Some time in another world. I - the château -

All that needed to be done well in advance: booking tickets as always and combining the two visits, château and museum on the same day.
So, the day before yesterday I set off with D. and a friend of mine to Vauvenargues where our visit was booked for 9am.



We drove to Aix-en-Provence, left the town, reached the outskirts through the hilly Sainte-Victoire road, along the side Cézanne hardly ever painted: the cool and shady northern side. We left the car at a cark-park which has been transformed for the purpose of this Picasso-Cézanne exhibition which opened on May 25th and will end on Sep 27th. The theme being the admiration Picasso always had for Cézanne, comparisons with paintings of these two majors artists is the aim of this event.
I was educated in Aix-en-Provence (a boarder, then a student) and I also taught there for several years, but this is the first opportunity which has been given us to visit the Château of Vauvenargues. I have walked past it several times on my way up to the Sainte-Victoire, but I have never seen the château open, certainly not to visitors. It has been in Picasso's family since the day he bought it in Sep 1958 because of his love and admiration for Cézanne. He not only bought the castle and ground but the vale and pinewoods which run right up to the top of the mountain, as far as the well-known Cross on the top! So the Marquis of Vauvenargues is a real land-owner! The castle is the architectural feature of the landscape. While the white rock is the striking colour of the southern side of the mountain, green, all shades of green, is the colour of the northern side. It is shady and cool, and water runs in fountains in the village. There are natural springs, a godsend in this part of Provence and helps to settle. In the XIIIth century there was a medieval fort (there is an existing part in the castle, well-kept, with terrific thick walls and beautiful vaults, it is in the oldest XIIth century room that Jacqueline, Picasso's last wife arranged the long room as a repositary for her husband's corpse the day he was brought back to the castle to be buried later at the front entrance of the castle (April 16, 1973). This room is still a sanctuary for them both, with works of art they both loved and plants and flowers, as Jacqueline for thirteen years used to come on the 8th of each month to flower the room and almost gather religiously in the memory of Pablo Picasso. Now her daughter Catherine Hutin, the current owner of the place, keeps this family tradition. She also decided to open the castle to visitors for this exhibition. The vaulted room smelt of lilies and retains the atmosphere of a romanesque church).
Visiting the castle was really something after all these years of wondering what it would be like inside.
We took a shuttle (mini-bus) from the car-park (only 19 visitors at a time with a fixed entry time on their tickets, very good organisation to avoid crowds as the château is still inhabited by the family). We had to walk a hundred yards and there we were at the gate!
The landscape, the dark green pinewoods in the morning sun from the shuttle:
The guide and his assistant were waiting for us, she making sure no one took snapshots (striclty forbidden in the precincts of the château and grounds) and opening and closing doors and shutters, while the guide talked to the group.
A very well planned scheme. Security first in this huge old place nearly empty of furniture and paintings. Strange atmosphere filled with the presence, in this actual emptiness, of Pablo and Jacqueline. They only spent two years in this place and left
their artistic landmarks. The monastic atmosphere of the old medieval part which is similar to the catalan villages in the moutains made him choose Vauvenargues, as well as the Provençal language which he thought was just like Catalan - he was right, the same roots and similar sounds. Then his love for Cézanne and his art of painting made him buy the real Sainte-Victoire! Here is the famous quote:
talking to his art-dealer:

- "J'ai acheté la Sainte-Victoire de Cézanne! (I just bought Cézanne's Sainte-Victoire)
- Laquelle ? (Which one?)
- La vraie !!" (The real one!!)

He decorated the bathroom wall with a frescoe, and because of the green pine trees and the flute player sitting by the bath and bending gently over while playing like a Greek divinity of sources and trees, Jacqueline decided she would make this big room look like a garden with a garden table and bench and folding chairs, all green. It is magic!
I could feel she was still here in all the flowers arrangements and the pictures.
She was a keen photographer. Her filming of their happy life with their girls in their teens is like real, this projection made me discover Jacqueline, she was his loving and caring fairy. They both looked so happy and arty in this film!

When going out the same way we came in, through the rather severe hall with dark grey marble slabs and Pablo's metallic sculptures, we discovered that their tomb was right here in the sunshine facing us when passing the porch. The guide explained that Jacqueline was buried near him, under the mound and the statue Pablo made in 1933: 'La Dame à l'offrande' the original sculpture was designed by Picasso for the 1937 International Exhibition and was the emblem of the pavillion of the Spanish Republic where he displayed his
major work 'GUERNICA'. An utterly moving end to this visit 'chez les Picasso à Vauvenargues'. A spiritual feeling of humanity, through love of family life and Cézanne's countryside in the final period of the painter's life.
Some years ago, I also had a moment of intense emotion when I discovered the tomb of Aïno and Jean Sibelius in the forest near their house, it is just a circle with a stone and their names on it, under an apple-tree. So, this is it in the world of painters and musicians.
(the frescoe is taken from the booklet: Château de Vauvenargues, Association Château de Vauvenargues; chateau-vauvenargues@orange.fr).