Aix-en-Provence Dos and Don’ts: Guest Post by M.L. LONGWORTH

Today I welcome mystery author M.L. Longworth,  author of the Verlaque and Bonnet mystery series set in Provence. This essay reminds me how special Aix-en-Provence is. Oh to be in France! I'm more of a Francophile than Anglophile, so I've taken the liberty on that quote. Amusez vous bien!

***

M.L. LONGWORTH: Aix-en-Provence Dos and Don’ts

Many of the emails I receive from readers ask about what to see and do when visiting Aix-en-Provence, a small city in southern France where I have happily lived since 1997. Aix (the ‘x’ is pronounced), founded by the Romans and renowned for its fountains, art, and celebrated opera festival, inspired me to write a mystery series: for me, it was a small university town like the Oxford of Inspector Morse, and beautifully preserved like the Venice of Commissario Brunetti. Luckily the editors at Penguin agreed.

 

Do begin your visit at either end (the bottom is beside the fountain, La Rotonde, to top at the statue of Good King René) on Aix’s tree-lined main street Le Cours Mirabeau. Walk up and down it once or twice, before settling in on the terrace of Le Grillon (Le Mazarin in my books) to people watch. Go in and look inside; the interior is gorgeous. The coffee isn’t good, I’m afraid.

 

Do, later in the day, have a much better coffee at Aix’s only coffee roasting house, La Brulerie, on the Place Richelme.

Don’t eat in any of the cafés or restaurants on the Cours Mirabeau, save for the Patisserie Béchard (Michaud in my books). I love their brioche glacée, and their Chantilly-filled brioche cake Le Tropezien.

Do visit Cézanne’s atelier, left exactly the way it was found in 1906 when the artist died. If it’s a nice day, walk (twenty minutes uphill) there and back. 

 

Do visit Le Musée Granet, not necessarily for the Cézanne’s (there are few) but for its permanent collection of regional painting, and whatever temporary exhibit is on.

 

Do try to get same-day cheap seats for the opera festival if you’re visiting in July. If you can’t get an opera ticket, find out from the tourist office (at the Rotonde) what free music concerts are being offered over the summer.

Don’t think that the more expensive restaurants, or the Michelin-starred ones, are the best places to eat in Aix. I think that one of the city’s best is an inexpensive Moroccan restaurant on the tiny Rue Van Loo.

 

Do visit the Cathedral Saint-Sauveur and have a guided tour of its medieval cloister.

 

Do try and get east of Aix to see Cézanne’s obsession, Mont Ste-Victoire. If you don’t have a car, check the local bus schedule (available at the tourist office).

 

Don’t waste any time or money walking around Aix’s latest mistake, a shopping mall called Les Allées de Provence, located at the foot of the Cours Mirabeau. It’s full of chain stores that can be seen in any city, including probably yours.

 

Do wander into some of Aix’s mom-and-pop stores, greeting the employees with a “bonjour” when you enter and an “au revoir, merci” when you leave. The best ones are on the rue Thiers and the rue Boulegon.

 

Do buy picnic food at the market. There’s a market every morning on the Place Richelme, and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday is the giant market on the Place des Prêcheurs. Avoid the fruit and vegetable stands selling asparagus in December or strawberries in October. Also on this square is the white pillared Palais de Justice, work place of my own character Magistrate Antoine Verlaque and featured in the television series Murder in Provence.

 

The Hôtel Caumont holds first-rate temporary exhibitions in a newly-renovated eighteenth century mansion. Across the street is Aix’s much-beloved Anglo bookshop, Book in Bar. Air conditioned, it’s a cozy place for a tea, scone, and to buy a vacation book.

 

If you like sports, and want some local color, do go to an Aix rugby game (no hooligans in sight), or go to the Stade Yves Blanc (on foot from downtown) to watch the Argonauts, Aix’s amateur American football team.

 

***

M.L. Longworth has lived full-time in Provence since 1997. She has written about the region for the Washington Post, the Times (UK), the Independent, and Bon Appétit magazine. She writes a mystery series, set in Aix-en-Provence, for Penguin USA: the tenth book, Disaster at the Vendôme Theatre, will be released in October of 2022. The books have been adapted by Britbox and ITV as a television series, Murder in Provence, starring Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll.

 

 

Murder in Provence: New TV series based on M.L. Longworth's Verlaque & Bonnet books

BritBox just announced a new crime series based on the Verlaque & Bonnet novels by M.L. Longworth. I really enjoy her novels, and I'm looking forward to this series.  

Murder in Provence is being adapted for TV by Downton Abbey writer Shelagh Stephenson. Roger Allam (DI Fred Thursday from Endeavor) will lead the cast. Also in the cast will be Nancy Carroll (Lady Felicia from Father Brown)

From BritBox: “Murder in Provence follows Antoine Verlaque (Allam), Investigating Judge in Aix-en-Provence, and romantic partner Marine Bonnet (Carroll) as they investigate the murders, mysteries and dark underbelly of their idyllic home.

There will be three 90 minutes episodes that will begin filming in July in the UK and France. The series will launch in 2022.

Longworth has written eight Verlaque & Bonnet novels, the first which is set in Aix-en-Provence: Death at the Chateau. 

***

M.L. Longworth has written for Mystery Fanfare and Mystery Readers Journal several times. Here's a link to her article on Death at the Chateau. It's a great essay about Aix and her life and research there. Unfortunately there is no free book giveaway any more, as referred to in the article...but you buy her books at your favorite bookstore or find them in the library. Her latest novel in the series, The Vanishing Museum of the Rue Mistral, was just published in April.

This Month in France: Saint Patrick's Day, Craft Beers, and an Agriculture Fair: Guest post by M.L. Longworth

M.L. Longworth has lived in Aix-en-Provence since 1997. She has written about the region for The Washington Post, The Times (U.K.), The Independent (U.K.), and Bon Appétit Magazine. She is the author of a bilingual collection of essays, Une Américaine en Provence published by La Martinière in 2004. She divides her time between Aix and Paris, where she teaches writing at NYU’s Paris campus. THE CURSE OF LA FONTAINE: A Verlaque and Bonnet Mystery (A Penguin Mystery Original; April 4, 2017) by M.L. Longworth, is the sixth book in the Verlaque and Bonnet mystery series set in Aix-en-Provence. In this latest installment, newlywed investigators Antoine Verlaque and Marine Bonnet contend with their most sinister challenge yet: a centuries-old curse.

March 17, 2017:
ML Longworth:
This month in France: Saint Patrick’s Day, Craft Beers, and an Agriculture Fair 

When I’m teaching mid-week in Paris, at NYU’s French campus, I’m so busy that by the time I get back home to Provence, late Thursday evening, I tend to forget the date. I know what day it is, but not the date. So this morning, when I switched on my home computer, I noticed with delight that it was March 17th. Saint Patrick’s day. That means tonight we’ll be going to our neighborhood wine bar, located in the next village over, and run by a sommelier/rugbyman named Benoît. A video had circulated around the village of last year’s party, which we didn’t attend, showing Benoît dancing a jig on the bar. Ben hires a local musician, Yannis, for the evening who sings in Gaelic but is thoroughly French. In fact, Yannis grew up in our village, the son of farmers. But he thinks he’s Irish. He really does.

When we moved to France in 1997, I never would have believed that we’d still be here, to stay, twenty years later. Or that I would write a mystery series set in Aix-en-Provence. Nor would I have believed that by 2015 or thereabouts France would witness a renaissance in craft beer making. I would have laughed if someone had told me that the port city of Toulon, home to a huge naval base, economically deprived and little visited, would produce one of my favorite ambers, made by young friendly hipsters (their company is “Bière de la Rade” and their slogan, cleverly, is Pimp my Rade). But today, even the village one hill over, here in Provence where chilled rosé wine is king, has a one-man brewery. Food and wine feature prominently in my books, and so it now seems that my judge, Antoine Verlaque, will need to be sipping craft beers along with his beloved red Burgundies.

I can get dispirited over the increasing globalization in France, especially in Paris—restaurants advertising, in English, brunch, hamburgers, and filter coffee—but the beer resurgence has me smitten. Perhaps it’s because the beer makers I’ve spoken with are passionate about what they’re doing. They’re not just trying to make a quick buck. And perhaps it’s thanks to people like Hervé Marziou. Last year, along with my cigar club in Aix-en-Provence, we were treated to a beer tasting by Hervé, France’s undisputed expert, lovingly nicknamed “Papillon” as he never leaves the house without a bowtie. A few weeks ago I opened the pages of one of France’s national newspapers and there was a photograph of Hervé, giving a beer tasting to Le Président de la Republique, François Hollande.

In early March I took a small group of NYU students to the annual agriculture fair in Paris, hoping to show them that what they eat in Parisian restaurants starts on the farm, in the earth, on trees, and vines. The students were excited to see the various races of sheep and were awed by the size of the cows, especially the dark red Salers and golden Charollais (Salers cheese, hard with a nutty-flavor, is wonderful; and, if you’ve ever been to Burgundy and eaten a tender steak, it was a Charollais). We soon had to leave that vast hall as Emmanuel Macron, a presidential candidate in this year’s election, came through, followed by dozens of journalists and cameramen, and even more fans (although one person did throw an egg at Macron, obviously not a fan). The students knew they had just witnessed a small glimpse of contemporary French history, and we moved on to the next hall, where the food and drink of each region of France was featured under one enormous roof. I led my ten undergraduates through the throngs of people, in search of free cheese samples, when we passed by a VIP room for France’s beer makers. And whom should I see? Actually, I saw his bright blue bowtie first.

Hervé saw us through the swinging doors’ round windows and came running out, giving me the traditional French bise; I then introduced him to the students. He looked at his watch and said regrettably that we could not go into the VIP room, but that he had twenty-five minutes available before Emmanuel Macron’s visit. Would we like a beer tasting? He asked. I answered Yes! (becoming a rock star in the eyes of the students) and Hervé took us to the stand of a craft brewery located in the Vendée on France’s Atlantic coast. We met the master brewer and Hervé explained how to taste beers (basically, much like wine; you look at the beer, smell it, then taste it). He spent exactly twenty-five minutes with us, as promised. One of the students, a freshman from Northern California, thanked Hervé and announced, “Now, when I graduate, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to make beer!”

Postscript: Ben did not dance on the tables last night, although he may have after we left. The band brought the house down with a rhythmic and emotional version of The Pogues’ Dirty Old Town. On our way out my husband ran into a former work colleague. He chatted with her, asking what she was doing with herself since leaving their company. “I have embarked upon a new project,” she said, beaming. “I’ve started my own beer company.”

Where to Eat in Aix: Outside of Aix: Guest post by M.L. Longworth

Today I welcome back M.L. Longworth, author of the Verlaque  & Bonnel mystery series. Her latest, Murder in the Rue Dumas, takes place in a small university in the idyllic town of Aix-en-Provence in the South of France. This charming series continues with a dumbfounding murder that nearly stumps the handsome chief magistrate of Aix, Antoine Verlaque.  I love this series. Who doesn't love Provence? There is so much wining and dining in this novel, that I'm pleased that M.L. Longworth who lives near Aix chose to share some of her favorite dining spots in Aix for the theme of this guest post.

Read a previous guest post that appeared on Mystery Fanfare by M.L. Longworth about her life and writing in Aix.

**Book Giveaway: Murder in the Rue Dumas. Make a comment below. Be sure and leave your email address. ***

M.L. Longworth
Where to Eat in Aix: Outside of Aix 

Aix-en-Provence has golden stone buildings, medieval winding streets, dozens of ancient fountains, and beautiful people. But it doesn't have good restaurants. Is it because the beautiful people don't care about good food? Or is it because Aix has always been a big tourist and student town, so local chefs have never had to make an effort at filling their restaurants?

So when we go out to eat in Aix, it's usually outside of the city's walls. One of the first landmarks you'll see when coming towards Aix is Mont Saint-Victoire, Cézanne's obsession: he painted over 100 images of the white craggy mountain. At the foot of the mountain is the charming Provençal village of Puyloubier, home to one of our favorite restaurants, Les Sarments. Chef Jean-Sébastien Gentil has worked in Paris and London and his food reflects his training: sophisticated, refined, and cooked and presented with imagination. I don't care for the interior, but the courtyard is lovely.

It's also best to dine outside at La Table de Ventabren, west of Aix. This Michelin one-star restaurant is located in old Ventabren, a medieval perched village (lower Ventabren is a bedroom community of Aix). From the terrace, which is elegantly furnished, the views south reach almost to the sea. There are two prix-fixe menus, at 41 and 50 euros, which change weekly. When you're on the terrace on a warm summer's evening, it's heaven.

North of Aix is a winery and sculpture park, Château La Coste, the passion of an Irish billionaire and his sister. We never liked La Coste's wines until the Irishman took over; he modernized the chai, went organic, and hired Matthieu Cosse as chief winemaker. Cosse's Pentes Douces red wine is fantastic. And now for the grounds: imagine you could hire any Pritzker winning architect--Jean Nouvel or Frank Gehry, and then commission famous sculptors--Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy--to create works of art for your grounds, well, that's what this brother and sister did. I think that the two-hour walk through the grounds is one of the best things Aix has going for it. And I've never eaten in their chic restaurant, so can't say if it's good. But when you're having lunch in a Tadao Ando building, who cares?

www.restaurant-sarments.com
4 rue Qui Monte
13114 Puyloubier 04 42 66 31 58

www.latabledeventabren.com
1 rue Cézanne
13122 Ventabren
04 42 28 79 33

www.chateau-la-coste.com
2750 Route de la Cride
13610 Le Puy Ste-Réparade
04 42 61 92 90

M.L. Longworth: Death at the Château Bremont, Guest Post & Book Giveaway

I admit it, I'm a Francophile. Knowing that, you won't be surprised that I couldn't resist picking up Death at the Chateau Bremont with a cover complete with chateau, spilled wine and a dead body! What's more, the book is set in historic Aix-en-Provence! Billed as a Verlaque and Bonnet Mystery, it portends to be a series. Great! Death at the Chateau Bremont has wonderful characters and fabulous setting, with new insights into the French police system. Thoroughly enjoyed Death at the Chateau Bremont.

BOOK GIVEAWAY: WIN A COPY OF DEATH AT THE CHATEAU BREMONT. Comment on your most "French" experience.

M.L. Longworth has written for The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Independent, and Bon Appétit magazine. She divides her time between Aix-en-Provence and Paris, where she teaches writing at New York University's Paris campus.

M.L. Longworth:

I was once stuck on an article I was writing about the Aix-en-Provence of Paul Cézanne, and a very generous editor at The Washington Post gave me this advice: Okay, so you’re writing about this new place that you love. But what did Cézanne see and hear when he walked from his studio in Aix, along a country road, to the village of Le Tholonet? What did he smell when he climbed the paths of Mont Ste-Victoire? What did he taste when he ate lunch at Les Deux Garçons? These words are always in the back of my head, regardless of whether I’m writing an article about a local restaurant or a chapter in my next book. I really want the reader to experience Aix-en-Provence the way I do, as if they were beside me.

We moved to Aix in 1997 and I immediately began writing articles about the region. I couldn’t get enough of Provence. But after a few years I began to grow restless; not with the area, but with the restrictions of writing non-fiction. I began having conversations in my head and realized that if I wrote fiction then my characters could live in, and experience, Provence as I do. Aix is a law town—it has been since the Middle Ages—which seemed to me a good place to situate a mystery, and I imagined my protagonists involved in the law profession.

But before you begin writing a novel, you need characters. From the start I had a clear picture of Antoine Verlaque in my head: he would be troubled but savable, a snob but with a sense of humor. He’s a gourmet, and a gourmand (for the French, someone who eats too much), just like I am, and we both love good wines and Cuban cigars. I didn’t have a role model for the heroine; I just knew that I wanted her to be very unlike myself. One afternoon, while I was trying on clothes in my friend Joelle’s shop, her sister hurried in. She was tall, beautiful, sweet and a little anxious, and a law professor. She became Marine. I thought it might be a good idea to develop a mystery series where there’s a couple doing the sleuthing, not yet married. Their relationship may be exciting, but it has lots of ups and downs.

The other characters were easier to fill in, as Aixois are so willing to chat, and after a few conversations you’ll discover that the cheese seller knows more about contemporary theatre than anyone you’ve ever met; or that your hairdresser is also a competitive cyclist. I didn’t have to exaggerate for the book; Bruno Paulik (the Commissioner) is a policeman but is an opera aficionado and loves plant life. Fabrice, the cigar-club president, is a plumber with a vast knowledge of Cuban music. There’s often more to people than meets the eye, I think, regardless of where you live.

I originally began the book with what is now chapter three: the morning of a typical work day for Marine, beginning with coffee at her favorite café—where she will discover that a childhood friend has died. Etienne de Bremont’s death again came to me thanks to a friend, who had dragged me to her in-law’s big country house to look for something her husband had misplaced in the attic. It was an antique dealer’s dream: full of gilded mirrors too heavy to move, sets of mismatched porcelain, paintings of seascapes and ancestors leaning against the stone walls. The attic was a perfect setting for a murder (it had a huge, open window, and I pointed out its danger to my friend). We never did find what she was looking for, but that evening I began writing ‘Death at the Château Bremont.’