An Afternoon with Annalise (The Trail's Our Thing)

Annalise at L'Atelier de Cézanne

On Wednesday morning another student at the school-- Annalise from Sweden-- suggested that we visit ,the L'Atelier de Cézanne that afternoon. I like Annalise very much, and I'd been wanting to visit Cézanne's studio, so this sounded like a good plan to me. We took a bus from the school, which wound up through apartment complexes into a part of Aix we hadn't seen before. An older woman showed us the right stop to get off the bus.

L'Atelier de Cézanne is a quiet spot just up the hill from the centre ville of Aix, now set among much more modern buildings. But here in the early part of the 20th century, in the last few years of his life, Cézanne came to paint and create his final masterpieces.

Our teacher Sonia told us that for many tourists, the L'Atelier is the biggest disappointment of Aix. They go expecting to see works of art by Cézanne, and find something very different. So Annalise and I weren't disappointed-- we had no such expectation. Instead, on the second floor of a small building, there is a big room full of light. Around the room are pieces of furniture and a variety of objects, just as they were left by Cézanne. Many of these same objects-- a table, a vase, a small statue of a cherub, a bowl-- were incorporated into his paintings. There was some fruit... but I can't imagine that these are the same pieces of fruit from 100 years ago!

When we first arrived, we just looked around and read a laminated paper about the studio. A woman was giving a very energetic talk to another group of visitors. We looked at the objects and flipped through a display of reproductions of some of Cézanne's works that were painted here. An American man came in, looked around, rolled his eyes, and said, "Okay, fine...check this off the list."

Fortunately Annalise and I hung in there. When the woman finished her presentation, we approached her with a question about something we had heard her say, and soon she had launched into another very discussion and attracted another group of visitors around her. Her talk was all in French, though illustrated by the paintings and the objects. Annalise is two classes above me in French (she speaks perfect English as well), and I think she followed much of the discussion. Perhaps I understood about half. But most of all I understood and very much appreciated the passion of this woman for her subject matter. Afterwards, we followed some paths through the gardens, where apparently Cézanne got some inspiration for the background of a few of his paintings. The gardens weren't very interesting, I'm afraid.

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The entrance to L'Atelier (photos not permitted inside)

Would I recommend L'Atelier de Cézanne for visitors to Aix? If you are very interested in Cézanne and understand a reasonable amount of French, I would say yes. Go, look at the objects, and most definitely, hang around to listen to the guide. If you have very limited understanding of French, this is not a good use of your 5.5 euro. You will be finished there in less than 30 minutes.

I knew we were just a short walk from the centre ville, and the walk was now downhill, so we headed back down into the centre ville. Annalise hadn't visited the cathedral, so I suggested we stop in. And here we had one of the best experiences of my time so far in Aix.

I had visited the Cathedral of St. Sauveur several times before on our family's various day trips to Aix. The Cathedral is built over top of a pre-Roman pagan temple and a Roman temple. The current structure was built in many stages from the 5th century to the 15th century, and even includes some very modern features.

We visited the 4th century bapistry, where you can look down through grates to see archaeological excavations of the much-older temples. And then I looked to the right and got a glimpse of some people through a gate. It was La Cloître de St. Sauveur-- the cloister. I have never found this open before.

A woman was just finishing leading a small group on a tour of the cloister. She unlocked the gate and let us in. It was about 5:30 pm. We entered into a small enclosed space of green and light, surrounded by white columns. Annalise and I began looking around on our own, noticing that the columns were all different. The woman began to talk with us-- in French-- and told us that the cloister was built in the 12th century. The columns-- each different-- tell the story of the Bible. She admitted a small group to join us... three young people, maybe students. And then together we circled the small cloister, stopping to talk about many of the columns. Once again we had a very passionate tour guide, someone who knew her subject matter AND felt it! The woman at L'Atelier de Cézanne was modern-- attractive and very stylish, educated. The woman at La Cloître was more matronly, older, more solidly middle class. But I was moved by the light in their eyes, the passion they both felt for the small spaces they loved, their skill in communicating a story and that passion to others.

I enjoyed sharing this experience with a thoughtful friend like Annalise (and of course it was great to have a friend to DO something with!) I was also very impressed with the interest of the three young French people. It was wonderful to see young people so interested in the architecture and the spiritual importance of this very unique creation. Years ago the cloister was a place for meditation, and it was again this afternoon. The photos below give just a glimpse of this very special place:

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