aixcentric

Here’s a book, in English, which takes readers off the usual tourist routes into hidden corners of Provence to find curiosities, probably not even known by locals: a statue of a pregnant Virgin Mary, a moondial in les Alpilles, a hotel room in a tree or a gypsy caravan, a village’s phallic balconies, a fountain that flows with wine, a church in a theatre, an erotic mediaeval bas relief, a countess who returned to life, a Provençal Villa Médicis, a false volcano at La Roquebrussane, a “sheep bridge” at Arles, a rain-making saint, an alchemist’s garden…

Near to Aix, there is lots of information on the tomb of Mary Magdalene at Saint Maximin along with background on the saint whose skull is preserved in the crypt. Author Jean-Pierre Cassely also provides interesting facts about the nearby grotto, its royal visitors and strange inscriptions.

Moving west to Maillane, I was intrigued to read about a cushion in the Frederic Mistral Museum: ‘made from beige leather and roughly sewn it bears the portrait of a face. This ‘cushion of life’ belonged to Native American chief Silver Eagle, who came here during the Buffalo Bill circus tour of France’.  Nobody seems to know how the cushion came here – but Cassely goes on to describe the impact of the tour locally, and the novel ‘The Heartsong of Charging Elk’ which it inspired.  William Cody enters our story yet again.

‘Secret Provence’ is a book to keep in the car, to read as you explore, or an addition to the bookshelf of a hotel/AirBnB.  It’s left me with a list of things to explore, starting with ‘The House of She Who Paints’ at Pont-de-L’Etoile’.

It covers the area from the Camargue up to Bollene, across to Digne-les-Bains and down to Hyeres, a large chunk of the south of France, but oddly both Aix and Marseille are excluded. That’s apparently because they each have a book devoted to them, but in French.

Incidentally, the author who lives locally gives tours of ‘Unexpected Aix’ via the tourist office: https://booking.aixenprovencetourism.com/french-walking-guided-tour-unexpected-aix-2h.html