Cézanne's Landscape

Aix en Provence // France

By Lauren di Matteo

WRITTEN BY NICOLE BRAVO

After our Italian adventures, we were ready to spend a few days taking it slow in the South of France. We rented a room on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence, a sprawling home owned by an older French couple. The home belonged to artists and as such had a lot of character, and was located in the countryside surrounded by beautiful trees. Compelled by the beauty of the landscape, we asked our host if we could venture beyond her large property to explore the area. She pointed west of the home toward the lovely Mont Sainte-Victoire and told us we could find trails that way; however, the owner of the house behind them would probably not appreciate our wandering around. “He gets tired of tourists always trying to find his house since Cézanne used to live there.” It took everything within me not to spit out what I was eating at that moment.

Cézanne… is their neighbor. Well, Cézanne’s house, and if we were transported back in time to the late 1800s, we would be able to venture over and have a chat with neighbor Cézanne. Are you kidding me? It was another one of the scores of moments during our trip when I had to pinch myself to verify that what I was experiencing was in fact real.

We took things slow in the south; sharing meals on the patio, jumping on a large trampoline like kids, and taking afternoon swims during thunderstorms. We delighted in the surrounding panoramas which were wonderfully picturesque, later realizing that Cézanne must have truly loved them as well. This evidenced by the fact that a museum we visited was full of his paintings which included the same views we had of the landscape and Mont Sainte-Victoire.