You know the score !

Aix-en-Provence is famous for its annual summer music festival, the renowned Festival d'Art Lyrique. But long before this event, the city springs to life with music for all tastes and budgets.

Pierre et le Loup

The fun begins in the last weekend of May with a local event called C'est Sud (it's a southern thing!). From a range of events, we choose a free Sunday afternoon concert at a beautiful outdoor performance space created in the courtyard of the former Archbishops' Palace. The local Harmonie Municipale is an amateur wind, brass and percussion orchestra. They play selections from the film music of Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical films set in this area, la Gloire de mon Père and le Château de ma Mère. They are followed by the orchestra of the local music school, le conservatoire Darius Milhaud, who play some introductory Bach, then a splendid performance of Tchaikovsky's Peter and the Wolf. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Dancing to le Big Band

Just time to dash home for a light meal before joining the evening crowds on the cours Mirabeau, Aix's main street, where a full stage has been set up, along with rows of gradins, or bleachers. A big band plays classics from the swing era and dancers crowd the tiny dance floor. It's wonderful to see so many people just having a good time.
Before we know it, it is time for La Fête de la Musique on June 21, the official start of summer, the longest day of the year. All over France, music-lovers of all types from heavy metal to classical opera are encouraged to perform in public, in parks and on the streets. This all-day and all-night celebration began in 1982 and thirty years later it is still a regular midsummer event and has even spread to over 100 countries worldwide.

Every tiny street and square has been commandeered as a performance space.  For those of you keen to improve your French vocabulary, here are some of the types of music listed in the programme issued by La Mairie (City Hall): le funk, le hip-hop, le rap, l'indie pop (honestly!), le reggae, le rock punck (sic). And whatever combinations of the above you care to make. More mature citizens might prefer: le blues, le jazz, le Big Band, l'orphéon (male voice choir), or the orchestra of the local conservatoire (music school).

Rock music on the cours Mirabeau

We opt for a concert in a normally quiet, shady square near the cathedral. A stage with light and sound systems has been set up, and the Orchestre Philharmonique plays Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and la Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.  We meet friends and settle comfortably at a table, only to discover that the competition from a nearby rock concert makes it almost impossible to hear. Nice idea but ...

So we saunter slowly down to the cours Mirabeau, the famous-tree-lined avenue, where several performance spaces have been set up. Same problem, a bit too loud for us old fogies. So we settle at a cafe with a glass of wine and enjoy the view. As often with performance art, the "off" programme is just as interesting as the official planned events - two harmonica players passing one microphone between them in a tiny backstreet, a guitar-steeldrum combination in the square, people-watching from the cafe terrace. La Fête de la Musique is a time to enjoy and encourage all musical tastes.

Festival warm-up

For many the musical high spot of the summer is the world-famous Festival d'Art Lyrique. Ticket prices for opera performances range from 30 - 240€ for Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Jérémie Rhorer and needless to say the cheap tickets usually sell out on the first day of sales. The London Symphony Orchestra is here, as is the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming.

Locals can buy a 15€ pass which gives entry to rehearsals and master classes. But go early, there are no reservations, and spaces fill up quickly. The main festival week launches with another free concert, as the cours Mirabeau is again transformed into a magical performance space, complete with stage, orchestra and rows of free seating for the public. We are treated to a selection of famous arias from Mozart operas Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and La Flûte Enchantée. It is wonderful to see how many children and families take advantage of this musical feast.

Enjoying the show!

Latest of our musical treats is a live projection in the park of Le Nozze di Figaro, direct from the Théâtre de l’Archevêché. The hillside is packed as dusk falls and the performance begins at about 9.30pm. The opera is sung in Italian with French subtitles on screen. The crowd thins out as the evening grows chill, the ground gets harder, and you realize at 11.45pm that there are still two acts to go...... We join the slackers and go home to watch the rest on TV. I loved this production featuring Kate Lindsey singing Cherubino, Kyle Ketelson as Figaro, Petricia Petibon as a red-headed Suzanna, a beautiful set designed by Richard Brunel and even a well-trained gray pointer as the count’s hunting dog.

So we have already enjoyed a truly eclectic range of music in Aix this summer, from grand opera to indie rock, from formal theatre to street corner. As the French say, on connaît la musique!

© 2012 Valerie and Trevor White

A Walk in la Garrigue

The city of Aix-en-Provence is in the department of Les Bouches-du-Rhône, and offers a wealth of beautiful walks outside the town.  The area is very dry with chalky soil, giving rise to a typical vegetation of pine trees, twisty, wind-blown olives and spikey undergrowth. This kind of heath, known as la garrigue, will be familiar to those of you who have seen the famous movies by Marcel Pagnol, La Gloire de Mon Père (My Father’s Glory) and Le Château de Ma Mère (My Mother’s Castle). There are tiny, prickly oaks (which Pagnol calls Chêne kermès, but which are perhaps better known as holly oaks), wild juniper (le genévrier), rosemary (le romarin) and thyme (le thym).

Setting off in la garrigue

Our Anglo-American group organizes guided family rambles once per month, and the June walk was a particularly rich experience.  It was a busy Sunday, with Father’s Day as well as the second round of legislative elections. But a small group of members met in the village of Cornillon-Confoux, whose name means “crossroads.” It is an ancient settlement site boasting many beautiful stone-built houses and a château , with lovely views of Les Arpilles mountain range to the north and l’Etang de Berre, a huge lake to the south-west.

The châteaufort itself was probably built in the XVIIth century, with a Roman style chapel thought to date from the XIIIth. It is not open to the public, having been restored and remodeled as private homes. We enjoyed the views from the road as we ambled by, and were startled to happen upon a huge classical-style bronze sculpture on a grassy knoll. It is the work of Igor Mitorag (or Mitoraj), an internationally renowned sculptor of Polish origin who now lives in the area.

Borie

Leaving the village by an easy, level path we soon came upon several bories. These are round shelters of dry-stone construction, traditionally used by shepherds, and as many as fifty can be seen in this area, including one covering a well. From the bories we headed off into the garrigue, at this time of year peppered with glorious displays of scarlet poppies, yellow broom and pinky-mauve cistus. Our French friend Annie gave us an impromptu French vocabulary lesson as we came upon a growth of bulrushes, explaining the difference between jonc (bulrush) and ajonc (gorse) as well as the Provençal word bancao for a low, dry-stone wall. In addition to the scent of rosemary in the warm air was the pungent aniseed smell of wild fennel growing along the roadside.

mur à abeilles

Lunch was a welcome break in the shade as temperatures soared to 32C. It was so tempting to laze away the whole afternoon listening to the cicadas, and it took a little cajoling from our guide Gilbert to get us back on track. Our route back took us on a section of the ancient Roman road la Voie Aurélienne. We made a five-minute detour to visit the mur à abeilles, a 60m long stone wall with alcoves for bee hives, probably hosting up to 200 swarms in its heyday. The area at one time had a thriving honey and wax industry. Another happy discovery, a nèflier tree, apparently in English a medlar. The yellow fruits (les nèfles) are small and fleshy, rather like a small apricot, and once peeled, offer a succulent, tangy fruit.

OK, so at 32C it was a bit hot for walking, but what a great day we had. Group leaders Annie and Gilbert very kindly invited us afterwards for cold drinks in their garden to cool off. Take the basic ingredients of beautiful countryside, add a good helping of conversation, a healthy dose of fresh air and exercise, a soupçon of vocabulary, a slice of local history, and the result is a recipe for a delicious day out.

© 2012 Text and Images Valerie and Trevor White