While some of the elite tennis players applied themselves on various courts across Europe in either their last or second to last tournaments leading into Wimbledon, I visited another French provincial town and became an instant art fan. After struggling (eventually successfully) to convince security that the bag containing my passport, wallet, camera, IPad, travel documents and other assorted important things was not leaving me for some locker while I wandered through a museum - despite it having already passed the bag check at entry - I enjoyed a surprisingly fruitful few hours spent inside protected from the woeful sunny weather being offered by the town of Aix-en-Provence.
The Musée Granet is not the first recommended spot for tourists so belligerent me went there initially, and the Jean Planque Collection just happened to be in town. Planque was not a big name painter - made a living post WW2 marketing a concentrate for pig feed that he had invented - but he knew all the biggies and established excellent rapport with them - Auberjonois, Berger, Dubuffet, Picasso among others.
Fortunately in his death, the legacy of his collection lives on and the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc can be seen at various art museums around Europe.
Externally, Aix-en-Provence is everything that you should expect a French town in this region to be with only one negative that I could find - directions for strangers in town are Aix-bysmal.
Andy Roddick has been in London, attempting to find some form on grass, because he certainly had lost it all on clay. Today it was semi final time against Andy Murray who had regained his form on clay making it to the semis in Paris losing to eventual champ Nadal. The latter Andy obliterated the former losing just four games, and it may be that the Scot has some claims for this Wimbledon title. Could be true were a Swiss guy not fit and firing.
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