Paul Cézanne in Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône (13)

The bronze medallion portrait of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) in Aix-en-Provence (the town of his birth) was designed by Auguste Renoir and given to the town by art dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1926.

'ICI REPOSE

PAUL CÉZANNE'

'Je vais au paysage tous les jours, les motifs sont beaux et je passe aussi mes journées plus agréablement au'autre part.'

There are other interesting people buried in St Pierre cemetery, among them François Zola, the engineer father of Émile. A machine at the cemetery entrance is designed to tell an inquirer where anybody lies, although it seems to be written in code, and even though the approximate area is evident from the code, the cemetery divisions are so badly marked (or rather unmarked) that anyone looking for a particular grave is doomed to defeat. Even the map of the cemetery outside doesn't show the divisions but merely the outline of the cemetery and a number of totally unhelpful crosses. So, the only thing of course is to ask the person in charge. Uh-uh: we went there last Sunday (June 23) and the person in charge was far more than helpful: in fact he was extremely rude when we asked him about the code, and he even claimed that Zola wasn't buried there: well, no, of course not, if you're talking about Émile. Only, François Zola is buried here, and we would have expected some help in finding him. We've visited literally hundreds of cemeteries in the world, but this must be the worst.

To end on a positive note, it was a joy to see this swallowtail butterfly in the cemetery.