Aix-en-Provence

A beautiful little city with heavy traffic on tree lined streets. We drove around for about 20 minutes before we found a parking garage that had spaces available. We ended up in a garage near the Place de Charles De Gaulle, the fountain and traffic circle in the photo below.

Our goal once we got out onto the streets was to find Cézanne's Studio. We strolled through several open air markets on our way across town. One food market was particularly wonderful. We had to walk every aisle.

A selection of Asperges and Artichaud. Some of the artichokes were still on their stalks, and especially interesting tulip topped artichokes.

Beautiful varieties of lettuce.

The meat and cheese markets were wonderful. Those are whole hams hanging on the wall and they had stacks of wheels of cheese.

This strong young fellow was struggling to cut a section off a large block of nougat with pistachios. 

There were a few flower markets, and the Lilacs in this market were so fragrant.

The streets are exceptionally narrow in the old section of town that they use these mini garbage trucks.

We finally arrived at Cézanne's studio and guess what, it was closed. We were able to see the outside of the studio over the wall. C'est dommage. So we walked back toward the center of town.

Susan came across this shoe store that sold ballet slippers. There is a wall of them in various sizes.

Ok, so here is where I throw in some people, streets and building.

And there are constant reminders that at one time in France, heads did roll.