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Go Citybreak: The southern city of Aix is like a piece of Left Bank Paris dropped into rural France, writes Tony Clayton-Lea
ELEGANT, CLASSY AND CHIC. There is no better way to describe Aix-en-Provence. This southern French city of fewer than 140,000 citizens is like a velvet-lined pocket of Left Bank Paris deep within bucolic Pays d’Aix.
It has leafy boulevards and public squares that are lined with 17th- and 18th-century mansions and dotted with bubbling fountains. And its Mediterranean climate brings it 300 days of sunshine a year. I visited in late July for a weekend, sweltered in 30-degree heat and loved every minute of it. Friends who had booked a villa for three weeks that month had just one day of rain.
Founded in 123 BC by the Roman consul Sextius Calvinus, who gave his name to its springs, Aix – Aquae Sextiae – tumbled ingloriously through the centuries. Occupied by the Visigoths in 477 and by the Saracens in 731, it became the capital of Provence during the Middle Ages – remaining so until the French Revolution, when it was supplanted by Marseilles – and in the 12th century was positioned as an artistic centre and seat of learning. And so it has been since: first established in 1409, the University of Provence Aix-Marseille now has 30,000 students, which makes midterm breaks and summer months even more appealing for a visit.
Because of its size, Aix-en-Provence is a perfect city in which to walk from one end to the other without thinking of public transport. Its wide thoroughfare, Cours Mirabeau, is planted with double rows of plane trees that provide day-long shade; it is also decorated by lazy-spray fountains and bordered by fine old houses.
The avenue follows the line of the old city wall and divides into two sections. The old town, with its spacious if architecturally variable streets, and its 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century mansions, lies to the north; the new town extends to the south and west.
Inevitably, it is the old town that seduces the visitor with its laid-back atmosphere. When your feet need to rest, they will invariably guide you to Aix’s famous outdoor cafe, Les Deux Garçons. Who knows? As you sip a coffee, a beer or a glass of local wine, perhaps you will sit in the very chair that once supported the bottom of Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Paul Cézanne, Emile Zola or Edith Piaf.
If you’d prefer not to think of Cézanne’s cheeks or Piaf’s posterior but rather visit another of the city’s attractions, make your way to Quartier Mazarin, south of Cours Mirabeau. Seek out Place des Quatre Dauphins, once a residential area for the aristocracy and the
grande bourgeoisie, where the city’s prettiest fountain, built in 1667 by Jean-Claude Rambot, gurgles.
So: pretty fountains, tree-lined boulevards, renowned cafes, Michelin-starred restaurants, markets, art, history, climate, literature, learning, wine, museums, regional produce . . .
And should you ever tire of gentility, civility, elegance or serenity, the bustling port city of Marseilles is less than an hour away.
The best of both worlds in Provence? Somehow, life has become very interesting again.
aixenprovencetourism.com
