Off to France through Spain

Aix-en-Provence, France May 15, 2019, Wednesday

We left Washington by train for Boston, a pleasant seven hour Acela journey, then a Silver line trolley bus under Boston Harbor to Logan Airport.  A five hour hold over there led us to an excellent dinner at the Taste of Boston in the international terminal, and then to the Level counter for our so-called Iberia flight to Spain.  Level is a low-cost airline...which we didn't know.  Arriving in Barcelona, a quick train to the Barcelona's main railway station, Sants, a good lunch and a TGV from there four hours and here we are in Aix-en-Provence.

All this sounds like a lot of travel in 30 hours, but it was done by examination of the various ways to cross the Atlantic at low-prices.  Iberia/Level crosses from Boston to Spain for under $500 round trip if you buy the tickets early.  The only drawback is that this is really bus travel with wings. Iberia operates the flight for Level  Iberia and Level are owned by British Airways owner IAG.   Tight seating, no free food or booze, no blankets, no pillows, and significant charges for any bags that don't fit in the overhead.  That said, the flight left approximately on time and arrived on time.  And since it doesn't leave Boston till 11:20PM, arriving in Barcelona after noon the following day, the best thing about it is that you can sleep the trip (less than seven hours).  Of course a good Ambien helps.

Renfe High Speed Train

Aix Street Scene

The trains were all good.  Amtrak's Acela to Boston has the best seats; Renfe of Spain joined with TGV of SNCF has good seats and good windows for the trip from Barcelona to Aix.  We had taken a picnic on Amtrak and enjoyed the remains on the European side of the Atlantic.

After many hours of travel, it was good to find a light late dinner at a first class Italian place up the street from the Hotel Cézanne where we are staying.  The Restaurant Marasino provided us with an excellent pizza frutti di mare with shrimp, squid and octopus and a very nice salad composé coupled with a pleasant Ligurian white groppolo that accompanied the taste of the meal.

Cézanne's North-facing Atelier Window

Ben admires Cézanne

Today we made the pilgrimage to Cézanne's atelier outside Aix, about 15 minutes on the bus.  Seeing where he painted Les Baigneuses and the fruit still life for which he is famous, just as he left them when he died was fascinating. Our excellent docent explained in detail how he had worked in Paris and how in particular his viewpoint of painting life in its aging phases is depicted in his pictures.   He is also well-known as a painter admired by the cubists and to a certain extent Dada in how he depicted spacial relationships.  

La Baigneuse needs sun tan protection

Among the art shown at the atelier was a collection of cartoons by cartoons by Eric Lambé, some of which were very funny take-offs on Cézanne's work.

Early Sweet Strawberries

Earlier in the day we enjoyed a salad of strawberries (Ben) and a salad grèque (John) with an excellent cappuccino and café au lait at the Café Voltaire in the old part of town.

Aix is a university town, full of students, and tourists, who use it as a central point for travel throughout Provence.  It's busy but not terribly crowded and very pretty.

Poutargue

We also learned about poutargue, a delicacy seen in a shop window--it's tuna roe salted, massaged and dried in its own roe pouch and then sliced and served as an appetizer.  In English it's called bottarga from its Italian name.  We saw it in a deli window so we haven't tasted it, yet....