seekingmygreaterperhaps

Teresa and Michaella! Reunited at last! I have been so blessed to spend time with my beautiful cousin Teresa in Aix en Provence, France for the past few days. We got to spend Easter together, stalk all of Cezanne’s sights, and enjoy the finer intricacies of the French cuisine- mainly the wine. However, we have been taking hikes to mountain vistas and learning about Cezanne too.

This is Cezanne’s studio! We got a sneak peak, with the original paint on the walls, and the original hard wood flooring, all engineered by Cezanne. He had a huge window facing the north to ensure he was never looking at shadows. We got to see his hat and coat hanging up, like he had just stepped out for a minute. We also saw all of the original pieces from his still life works (think ginger jar, skulls, teapot, etc.) all exactly how he painted them. SO COOL.

We felt kind of bad for Cezanne. He was never truly appreciated while he was alive. He only sold 17 paintings, and the bottom floor of his studio was packed floor to ceiling with canvases when he died. His relatives were so desperate to get rid of them, that they were sold in bundles of 10. His studio was going to be demolished to make room for other houses when two students were like, whoa wait, that’s Cezanne’s studio. The city was like, so? The students bought it and tried to regift it back to France, who was like, yeah I’ll pass. Eventually the city took it back begrudgingly, but it’s a good thing they did because now it’s a major tourist attraction for Aix. I thought it was awesome.

The last piece of the Cezanne puzzle was a hike up to his painting spot. It was here where he painted Mont Sainte Victoire in his famous mountain series. ( google it- get some culture 🙂 ). There were kids playing there, and Teresa translated one of them was pretty much paying his younger sibling off with chocolate to leave him alone. Sounds familiar.

YAY EASTER DINNER!!!!

We made a “galette” which is a Frech free-form pastry, and quite tasty. As in literally the best thing I’ve eaten. And SO simple. Teresa taught me a lot about cooking yesterday. 

Homemade Easter brownies- with French chocolate, almonds, and marshmallows on top. Tre bien.

Annndddd breakfast this morning: a savory French toast bake. SO. GOOD.

Thanks for tuning in to hear about my cousin, our cuisine, and our culture. As a bonus: this is a plaza in Aix en Provence that used to be in the center of a brothel. Since they couldn’t exactly advertise that it was a brothel, they thought of a fancy way to let their clients know they were in the right place… take a close look at the iron railing work- shaped in a similar form to a certain part of the male anatomy.

Au Revior!