Un peu d'histoire

Salut tout le monde,
It's rainy and cold today, so I took the time between my Abroadco walking tour and getting my student bus pass to relate what I've learned about Aix so far. Also, I wanted to change my socks.

This morning all the Abroadco kids met Pamela, our director, at the Cathédrale Saint Sauveur (loosely translated, the Cathedral of Our Holy Savior). She's an art history person, which she apologized for since she loves to talk about it, but I think it's great. I like hearing that perspective when sight-seeing. Saint Sauveur is considered ugly by many Aixois because it mixes several styles of architecture spanning many centuries. But I think it's interesting.

The oldest part is from the Roman era, the 11th or 12th century. Right outside the main entrance there are stones from the old Roman road that ran north to south past the cathedral (they let cars park there!). We were lucky and got to see the cloisters, too; they're often closed to the public because of vandalism. Then there is the part that was built during the Gothic period, so all of a sudden the rounded arches and columns from the older part become vaulted ceilings and kind of intricate decoration. There's this kind of garish (I think it is anyway) green, gold-trimmed organ on one side, and on the opposite wall there's a fake one that looks just like it, except it's just a façade. Oh, what we do for symmetry.

After some time in the Cathédrale we looked at a few "hotels", which aren't really hotels but old, humongous town house type things that wealthy families used to live in. The Institut where I will take classes is the Hotel Maynier Oppède. We also tried calissons, the specialty of Aix. Calissons are made with almond paste and have a layer of some kind of icing on top. I'm not a huge fan because they remind me of marzipan and I once ate too much marzipan and felt sick for the rest of the day.

Our next stop was the Palais de Justice. I can actually see the Palais de Justice from the kitchen window in Mme Orsoni's apartment. Inside was a statue of Mirabeau, for whom the Cours Mirabeau is named. Apparently he was quite the character. He wasn't a looker, he had smallpox or something when he was young, but he was persuasive or charismatic enough to be Aix's representative for something in Paris. He was pursuing the prettiest woman in Aix and he played a nasty trick on her. He left his carriage outside her house one night and kept it there until morning, when the town woke up and started gossiping about what was going on. So the girl's father forced her to marry Mirabeau to avoid any scandal. Mirabeau, whose family had run out of money, proceeded to spend all of the girl's money and she filed for divorce. He refused a lawyer for the hearing and argued on his own behalf. It is said there wasn't a dry eye in the courtroom after he presented his defense.

I still don't really know why the Cours Mirabeau was named for him, even though he was Aix's representative. Maybe it's just because he was a 'rascal' and the French kind of liked him. I wouldn't be surprised.

That's about it for now. Tonight is our welcome dinner with Pamela, I'm sure I'll be writing about the wonderful food.
A bientôt!
Maggie B.

French Fun Fact: I pulled this from my guidebook and haven't found a dictionary with this word in it yet to verify, but apparently part of the reason French people may laugh if they hear an American say "Oh my God" is because godde means vibrator in French. I must find a French person I will never have to see again to verify this...stay tuned.