Aix Market Day and St-Remy-de-Provence

Aug 12, 2010: Aix Market Day and St-Remy-de-Provence

Karalee, Rosa, Kevin, Allen, David, and Sharra Having Dinner in Aix-en-Provence

This was our last full day in Aix-en-Provence. After breakfast we wandered into the center of Aix. Three times a week, the central square next to the Law Courts becomes a large open air market. Half the fair is dedicated to goods for sale. The other half has incredible Provencal food for sale.

We all broke up into separate groups, browsing and shopping. David and Karalee bought a beautiful Provencal table cloth. These table cloths last for years and provide a taste of Provence sunshine in the middle of rainy Vancouver winter days when you lay them out on the dining room table. Before we knew it a couple of hours had passed by.

We shopped for food for lunch and dinner. We also bought five cheeses and four cured meats to take back to Vancouver. With the market wrapping up around noon we headed back to our apartment for a French style lunch.

With only a half day left in Aix, we opened our tourist guides and decided to make the journey to St-Remy-de-Provence. When we were commissioning Draognsinger, our Jeanneau 43DS sailboat in Provence in 2001, we visited nearby Les Baux. We could see the mountains where Les Baux is located as we explored the tiny medieval streets of St-Remy-de-Provence. We walked through the afternoon meandering our way through the streets and passages. In the late afternoon we stopped at Hotel Estrine.

The private mansion has been turned into the Centre D'art-Presence Van Gogh. We watched a film about Van Gogh. Then we got to look at amazing photographs of the paintings that had been featured in the film. In the upper stories were displays of art by local artists.

After our museum tour we continued through the streets of St-Remy-de-Provence, looking into shops and taking in the buildings, streets, and archways. We returned to where we had parked the van and took a few moments to reflect on our trip and enjoy sitting by one of the city fountains.

Then it was time to drive back to Aix-en-Provence, get cleaned up, and pack in preparation for an early departure. We then walked back to the same square where the market had been in the morning. All the stalls and vendors had disappeared. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant and enjoyed our last meal together on a warm summer evening.

View of l'Eglise St-Jean de Malte from our Apartment