Escape to Aix

Today we escaped the gloomy damp hills of Lacoste for the bright shiny lights of Aix en Provence, hair was blow dryed, mascara applied, high heels dusted down and then discarded (and wisely so) for my posh-ish wellies....oh Aix here we come!!!! Of course we did have a valid, deeply cultural reason for visiting the belle auld ville, our friend, the wildly talented and charming  photographer Robert Hale was celebrating his birthday and the recent opening of his exhibition, Intimate Encounters, in La Fontaine Obscure Gallery.

Heres a behind the scenes shot of hanging the show, Robert has a portrait of his father in his hands...

If you are in Aix en Provence you should definitely check out his wonderful portrait exhibition, with work spanning over 20 years. It will be on exhibit until the 1st April.

As luck would have it, just as we had arrived in Aix, the skies opened and rain started bucketing down. The joys of being in such a beautiful old city is that when you duck in out the rain - the chances that you will find yourself in a beautiful old building are very high...

For example, the seldom open doors of the Cathedral Saint Saveur welcomed us inside to shelter, this was the breathtaking view as we entered through heavily studded doors...

And as  if one exhibition is ever enough -  we also ducked into the Musee des Tapisseries where we caught the opening of 'Les Sudre - Une Famille de Photographes', featuring beautiful work of five members of the Sudre family.

And how could we resist a family portrait...taken by Robert, I think he captures the expression of horror on my sons face, after only 17 months I'm already embarrassing him...and I don't want to hear any comments on how I actually fit so well into that get up!

Photograph courtesy of Robert Hale