Sunday, Cap d'Antibes

Our last day, we stayed on Cap D'Antibes where Monet came to paint from January to May in 1888, after visiting Cezanne in nearby L'Estaque. This was the view from the balcony of our little hotel.


Originally this town served as a winter resort frequented by fashionable Europeans like the Duke and Duchess of Winsor. But in the 1920's, Cole Porter rented a house here and invited his college classmate Gerald Murphy to visit. The Murphys liked the area so much that they first convinced a local hotel owner to stay open during the summer so they could visit with friends and then bought a house which they lived in until the Depression, inviting many of their avant guard Paris friends including the Fitzgeralds, the Hemingways, Picasso, Man Ray, and Gertrude Stein. Fitzgerald both worked on Gatsby while renting a house here and based his novel Tender Is the Night on the Murphys and his experiences here. The little beach which became the setting of the most famous picnics of the 1920's is still public. But like many French beaches now, it is dominated by chairs and umbrellas for rent.

The town's key season is now the summer, and it was largely empty when I cycled through in the early eighties and again in the late nineties, both trips in March, which I think is actually one of the best times to visit. There's little documentation of the revolution in taste that changed the town from a winter to a summer resort or any commemoration of the many artists and writers who visited. The Murphy's home, like most of the estates, lies hidden behind tall hedges and gates. A local real estate agency recently tried to market a house as the one Fitzgerald rented while writing The Great Gatsby, but the listing was false according to local historians, his real home one house down. For Americans, it's a shame that there's so little documentation of Fitzgerald's time here. I think that Gatsby owes more to the liberated world of the Murphys, to the artists and writers he met in their company, and to the way in which his marriage unraveled here than it does to the time Fitzgerald spent in Great Neck and New York.

This is what the beach looked like in the 1920's with Picasso lounging on the left and Gerald and Sara Murphy on the right.

The original cover to
Fitzgerald's novel, set in the south of France and showing a stylized view of Antibes.

The Fitzgeralds on the beach at Cap D'Antibes

                       

 In the afternoon, we walked the beautiful stone shore path that runs along the shore from the Plage de la Garoupe around the point. While it does not have sandy beaches, it does have beautiful grottos and places to sit and watch the sea.

 

Saturday, Aix and Route de Cezanne

We spent Saturday biking along the Route de Cezanne, the D17,  a road that runs through Le Tholonet and under Montagne Sainte-Victoire, pictured below. The mountain and its surrounding landscape captivated Cezanne throughout his life starting with boyhood walks with his friend Emile Zola, whose father was building a dam in the area. I first came here on a bicycle trip in late February of 2002 and have wanted since that time to come back and see the landscape in summer when most of Cezanne's landscapes of the area were painted. It's a stunning place, hot and dry in the summer, and filled with the sound of cicadas and birds. The mountain  changes dramatically as you move around its profile and as the sun passes over its jagged forms throughout the day. 

One of over 60 views Cezanne painted of the mountain.

Grounds of the Chateau de Tholonet now the headquarters of the Canal du France.

    Along the south face of the mountain which now attracts hikers and para gliders.

Picasso so emulated Cezanne that he bought the Chateau de Vauvenargues which looks up at Montagne Sainte-Victoire. He did not paint the mountain view which he believed belonged to Cezanne, but he is buried on its grounds facing the mountain. 

In the late afternoon, we went into Aix to have dinner and walk around the town which had just started its summer arts an music festival. This candy store sits under some of the sycamore trees that give it a dappled light. This girl carries one of the handsome bags the store uses with its candies. 

This cafe's colorful seating lit up the little street.

    Later that night we watched an auto show on the Cour Mirabeau, the owners in period costume.

Distinctive luggage on the backs of these touring cars.

The audience at the judging stand

Friday, Tour of the Eastern Luberon Villages

On Friday, we biked through the villages to the east of Gordes on the many back roads that wind up through the valley, stopping at Roussillon, Villars, St.-Saturnin-les-Apt, and Rustrel.

   Lavender Fields just outside of Roussillon

Here is a panoramic photograph to show what the fields look like as you look out over them.

    Roussillon originally served as a base for the mining of ochre, and these cellars have been carved out of the porous base on which the town sits.

One of several public squares in Roussillon with a little cafe.











           

              The town has beautiful architectural  details and plantings.

    Decoration in the ceiling of the local church.

    View of vineyards from the top of Roussillon.

Cyclist cooling off at the fountain in Villars.

Trusty Deux Chevaux in the village square in Villars.

    Windmill near St.-Saturnin-les-Apt

Thursday in Aix

We went down to Aix for most of the day to go on a walking tour of the city focused on Cezanne's life in Aix but also to see the start of the sixth stage of the Tour de France. It was also market day in Aix so the clothes and cloth vendors took up the entire Cours Mirabeau. The folks running the stalls were often as colorful as their wares. 

Lots of children in attendance. The girl on the right has her Tour de France shopping bag.

 These fireman spent most of the morning outside the pastry shop but nothing seemed to catch fire.

 The city has put a series of bronze markers to help visitors imagine the life of Cezanne in Aix, but there are very few commemorative plaques or indicators of places important in his life within the city.

This is a small wall plaque in the old section of the city. The only statue is a very recent standing figure with painting gear on his back set up on the Place de Rotonde just a few years ago.





Cezanne rented the top two floors of this house, but it is now privately owned with no access.

 The upper studio window.

After the tour, I had just a few minutes to get back down to the Place de la Rotonde to see the start of the Tour de France. It hadn't come to Aix in fifty years and this was the hundredth anniversary, so there was all kinds of fanfare. Here is the link to a video of the riders coming through the rotary just after the start that I shot by standing on top of a barricade.

                                                                   Start of the Tour

Wednesday, Lourmarin - Cucuron

This afternoon after light rain  showers, we drove over the Luberon to Lourmarin and did a cycle loop down in the next valley to the south. Before we left, i took the picture below, the first day with any moisture in the air we have had since Brittany, and the first real rain - we had just a few very light showers up in Pont Aven.

This was the view from the veranda on the second level of the tower. Everyone around here has    fancy metal work like the valence at the top of the photo. 

The chateau that sits across the park from the village of Lourmarin.

Lourmarin has the same range of shops as Gordes but it has a much flatter geography.

A cafe with a family sitting down for lunch.

Card shop in the center of town with a rainbow collection of espadrilles

Tired of walking.

A beautiful pond in the middle of Cucuron, a beautiful surprise as we cycled up the hill to find it.

  Unlike most of the plane trees we have seen, these have been trained up straight with cross tied cables which you can see in the photo below.

Below are a set of videos which show what the biking is like in the Luberon.

Betsy biking just outside Lourmarin

Biking through Lourmarin

After dinner we biked over into the next valley to the beautiful abbey at Senanque. We caught it just as the sun was going down and because of the contrast between the last light and the shadowy valley took pictures that are very different from the more common mid-day views of this beautiful place. With just a couple of other visitors when we first arrived and then none, the space was one of the quietest places I've ever visited.

Overhead views from the road over to Gordes.