Autumn 2022

The old district
You’ll find a warren of cobbled streets,
elegant squares and magnificent ancient
buildings in the old district. There’s a lively
daily market in Place Richelme, shaded by
ancient plane trees, lined with cafés whose
chairs and tables spill into the square,
and stalls peddling local produce such as
lavender, bread, cheese, mountains of the
freshest vegetables, great tubs of sunflowers
and curtains of garlic…
In Place de l’Hotel de Ville you’ll find a
Saturday morning flower market watched over
by a 15th century astronomical clock featuring
characters representing the four seasons.
Locals say one year Autumn lasted 4 months
when someone forgot to turn the key!
In a city that is nicknamed ‘town of 1000
fountains’, elegant Place d’Albertas stands out
for its truly beautiful baroque buildings and
central fountain. You can walk your socks off
in Aix and never be bored.
Cours Mirabeau was named in honour of Honoré-Gabriel Riquetti de Mirabeau an early leader in the
French Revolutionist and who represented Aix at the Estates General assembly in 1789.
The Mazarin District
The Mazarin district is named after the
Archbishop of Aix, Michel Mazarin, brother of
Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister to Louis XIV.
He commissioned the extension of the city’s
boundaries in the 1600s. The buildings from
this time are luxurious and majestic. Elsewhere
there are traces of older buildings where
you can spot ancient carvings above doors,
religious statues on corners and the Maltese
cross carved into walls.
Arty Aix
Aix’s most famous son is Paul Cezanne.
Every morning at dawn, he would walk from
his city apartment up the hill to his studio
to paint. When he died in 1906, the studio
was preserved and is now open to the public.
The objects we see in his paintings are still
there, the three skulls which are real, though
no one knows who they are – anonymously
immortalized. The statue of a cherub, the
bottles and vases he loved to group together.
His brushes and paints, his smock coat and
hat and his Godin fire are all there. You really
do get the feeling the artist has popped out to
wander in his gorgeous garden or to look at his
beloved Mont Saint-Victoire, the subject of so
many of his paintings. (atelier-cezanne.com)
You can find out more about Cezanne at the
Caumont Art Centre, a corker of a museum
in an 18th century mansion a stone’s throw
from the Cours in the Mazarin District where
they show a 20-minute film about the life of
Cezanne that is surprisingly grown up and
doesn’t sugar coat his story (neither modest
nor particularly likeable by all accounts). The
museum has a super exhibition of sculptures
and paintings including by several great
names such as Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and
many more outstanding artists, plus stunningly
preserved rooms.
Don’t miss the ground floor café (you don’t
need a ticket to enter) – it is gorgeous with
glorious salons which feel as though nothing
has changed in the last 300 years, and a
No 38 the oldest private mansion on Cours Mirabeau, built before the street was even laid out –
it’s impressive wooden door is flanked by two stop-you-in-your-tracks-to-admire muscular figures
Cezanne's studio
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