"class_list":["post-12465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deals","category-people","category-ports","category-ships","category-stories","tag-aix-en-provence","tag-cruise-barg","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-ships","tag-holland-america","tag-holland-america-ryndam","tag-oceania","tag-oceania-riviera","tag-paul-cezanne","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}