aixcentric

As Aixcentric followers will know, the 18th century country house, Jas de Bouffan, which was home to the Cezanne family for 40 years, was closed over a year

Cezanne painted his home 36 times in oil, and 17 times with watercolour.

ago for renovation.  I went in for a last visit on its last day of opening and my goodness it needed renovation: think cold, damp, pieces of plaster hanging off the walls and ceilings.

It’s a sizable property, 450m2, with a farm, outbuildings, caretaker’s house, a large pond, an orangerie…all in 6 hectares of land, all inside the Aix city boundaries. Work started and was expected to take about 3 years, but of course Covid intervened, and work is just recommencing.  The new target date is 2023.  So what can we expect to see?

• Stage 1 has been concentrating on the facades and floors of the old house, along with plumbing, electrics, heating, disability access.
• There will be a new reception area to the south which will include an area for showing films on the artist, and (of course) a gift shop. The Orangerie next to the ‘bassin’ will be a cafe. The intention here is to spread visitors around somewhat as the main house could be under pressure from the 200k-ish visitors expected each year.
• Stage 2 will do the ‘relooking’ of the interiors, no firm plans as yet but there are consultations at departmental and national levels as this is a listed building of artistic importance.

The objective according to Mme Sicard-Desnuelle, Aix’s cultural supremo, is to provide a ‘grand pont’ for all the Cezannien sites scattered across town. Expect family rooms restored, offices for researchers and Cezanne scholars, exhibition space and so on. I’m hoping that we will get access to his studio – you can see the exterior in my photo where part of the roof was cut away to let light into the room for the artist.

The Hotel Caumont has set the bar high for quality renovation of these historic buildings. I can’t wait to see this transformation too.