Destination: Aix-en-Provence, France

A notable university town, the city of Aix-en-Provence (“Aix” for short) is also a notable tourist destination for visitors who want to visit the south of France. It’s also known for being the “city of a thousand fountains”, and I wasn’t surprised to see so many of them while spending the afternoon in town. If anything, Aix has that bustling, yet laid-back charm to it, and apparently has one of the most days of sunshine per year.

Funny enough, I didn’t actually experience sunshine while in town. In fact, it was actually heavily overcast when my BlaBlaCar ride pulled into the city center, and it remained that way during my time spent that afternoon. All the same, I still wandered and explored Aix, since I had only but four hours until I had to catch the regional bus to Marseille, my last destination of my south of France tour.

As much as I’d wanted to see the famous lavender fields bloom in Provence, unfortunately I’d visited in March, which was too early for them to come alive (in the summer). Even more so, such fields are located in the countryside of the region, not Aix itself, so even then, I wouldn’t have been able to see them. Merits another trip back to the Provence region, perhaps this summer!

Instead, I opted to stroll le cours Mirabeau, a long pedestrian boulevard filled with shops, restaurants, and everything in between. Although not as large compared to the gigantic ones like Paris’ Champs-Élysées or Barcelona’s las Ramblas, this boulevard in Aix was still charming, and it offered a lively ambiance with people out eating, drinking, and shopping. Despite the dreary weather, things were still bustling!

I headed off the cours Mirabeau and into some of the smaller, windy streets of the Old Town. It was your typical cobblestones, ancient buildings, and all of the works– all the same, it never gets old! I popped into a couple of shops, one in particular in which I bought a small bag of calissons, which are essentially a confection made from ground almonds, candied fruit, and icing sugar. It’s an Aix-en-Provence speciality, and I was keen on trying them out. I bought perhaps a dozen of them, with more-or-less different flavors: lemon, pistachio, rose, even the famous lavender!

Likewise, I also opted to buy lavender shop, since the region is all about everything lavender. To be honest, I haven’t gotten around to using it (even after all of these years), but it’s still a nice souvenir to remember my visit to Aix by.

Although I’m not much of a museum-goer, I decided to spend my time at a couple of museums in town; the dreary skies were starting to dampen my mood, so I thought staying inside for some time might work to counterbalance that. And what better way than to do so by being cultured at the museum? That said, I first head to the musée Granet, which contained paintings and sculptures from famous Impressionists like Renoir and Cézanne, the latter who was born and raised in Aix itself.

The museum was quite small and didn’t offer so much except a few dozen paintings, but I’d gotten the museum pass for free (after showing my *secretly-expired* university ID to them), and it also doubled as an entrance ticket to another museum, la Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs (aka “Granet XXe”). The second museum was located inside of a chapel, which I found pretty neat– likewise, there were also post-Impressionist works, but also plenty of modern art (including an intricate wood-carving piece which I found rather cool).

Following my museum visits, I returned to the cours Mirabeau, where I sat on a bench and journaled to kill time until my bus ride later that afternoon. Soon enough, I caught my ride to Marseille, thereby ending my short visit in Aix-en-Provence. Suffice that’s to say, I only got a taste of Aix, and by no means explored everything there was to see in town. Perhaps that was why I felt my experience lacking somewhat, but it was probably due to the overcast weather that day, as well as the limited time constraint I had. All the same, I’m glad to have visited the city, and it was a pleasant pass-through on my way to the next destination in the south of France.

Thanks for reading!

 

— Rebecca