aixcentric

There seems to be plenty happening at the moment.

‘Giselle’ danced by the Ballet de Perm promises to be lovely.  It’s on at the Grand Theatre de Provence on the 29th, 30th and 31st at 20:30.  Tickets 10-42€.  I think the cheap ones are not advisable as the seats are very high up and rather vertiginous. More for ballet-lovers – there is the Bolshoi ballet’s ‘La Bayadère’ at the Cézanne tomorrow at 16:00.

If you want tickets for the Festival d’Aix, they go on sale on January 28th at mid-day on www.festival-aix.com.  Alternatively they can be booked on the 30th from 17:30-23:00 on 08 20 922 923.

While on the subject of tickets, if you are planning to visit one or both of the blockbuster art shows this summer which are bracketed together as ‘Le Grand Atelier de Midi’, you can now make reservations.  ‘De Cezanne à Matisse’ is at the musée Granet and ‘De Van Gogh à Bonnard’ is showing in Marseille.  They both start on June 13th.  You can book on the MP2013 website or just drop in to the musée Granet where you can get tickets there and then.

The very controversial ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is currently showing at the Cézanne so I expect it is dubbed.  In VO at the moment we have ‘Django Unchained’ at the Renoir, ‘The Master’ at the Mazarin and ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ at the Mazarin which has had great reviews and has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director categories in the forthcoming Oscars.  Also loaded with nominations is ‘Lincoln’ in which Daniel Day Lewis seems to morph himself remarkably into the American President.  That starts on Wednesday and is at the Renoir.

A heads-up now on an event at Book In Bar – a little in advance but this will give you time to read some of Claire Keegan’s writing. She is a young Irish writer who has won an award for her short stories.  She will be reading and signing books at Book In Bar, rue Joseph Cabassol (the road opp Monoprix) at 11:00 on Saturday 9th February.  More about her here: http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/author/claire-keegan

Finally, a little further afield, a new expo  ‘Signac Hommage à Françoise Cachin’, at l’Annonciade in St Tropez.  This is one of my favourite galleries ever.  It’s in a converted chapel, right on the quay-side and their permanent collection has paintings by artists who were working either in the town or in the surrounding countryside.  There are some fantastic works and you are normally alone to enjoy them!  Signac was one of the first artists to moor up there – he was a keen sailor – and this expo shows the private collection of his family.  Françoise Cachin is actually his grand-daughter who became the head of the Musée d’Orsay then Directeur des Musées de France.  Nice work if you can get it.  It’s on til 11th March – see www.amis-annonciade.fr.