At the Center of All Beauty

MARSEILLE WAS FOUNDED BY Greeks, Aix by Romans, “which explains everything,” said the guide at Les Lauves, the studio of Paul Cézanne, located just north of Aix-en-Provence. The “everything” that is thus explained was, I assumed, the contrast between the cheerful chaos and grime of Marseille and well-scrubbed, bourgeois Aix.

Here is a great secret, seldom acknowledged in popular culture: it is possible to be a solitary within a couple. In fact, the most successful couples of my acquaintance are composed of solitaries leading parallel lives, who understand both the rewards and responsibilities of being together and the rewards and responsibilities of being apart.