This past week le mistral, a strong cold wind that blows through Provence in winter, has been blowing through Aix, making the mornings and evenings particularly cold. The wind was so strong yesterday that it blew a shop sign down onto the cobblestone street! Today the gusty weather continued, and although the sun was shining brightly, it was still quite chilly for a walking tour around Aix. The students at the Marchutz School of Art gathered in front of the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral to walk around the city and learn about its architectural history from the Marchutz drawing professor. It was chilly standing in the blustery streets, but our professor kept us moving around so we were able to absorb the information he was telling us while keeping warm.
The architecture of Aix is intriguing to study because of its sense of l’ensemble, or the whole. The words of Fernand Pouillon seemed to summarize our brief tour: “The general harmony of the town is more important than its isolated architectural masterpieces because it participates in the daily life of the people. Aix is an architectural whole.” That is to say, even though particular monuments in Aix—such as the cloister at the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, which dates all the way back to the 5th century—may be incredible on their own, none of them outshine the grandeur of the entire city. The older part of Aix developed around the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral in the 12th century, while in the 17th and 18th centuries the southern section of the city, the quartier Mazarin, flourished. As the town grew, modified, and rearranged itself, the buildings changed form and direction and related to each other in different ways. The open-air marketplaces are irregularly shaped because buildings were torn down to create more air and space in the crowded city streets. In this way, the growing and dying and changing character of the city of Aix pertain to the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas: “Art imitates nature in its manner of operation.”
Another interesting detail about the architecture is that molding links all the windows on the building façades at the bottom, and not the top, to create a sense of rhythm between the vertical windows and the horizontal strip of molding. One can see an example of this in the photograph below. The buildings are all typically yellow-orange in color, while their shutters are painted a complementary color such as lavender or light blue. In this way the architecture is very balanced between horizontal and vertical, warm and cool colors, and old and new structures.
The walking tour was very informative, but by the end we were all so chilled that a few of us decided to try the best place for crêpes in Aix, which is Crêpes à Gogo! It is located underneath the Avenue Victor Hugo, and serves wonderfully warm crêpes hot off the griddle. Needless to say, it was a welcome treat after a long afternoon. Tomorrow, it’s off to Avignon for the day, which promises to be another wonderful educational experience. Bonne nuit, and à bientot!
Below: The Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, architectural style of Aix
The architecture of Aix is intriguing to study because of its sense of l’ensemble, or the whole. The words of Fernand Pouillon seemed to summarize our brief tour: “The general harmony of the town is more important than its isolated architectural masterpieces because it participates in the daily life of the people. Aix is an architectural whole.” That is to say, even though particular monuments in Aix—such as the cloister at the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, which dates all the way back to the 5th century—may be incredible on their own, none of them outshine the grandeur of the entire city. The older part of Aix developed around the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral in the 12th century, while in the 17th and 18th centuries the southern section of the city, the quartier Mazarin, flourished. As the town grew, modified, and rearranged itself, the buildings changed form and direction and related to each other in different ways. The open-air marketplaces are irregularly shaped because buildings were torn down to create more air and space in the crowded city streets. In this way, the growing and dying and changing character of the city of Aix pertain to the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas: “Art imitates nature in its manner of operation.”
Another interesting detail about the architecture is that molding links all the windows on the building façades at the bottom, and not the top, to create a sense of rhythm between the vertical windows and the horizontal strip of molding. One can see an example of this in the photograph below. The buildings are all typically yellow-orange in color, while their shutters are painted a complementary color such as lavender or light blue. In this way the architecture is very balanced between horizontal and vertical, warm and cool colors, and old and new structures.
The walking tour was very informative, but by the end we were all so chilled that a few of us decided to try the best place for crêpes in Aix, which is Crêpes à Gogo! It is located underneath the Avenue Victor Hugo, and serves wonderfully warm crêpes hot off the griddle. Needless to say, it was a welcome treat after a long afternoon. Tomorrow, it’s off to Avignon for the day, which promises to be another wonderful educational experience. Bonne nuit, and à bientot!
Below: The Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, architectural style of Aix