For It Must Be
Observed, That The Same Mountains Which Serve As Funnels And
Canals, To Collect And Discharge The Keen Blasts Of Winter, Will
Provide Screens To Intercept Intirely The Faint Breezes Of
Summer.
Aix, though pretty well provided with butcher's meat, is
very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no poultry but
what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois.
They say their
want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity
of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their
oil is good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief
care seems employed on the culture of silk, the staple of
Provence, which is every where shaded with plantations of
mulberry trees, for the nourishment of the worms. Notwithstanding
the boasted cheapness of every article of housekeeping, in the
south of France, I am persuaded a family may live for less money
at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of England
than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be much
more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and
provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which
is counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished
by the irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water
was lost, till the beginning of the present century (I think the
year 1704), when it was discovered by accident, in digging for
the foundation of a house, at the foot of a hill, just without
the city wall.
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