We found a good excuse to explore Aix-en-Provence, about an hour away from us, one day when we discovered that the only English-language Harry Potter showing was in Aix. We had been meaning to go and here was the perfect excuse. It is a fairly large city (population ~140,000) closer to the coast, near Marseille, and has the reputation of being the Paris of the South, both for its sophistication and its beauty.

We spent our entire time in the old town, which is as beautiful as expected. There is a main tree-lined street full of restaurants and businesses, Cours Mirabeau. It is a beautiful street bordered on one end by open-air markets selling books, CD’s, DVD’s and other trinkets, a beautiful traditional carousel, and carts selling “un vrai hot dog de New York”. (We tried one just to test their marketing claim – not a bad approximation of a New York food cart hot dog. Not Gray’s Papaya, to be sure, but not bad). The street is laid with small stones and punctuated at every intersection with a moss-covered fountain. One side of the street (the shady side) is full of restaurants and cafes with large sidewalk terraces – the other is full of businesses and stores. We had a great time exploring that street and other back streets and squares within the city before heading to our movie.

A few days later, we decided to head about 1/2 hour north to the city or Orange, most famous for its Roman ruins, including a spectacular open air theatre dating from before the birth of Christ. It is considered the best-preserved Roman antiquity in Europe, and is the only Roman theatre to retain its original 12-foot statue of Caesar Augustus. It boasts a complete stage wall with seats built into the side of the hill – holding 7,000 spectators. Orange also has a famed arc de triomphe dating from about 25 A.D.

We first spent some time up on a hill overlooking the city, just above the Roman theatre.

We noticed that they were preparing for an orchestral concert – like many cities in Europe in the summertime, Orange has its own music festival called the Chorégies. The Chorégies have been celebrated each summer for over 100 years. We drove back down the hill and parked the car to find dinner, but decided to walk by the theatre to see if we could find out something about the concert. We were called to from across the street by an usher who offered us free tickets to the orchestral concert inside. Apparently they had empty seats and wanted to fill them. It wasn’t a tough decision to endure our empty stomachs for a couple more hours so that we could listen to beautiful music in such a setting. Because nearly the entire stage wall of the theatre is still in tact, the acoustics are impeccable. One can hear whispering on the stage from even the highest seats in the house. The concert started with a beautiful piece by Tchaikovsky with some incredible violin solos, followed by Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

We finished the night with dinner at a bistro across the street from the theatre. The arc de triomphe would have to wait for another visit.