My Namesake's Home (7 of 14)

Our first destination port was Toulon, France which is the principal naval base of France. From Toulon, we took a one hour bus ride to a quaint little French town called Aix-En-Provence or simply "Aix" pronounced 'Ex' , a city in the south of France. It's known as the 'town of water and a town of culture' whose history has been shaped by its spas and the arts.

City center's fountain

 We walked through the streets that still show their 17th and 18th century past. It has 101 fountains!

City Hall

We also walked through a glorious farmer's market filled with colorful vegetable, fruits and lavender!
Neighboring city, Marseilles is home of all things lavender!

Fresh grown veggies!

Dried lavender!

And dessert galore!

Predominantly a French confection, macarons are meringue-based cookies made with eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder and food coloring. It's commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam.

a confection store filled with macarons

Chocolate by the chunk!

And breads and pastries... NO wheat low carb fiber stuff here! The baguette was the best one I'd ever had and the salami & cheese sandwiches were nothing like in the States!

But Kyle's favorite was the palmier! It was as big as his face and I don't remember how many he had during the whole trip... was it 4 or 5?

But the highlight of Aix for me was seeing the birthplace of my namesake, Paul Cezanne, who was a  post-impressionist painter along with Matisse and Picasso.

 This mountain, Mont Sainte-Victoire was the inspiration...

 ...for numerous of his paintings..

(c1887)

 We were also able to walk in his footsteps... literally! There were these steps that you can follow that marked the actual pathways he would take within the city.

I always wondered how I got my name. And I got my answer at dinner that night when my father told me how he named me and the rest of my family. Apparently my father named each of us..
- Me.. from a book he was reading about Europe and he thought the French name was very pretty;
- My sister... from a dentist hygienist who cleaned his teeth; he thought she was very pretty;
- My brother... the name of a wealthy friend of a friend who owned several businesses;
- My mom... the name of Miss China in beauty pageant; who was probably also very pretty;
- Himself (my dad).. the name of the ship that carried him when he immigrated to the US from China.

Boy.. the things you find out on vacation that you never knew!

NEXT UP: Nice is Very Nice!