I decided to see other cities in the South of France while I’m in the area and reserved a rental car for a week. The idea was to leave Saturday. However, the weather gods had other plans. It seems that I was on track to leave town at the same time as an Episode de Cévenol was to arrive, which meant nothing to me until I was enlightened by my French teacher. Many people have heard of La Mistral, which blows fiercely through Provence at certain times of the year.
The Episodes de Cévenol, however, are almost exclusively peculiar to Montpellier and are so-called because they occur in the region of the Cévennes, a mountain range near Montpellier. An Episode consists of very localized storms that often bring torrential rain, which can (and often does) result in flooding.
As I said, my French teacher clued me in. When I had my class on Friday, she warned me of the possibility of flooded roads. She even pulled up videos of Episodes in past years to show me how fast the water could come rushing in, and how quickly towns and roads could become inundated.
Having lived through the Great Boulder Flood of 2013, I knew to take her warnings seriously. So, rather than cancel my trip, I switched modes of transport, and on Saturday was on my way out of town by train.
My first stop was Aix-en-Provence (just called Aix – pronounced “ex” -by the natives). It has a population of about 140,000, with almost a third that number, students. I could not completely escape the weather, although I’d traveled 180 kilometers eastward. While it was not raining, the wind was wildly whipping through town (a Mistral? I wasn’t able to confirm that), which made it quite cold walking around. But, walk I did, enjoying the absolutely lovely, ochre-colored buildings, with about a dozen variations on that shade. The picture at the top of this post was taken on the Cours Mirabeau, probably the most famous street in Aix. Cafes and restaurants galore line this charming street.
On the map obtained at the hotel, the Cezanne Trail is marked throughout Old Town, as this is where the artist, inspired by the light, lived and worked. Frankly, walking through it, I felt like I had stepped inside one of his paintings.
Plane trees are an integral part of the scenery throughout France, but particularly in the south. Sadly, they are being felled because of an ongoing battle against the disease that is killing them. As an example of what is happening, all 42,000 plane trees along the Canal du Midi, the waterway that links the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, are scheduled to be removed. The Waterways Authority, however, has pledged to replace them, although with pine, poplar, and oak.
Specialists have identified the fungus Ceratocystis platani, which it’s likely was brought to France in contaminated ammunition boxes used by U.S. troops during WWII. The boxes were made out of the wood of the sycamore, which, according to my reading, is the parent of the plane tree. So, unfortunately, very much related. Mon dieu!
I spent one night in Aix, then took the train (and a taxi) to my next destination, which I will write about in Road Trip: Part 2. As a teaser, this was the view from my hotel room when I walked in.
