Must see attractions in Aix-en-Provence

  • Top Choice

    Musée Granet

    Aix established one of France's first public museums here, on the site of a former Hospitallers' priory, in 1838. Nearly 200 years of acquisitions …

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    Top Choice

    Caumont Centre d’Art

    The Caumont is a stellar art space housed inside the Mazarin quarter’s grandest 18th-century hôtel particulier (mansion). While there are three quality…

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    Cours Mirabeau

    No streetscape better epitomises Provence’s most graceful city than this 440m-long, fountain-studded street, sprinkled with Renaissance hôtels…

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    Camp des Milles

    Eight kilometres southwest of Aix is the town of Les Milles, where this imposing factory produced bricks and tiles from 1882 until 31 August 1939, when it…

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    Vieil Aix

    One of Aix' great charms is its historical centre: ramble through it, drinking in divine streetscapes as you choose which historical, cultural or culinary…

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    Fondation Victor Vasarely

    This gallery, 4km west of the city, was designed by Hungarian optical-art innovator Victor Vasarely (1906–97). An architectural masterpiece, it has 16…

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    Fontaine de la Rotonde

    Built in 1860 as the centrepiece to the place de la Rotonde, the roundabout at the western edge of Cours Mireabeau, this magnificent fountain is adorned…

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    Carrières de Bibemus

    In 1895 Cézanne rented a cabanon (cabin) at the Carrières de Bibemus, east of Aix, where he painted 27 works. Atmospheric one-hour tours of the ochre…

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    Atelier Cézanne

    Cézanne’s last studio, where he worked from 1902 until his death four years later, has been painstakingly preserved. Some elements have been recreated:…

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    Cathédrale St-Sauveur

    Built between 1285 and 1350 in a potpourri of styles, this cathedral includes a Romanesque 12th-century nave in its southern aisle, chapels from the 14th…

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    Église St-Jean de Malte

    This 13th-century Gothic church in Aix’s Quartier Mazarin, built as a fortified place of worship by the Knights Hospitaller, was the first of its kind in…

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    Bastide du Jas de Bouffan

    In 1859 Cézanne’s father bought Le Jas de Bouffan, an 18th-century country manor west of Aix where Cézanne painted furiously, producing 36 oils and 17…

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    Terrain des Peintres

    A wonderful terraced garden perfect for a picnic, from where Cézanne, among others, painted the Montagne Ste-Victoire. The view of the jagged mountain is…

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    Parc Jourdan

    South of Aix’s centre is the peaceful Parc Jourdan, home to the town’s Boulodrome Municipal, where locals gather beneath plane trees to play pétanque. An…

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    Église de la Madeleine

    Across from the Palace of Justice, this 17th-century church only received its monumental facade in the 19th century, and has an imposing obelisk out the…

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    Fontaine du Roi René

    In the centre of cours Mirabeau is this lovely sculpted fountain from 1823, depicting the 15th-century king holding muscat grapes (which he reputedly…

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    Fontaine d’Eau Chaude

    Dating to 1667, this small fountain, the first along the Cours Mirabeau, is fed by 18ºC spring water that encourages the diversity of greenery with which…

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    Place des Quatre Dauphins

    This especially charming square in the Quartier Mazarin has a baroque fountain (1667) with water-spouting dolphins.