Aix-en-Provence

The journey starts at CDG. After arriving in Paris, I took the TGV from Gare du Lyon to Gare Aix-en-Provence. Since it takes only three hours, why would anyone prefer to take a plane to Aix? The cattles, the sky, the grass.. This is the whole point of taking a train!

 Je suis tellement contente avec cette jolie chambre dans une maison à la compaigne! This is a typical countryside house with a large garden and a swimming pool. Sitting in a lawn chair and reading, I feel like I'm in the movie Lolita where the little girl often reads by the swimming pool or on the grass.

 The room is quite different to what I expected, in a good way though. It is well decorated, modern and chic, contrasting with the exterior of the house. It looks extremely lovely in the morning light, so does the breakfast :)

The city of Aix is 10mins away by bus. As you may have heard, Aix-en-Provence is the city of fountains. You can find fountains everywhere in the city - in the street corner, in the carrefour, enven in between two buildings. The most famous one is Fountaine de la Rontonde that situates at Place de Gaulle. The three statues on top of the fountain facing towards different directions represent respectively the Justice, the Agriculture and the Fine Arts. The one representing the Justice leads you to the famous Cours Mirabeau.

 Le Cours Mirabeau is the main street in Aix. It brings fountains, cafés and restaurants together.

 The fame of the city owns credit partly to Monsieur Paul Cézanne. You can find him everywhere in the city just like the fountains. I know it sounds a bit scary but this is the truth. The metal sign on the ground leads you to Cézanne related places such as atelier de Cézanne and sculpture of Cézanne.

A tip: when you are traveling in Aix-en-Provence, be aware that Monsieur Cézanne is keeping an eye on you!

 

This is the market at the Place de Verdun. You can find different kinds of jewelries, soaps, olive oil and even sweets. Walking here makes you happy because not only the goods are beautiful, the market itself smells good thanks to the lavender vendors and soap vendors.

Although Aix is a small city, it has some museums with great collections. I first went to the Musée Granet. It has a great collection of artworks from 14th to 20th century, including those of Rembrandt, Ingres and Cézanne. Walking in the museum, I thought that if these paintings were in the Louvre, they would have been surrounded by hundreds of visitors at a time. There's no description on most of the paintings so it's a challenge to visit without the help of video guide. But the good thing is you can have your own interpretation of the painting. On the second floor, there was one red wall full of paintings. It was so full that there was no space left for wall labels, which reminds me of Le Salon at the Louvre in 17th century. 

Then I went to the Muséum d'histoire naturelle. It has been ten years since last time I saw the skeleton of dinasours! 

Late in the afternoon, I came to the Pavillon de Vendôme. It was built in 1655 and then turned to a park. The pavillon itself is a storybook.

 The last day I went to the Fondation Vasarely, an art center in suburban Aix. Constructed in 1973, the building consists of 16 hexagonal volumes that inspired by honeycomb cells. Inside the building are 42 large works by Victor Vasarely, who uses geometry, shapes and colors to give the impression of space, volume and movement.

Op Art

 Montagne Saint Victoire

So this is my three-day trip to Aix-en-Provence. You might ask how about lavender? Well first of all, it's not the lavender season yet; secondly, Provence offers you way more than LAVENDER! What matters to me is the experience of la vie à la compagne.

First Impression of Paris

 

The plane arrived at CDG on a chilly morning. Two hours later I finally found my living place on a quiet street Rue de Froment on the right bank. My dorm is a guest room in an apartment. The host is a journalist, originally from Italy but has been working and living in Paris for years. The clean and cozy bedroom immediately cheered me up. 

It was already 3pm and I decided to take a walk nearby. My lonely planet pocket book directed my to Maison de Victor Hugo, within walking distance from my place. The great writer Victor Hugo lived in this house and completed Les Misérable, but he definitely did more than that. Hugo has a great passion for chinese art, and designed a whole room called Le salon chinois. He collected a wall of china including plates, vases and other decorative objects. Even the light above was imitating that in the palace. The three most attracting things to me were wallpaper, lights and frames. I can see how much effort Hugo put in decorating this room- the choose of wallpaper and their corresponding lights all reflect his meticulous design. Coming out of the maison, I headed to Café des Phares, a famous philocafé where people engage in philosophical discussions. Apparently nobody would check the authenticity about its authenticity, since it does not look any different than other cafés. I ordered a tiramisu du jour, which is indicated specifically on the menu that the quality depends on the chef's mood. The tiramisu came in a jar and it was neither too greasy nor sweet - I guess Monsieur chef was in a good mood!

I went to bed super early that night due to the jetlag. Nine hours later I woke up freshly (the queen-size bed totally made me sleep like a rock)! I went to the two islands on the Seine, which are still within walking distance but a bit further. Île Saint-Louis is home to gourmand and art-lovers. There you can taste the famous Berthillon ice cream and the authentic foie gras. Craft shops dot the island, and you have to decide which side to walk along because you would miss the view of side anyway - a serious trade-off :/ I resolved this problem by walking back and forth, which worked out just fine! After a river-view lunch, I walked to île de la cité where the Cathedral de Notre Dame situates. Seeing the long line waiting outside, I decided to sit on the steps in front of the cathedral and look at this magnificent architecture with reverence.

On my way back home, I saw someone playing the piano on Pont Saint-Louis, the music pieces are those that you can think of without a think.

I was not as excited as I thought I would be. Maybe I still need some time to figure out how I am going to get around this city. The beauty of Paris is not only these tourist attractions, but also the visiting people and other intouchable things.

 

street corner

 

again, street corner

纽约七日

春假的第二站是纽约。之前没有太多行程计划，把落脚处安顿好，其余随意。一直觉得如果到一个城市旅游，匆匆赶赴每一个旅游景点，生怕留下一个“没去过＊＊就不算到过＊＊”的遗憾，必然会把自己累趴，然后失去了放松的目的。好比参观世博馆不拿到半本章就亏了门票似的。看看自己拍的风景照，不论怎么精心挑选角度，都无非是万千雷同的照片中的一张，唯一不同的是自己的身影出现在了里面。到此一游。

出行一个月前在Airbnb上订了一间位于upperwest side的房间。这是私人公寓房中的一间，与中央公园仅一步之隔。爱极了房间的装修，随意的陈列透露出古旧的气息，让人颇感自在。现在总结出来，在纽约住宿只要位于106和10街之间，靠近地铁，都很方便。市中心40－60街之间反而不适宜落脚，太吵闹，个人观点。

 

 uppereast side residential hall

 two cups displayed in a Japanese gallery during the Asia week

第一天去了Asia Society。若不是之前教授推荐，很难发现这个小展览馆。它是一幢三层楼的建筑，位于上东区。藏品包含了印度的黄铜、石头佛像，中国的陶器、瓷器、唐三彩，以及日本的各种器皿。每次在美国博物馆看到亚洲的藏品都很兴奋，然后认认真真得读标签。总觉得从不同的文化角度去欣赏另一种文化是件很妙的事。艺术品从不局限于语言这个载体。

每个周末，brooklyn都有盛大的flea market。小时候一直被教育二手物品是被丢弃的，不再有任何价值的东西，加之上一任主人未知，物品的清洁度是个很大的问题。后来慢慢发现在flea market淘到属于自己的东西是一门学问。一样东西被拥有过就有生命，被再次拥有是一种生命的延续。在虚张声势的“做旧”盛行的今天，为什么不少花点儿银子买些真正的有历史的家具／衣服呢？

 

从flea market回来去soho。和第五大道一样是个物欲横流的地方，只是精品店风格略不同，大多是新晋的欧美设计师品牌，尤其活跃在四大时装周。年久失修的房屋外墙和精致的橱窗店面形成鲜明对比，真是优雅的邋遢。就连苹果专卖店都有了不一样的DNA。

 

 Fifth Avenue除了是名牌聚集地以外还是暴走族的天堂。一边走一边看沿途的高楼大厦，白天看玻璃外墙里虚幻的城市镜像，晚上看永不疲倦的城市灯光；偶尔会思考到底是我在看两旁的精品店还是它们在看我，显然它们驻扎在这座城市的年头比许多路人都久。