My mom and I are traveling to Aix for two nights in the late fall. It will be the first stop of our trip so I am assuming we will be a little jet lagged and will probably take it easy and just soak up the scene and city! What are some of the must-sees in Aix? Does anyone have any great restaurant recommendations? We are open to anything French, but I lean more towards fish and vegetables so meat heavy is probably not the best place for us. Thanks so much!
Posted by
Green Bay
22817 posts
Aix-en-Provence? Aix-les-Bains?
Posted by
Sydney, Australia
198 posts
Aix-la-Chappelle? :)
Lavandula
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
2566 posts
Which Aix are you referring to?
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11393 posts
Since the vast majority of of questions are about Aix-en-Provence, while Aix-les-Bains is a station thermal and Aix-la-Chapelle is in Germany, people are pretty safe assuming it’s en Provence.
Aix doesn’t have a lot of must-sees, but it is a good place to wander, soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the fountains, winding streets and architecture. The cathedral with its baptism bath said by some to be a Roman vestige, Granet museum will reopen some date in November after the Cezanne exhibition, Caument Center for art may have an interesting exhibit while you are there. The tourism office is at the Rotonde, the center of town.
I haven’t been in many Aix restaurants in recent years because most of my time there is day trips, but we stumbled onto Maurizio restaurant a few weeks ago and were quite impressed by the food. The Caument Center has a lovely tea room for lunch and you can walk in their beautiful garden. I’d avoid the restaurants and cafes around the Rotonde.
Posted by
Paris
7650 posts
Almost everything of interest in Aix en Provence is within the ring of boulevards that circles the old town, except Cezanne's studio and the Vasarely museum, so it pays to stay as centrally as you can afford!
It's a great place to just soak up the ambiance.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
Thank you for these helpful responses! We will definitely check out that restaurant, and will enjoy our time leisurely wandering (as much as my mom can handle!). She had also mentioned a perfume museum so I think we will do that too. We are both Cezanne fans so retracing his footsteps will be fun!
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
2566 posts
Jenny,
I am pretty sure there is no perfume museum in Aix-en-Provence. There are a few in Grasse, the perfumerie capital of France. Perhaps that is what she has heard about? It takes 2-3 hours by bus or train to get to Grasse from Aix-en-Provence.
Re fish, Aix -en-Provence is very close to Marseille, where seafood reigns. You will find seafood almost everywhere you go. I don't have a specific restaurant in mind. (We have family living in the general area so usually eat at their homes.....lucky us...they are all good cooks!)
And re vegetables, well.....Provence produces an abundance of produce. It's like the California of France in growing vegetables, growing a wide variety of veggies and producing some wonderful fruits.
Where else are you going on this trip?