Parking in Aix en Province

It is just as safe as a parking lot anywhere else and probably safer than parking on the street not to mention that you will not come back to find your car towed away or with an iron boot on it because you parked in the wrong place. We used the garage in the city center that Rick mentioned in his Provence guide book.

Last June we rented an apartment for a week in Aix. We chose a lot close to our apartment for all the parking except the last night. That night we put the car in the Rotonde lot. I suspect that is the central one mentioned. The reason we did that was that it provided easier access to where we had to return the car the next day. To call these parking lots is really not accurate. They are actually very large (hundreds of cars) capacity underground 24 hour access parking garages. Leaving our rental there with stuff in it seemed very safe to us. I do recommend that you Google parking for Aix even if you don't understand French. You can find a link to the city parking options which shows the garage names, locations, capacities, hours, costs and even how many spaces are available. Most useful to us were the pictures of the entrances. You will have to look carefully for the signs to them and they are not obvious or anything like in the US. Don't be surprised if you have to do a few laps around the one way streets before you see the entrance. Also don't be surprised if you don't get that VW. Last year we were supposed to have one but the "or equivalent" part of the rental agreement kicked in and we wound up with a much larger car. We didn't have to pay extra, but it did take more fuel and was harder to park...not in the Aix garages though. In fact, we have never paid enough to get the car we thought we were getting anywhere unless it was a special deal. Please ignore any weird mess at the end of this reply. My Kindle is misbehaving. Dot be surprised if you have to do a couple of laps around some one way streets Don't be surprised if you have to do a couple

Aix has free street parking if you move out only a couple of blocks but are still in the one-way circle of a street with a thousand names. I'm not so sure burying a car in the bowels of a building (CCTV or not) is any better than abandoning it in plain sight.

Hello Donna I am a French Native linging in the south of France, Aix an provence will be a lot safer as far as parking is concerned than Marseille for sure. You can park your car on the street with your luggage inside if you have a truck covered. You can really request a van with a cover for your luggage they are some with that. You must also think about travelling light... easier to hide ! If not pay parking underground are numerous in Aiw and normally they do have video security so it is even safer. Like in all part of the world being caution is the key for not having a bad surprise.
Christine

I know this was not your question, but if it makes things easier (for instance, if you're staying in Aix for a few days), you can take a bus from Marseille airport right to Aix (it goes twice an hour, to the bus station at the edge of the center). You could then pick up your rental car on your way out of Aix, at the Aix TGV station.