• Category: Sightseeing
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The south of France is Cézanne country, but this summer it's all about Picasso. His château is open through September, and you'll see his work everywhere—even in a rock quarry.

When Pablo Picasso moved to Provence in his 70s in 1959, it was partly to escape the glare of public life in Cannes, but mostly to be closer to Ste.-Victoire, the mountain near Aix-en-Provence that served as the subject of more than 40 paintings by Paul Cézanne, whom Picasso called "my one and only master." After buying Château de Vauvenargues, at the base of the mountain, Picasso contacted his dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. "I have just bought Cézanne's Ste.-Victoire," he boasted. "Which one?" the dealer asked, assuming Picasso was referring to a painting. "The original!" the artist replied.

Together with Jacqueline Roque, the lover he picked up at a pottery studio and later married, Picasso lived in the 13th-century estate until 1961. It's been off-limits to the public ever since, but through September 27, fans can finally get an inside look. Brushes and paints lie scattered around Picasso's studio, and the mandolin that appears in many of his paintings is in his bedroom. In the garden, the couple's gravestones sit side by side—Picasso's is topped with his 1933 sculpture Woman With a Vase. Advance reservations have sold out, but same-day tickets go on sale each morning at 8:30 a.m. at the Hôtel de Valori (36 rue Cardinale, Aix-en-Provence, 011-33/4-42-16-10-91, $10.25).

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• Submitted by
  
  SonyaRam
• 06/26/09
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