Stayed in Nice a few days and then took to the road in a little Renault for a quick tour of Provence, including Aix en Provence, Isle Sur la Sorgue, Arles, and Cassis. My sister-in-law Jane was crazy about the market at Isle Sur la Sorgue, and I was crazy about the pre-Easter bonfire and candle ceremony starting at 10 PM at a church just one block from our Hotel Cardinal.
Aix in Provence is where Paul Cezanne hung out, Arles in the Camargue was home to Van Gogh, and Cassis, with a pretty little harbor is where the liqueur Creme de Casssis was invented. My brother Kraig (Paul en France) and his wife Jane are perfect hosts, and indefatigable in showing me around. Hard to believe I’ve been here just a little over a week..we’ve packed a lot in –many villages and towns. I did not take my computer on the vacation within a vacation, but I took lots of photos and just put some up on Facebook. Walking miles and miles each day….there was a bullfight in Arles with massive crowds. We didn’t want to see the bullfight but we saw a big Roman coliseum and St Trophime, a 12th century Medieval church.
It’s crowded and noisy here in Nice and I’m loving seeing and tasting everything. In Aix en Provence, there were beautiful churches, and on Saturday night before Easter we witnessed the most extraordinary thing on the whole trip so far. A pre-Easter celebration on the parvis of St Jean de Malte church. It started at 10 PM and there was a big bonfire outside. A priest was marking symbols of infinity, the Alpha and the Omega on a giant candle about 6 feet high and a foot wide, and chanting a Eucharistic prayer .Then they burned palm leaves and we all lit candles and went inside the church to hear more beautiful chanting and singing, and then Mass …packed with hundreds of people. We stayed at the Hotel Cardinale just a block from the church and could see the big clock tower and hear the chimes every hour. C’est la vie!
