Happy Bastille Day!
Bastille Day in Aix-en-Provence made me proud to be an American.
In America, as I am sure you agree, we celebrate our Independence Day. You would be hard-pressed to not see something festive happening on the Fourth of July: flags hanging, people dressed in red, white and blue, and lots of bbq'ing going on, with people eating hamburgers, hot dogs and apple pie.
In Aix-en-Provence, it was just another day...almost.
I had read that Aix has the biggest Bastille Day celebration in the area, including street parades and fireworks. When I asked our apartment owner about the festivities, I had to repeat myself three times. Was I pronouncing something as simple as Bastille wrong?! Yes, she said there would be fireworks unless it was too windy.
Greg and I went out at least four times in search of the patriotic action. We walked around Aix for four hours. For the most part, it was just another day, with a few differences.
Adjacent Place des Precheurs and Place de Verdun usually have booths set up. Since it is Tuesday, they were packed full. We bought a rotisserie chicken from Rotisserie Lionel for dinner (it is so tender it falls off the bone).
Cours Mirabeau was closed to vehicles for its Tuesday market, with the center of the street lined with booths. After lunch, all the booths are cleared out, leaving the street quiet.
Overnight the city installed a few flags along the main street. Here you can see three behind the fountain, so common-place that the regular observer wouldn't even notice.
During our third outing, in the late afternoon, everything was still normal. Finally at 8:30 pm we noticed the cafes were spilling onto the sidewalks, a stage was set up, and a DJ. Sporadic balloon and light vendors were showing up.
The finale for us was the fireworks. They are launched at least a mile away but Cours Mirabeau and the Rotunda are full of people watching them.
We watched the fireworks from our terrace.
Aix-en-Provence fireworks for Bastille Day are at 11:15 pm
From what we were told, at that point, Cours Mirabeau is a street party. We wouldn't know since we went to bed.
