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  Church Saint-Sauveur-Cezanne

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Before writing a few words about Cezanne let's get to another quite interesting site in Aix: THE CATHEDRALE SAINT-SAUVEUR
It stands on the opera stage looking place de l'Université. We notice immediately three different building styles: completely to the right a sort of severe and blackened , medieval wall. Left of it a simple roman facade of the 12th century turning into a flamboyant Gothic the more you look to the left. As soon as you enter you meet a baptistery, which presence makes the historians believe that the Saint-Sauveur might be the oldest Christian core of Aix. But the most important thing to see inside is the triptych "Buisson Ardent" (burning bush). Stendhal made a note in his novel "Memoires d'un touriste" about that triptych:" To pacify one's conscience in Saint-Sauveur, you MUST go and see the painting the good king Rene, who must have been undoubtedly a lovable person ". The painting is superb and millions of people saw it already but where Stendhal was wrong is that it was not the king Rene who was the painter , as everybody thought at that time, but that the triptych was delivered in 1476 by the painter Nicolas Froment (1425-1483). This "Burning Bush" is only visible when a good minded guard ( you have to be lucky) opens it.

Leaving the cathedrale Saint-Sauveur, do it passing the magnificent cloister corridor. We will end up at the place des Martyrs-de-la-Resistance with the view of the MUSEE DES TAPISSERIES described in previous essay. 

Let's get now to the Cezanne part of the history of Aix. Look up the avenue Paul-Cezanne, which used to be the Chemin des Lauves, until  Aix tried to catch up with Cezanne's celebrity. They hadn't treated him very well during his life time. Cezanne built an atelier in this chemin des Lauves in 1900. THE ATELIER CEZANNE.  It is visible, on a sort of eminence from where he could admire the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. There is nothing really important to see here, but you can study the enormous groove in one of the atelier's walls , through which Cezanne passed his paintings outside. You can also discover small and simple objects the master painted and of which Aix is so proud today. But don't forget that this genuine " child of the city" was ignored, even despised by Aix during his lifetime (told you that already before)! Today this changed quite a bit. Pick up a brochure-map at the tourist office. A well outlined and marked itinerary (brass nails) will lead you through the life of Cezanne in Aix.  If you're an amateur painter, you will be guided from the native house to his burial place, the cemetery Saint-Pierre. But it is much more exciting to make a tour along route 17, at the east side of Aix , taking the D17 to Tholonet. Behind that village there is a road to the montagne Sainte-Victoire. It's there that Cezanne passed the last years of his life, painting, without ever having climbed the famous mountain.

Before leaving Aix for a tour around the montagne Sainte-Victoire, here is an anecdote I picked up in a French guide, quite typical of the French incomprehension of Cezanne's genius :( quote): Cezanne, financially rather poor and often empty pocketed, offered his paintings generously to his friends. The ones who succeeded to escape  these encumbering gifts were bound to stand the drinks all around. But the unfortunate who couldn't decline the offer returned home carrying a Cezanne painting that he stored quickly in his cellar and forgot all about it. Since then, generations of Aix inhabitants search frenetically in their cellars and lofts of their ancestors ! You never know !!!! (unquote)

Bibliography: 

"Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi de la France" by Prosper Merimée (Ed.Adam Biro, Paris 1989), "Guide de la Provence mysterieuse" by Jean-Paul Clebert (Ed.Sand, 1986), "Guide du Routard Provence 1998 (Ed.Hachette) "Evocation du Vieil Aix-en-Provence", by Andre Bouyala d'Arnaud (Les Editions de Minuit, Paris 1964), "Memoires d'un touriste" by Stendhal (La Pleiade, Paris 1992)