Provence & Côte d’Azur, southern France 5 - Aix-en-Provence

On Day 5 we left Avignon in the early morning and arrived at Aix-en-Provence around 8am. Aix is another Provencal city with a charming medieval old town. When we walked in the old town from the north side, the Aix Cathedral, or La Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur d'Aix-en-Provence caught my eye. Bonjour!

The Cathedral was closed at that moment. We were coming back and visiting it later.

We were passing by a flower market at a square and soon we found a produce market at another square. Provencal vegetables, fruits, olives, honey and more! I knew that the market days in Aix are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Visiting the market was on my to-do list because fortunately we were there on Thursday. So I guessed those markets were a part of the market day although the location of the food market that I searched online wasn't either square.

We had breakfast at Maison Weibel, a pastry shop and tea room founded in 1954, at the corner of the square, where the produce market was being held at. The tea room is open at 7:30am daily, friendly for early birds like us.

I had an almond croissant. It was somehow very flat but tasted pretty good. J had a quiche (Quiche Lorraine?). That came with leafy salad. Good for him!

Aix is known as the city of water or the city of a thousand fountains. Easy access to abundant natural spring water was one of the reasons why Romans settled down here. There were hundreds of fountains during the Middle Ages but today the town has only about 30. One of them is Fontaine Moussue, a moss-covered fountain, built in 1666. It looked cute.

Fontaine des Neuf-Canons, or the fountain of the nine canons was near the moss fountain. It has the nine water outlets in the fountain basin although I couldn't see all the outlets actually working. Someone's dog was playing in the water. It was sunny and already pretty hot in the morning. The water of the fountain was crystal clear. I would do the same if I were a dog.

Both fountains were on Cours Mirabeau, the main street of the town. The tree-lined, wide street was completely filled with vendors, mostly selling clothes. I guess it was also a part of the town's market day.

Built in 1860, Fontaine de la Rotonde was at the east end of the street. The large fountain had three statues on the top, representing justice, agriculture and fine art, what Aix is proud of.

We thought we should check the actual market of the market day, which was supposed to be set up at the Place des Prêcheurs, according to online information. The square was near the opposite end of the main street. We walked back on the street, saying hello again to those green fountains. I like both fountains.

When we were getting close to the Place des Prêcheurs, we already started seeing various vendors selling a wide range of fresh produce and cooked food. I didn't expect that Aix's market day was actually like a food festival. If we lived in Aix, we would be spoiled with the fulfilling market three days a week.

A busy square should have a fountain. The Place des Prêcheurs wasn't an exception. The Fontaine des Prêcheurs, a decorative Baroque style fountain with a Calissanne stone obelisk was built in 1758.

Then we walked up to a small cobblestone square called the Place d'Albertas. It was located, in the center of the old town but on a quiet street. The square was built in the 18th century by the Albertas family, one of the noble families in Aix. The Albertas, who had a private mansion there, wanted a square in front of their house that would provide them a space for his carriages as well as direct sun lights. The Albertas bought the houses located opposite, demolished them and obtained what they wanted. The square surrounded by one of the finest Baroque architecture in Aix was supposed to be elegant, but unfortunately the fence around the fountain distracted the scenery... I learned it later that the square has been under major renovation works since the last year. 

Our walk continued...

There was another fountain!

Here, too!

We stopped by Les Navettes Aixoises, artisanal Provencal and Corsican biscuit store. There were 10 to 20 kinds of biscuits on the counter, but I was only looking for a particular Provencal biscuit called Navettes.

There they were! Navettes are traditional boat-shaped dry biscuits, created in Marseille in the 18th century and often eaten on the Christian festival of Candlemas in Provence, especially in Marseille. When I researched traditional baked goods in Provence and Côte d’Azur before the trip, the name of Navette often popped up, so I was simply curious about the biscuit and wanted to taste it during the trip if I have a chance. I got a piece of Navette. It was very dry and not sweet. Navettes are traditionally flavored with a hint of orange blossom water, but I didn't taste it. Actually mine didn't have any kind of taste. Oh well, I appreciated the experience. J had a savory biscuit and he told me it was fine. 

A fountain here!

It was a hot summer day. Indoor activity sounded nice. We visited the annex of Musée Granet, housed in a 17th century chapel. The annex exhibits part of the collection of Jean Planque, a major Swiss collector, "consisting of some 300 paintings, drawings and sculptures from the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists (Cézanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas) to the major artists of the 20th century such as Bonnard, Picasso, Braque, Léger, de Staël and Dubuffet," according to the museum.  

Particularly I was looking forward to seeing artworks by Paul Cézanne. Aix is his homeland. The surrounding landscapes of Provence are found in his dozens of paintings. Especially, Montagne Sainte-Victoire. He created 36 paintings and 45 watercolors of the limestone mountain ridge over-looking Aix. His family home and property and his studio in Aix are open to the public but sadly both were temporary closed for renovation until spring 2025. I expected the annex had some his paintings, but it didn't. However, the annex exhibited a good collection of Picasso's paintings.

Next we visited the main building of Musée Granet, about 5 minute walk away from the annex. The main building had a dedicated space for the 10 paintings by Cézanne. By the way the museum also holds six watercolors and several drawings or engravings in reserve. 

Other than the Cézanne collection, I liked the 19th century Provencal landscape paintings.

We were back to the sun-kissed streets. The old town's pinkish yellow colored buildings looked great in summer.

A small roundabout had a 17th century fountain with an obelisk and four dolphins spitting water into the pool. Are they really dolphins?

The restaurant for lunch was Yves, a French restaurant that was located on a quiet street a little far from the bustling center of the old town. The chef works alone there. He does all from taking orders and cooking to serving, collecting plates and handling payments by himself. After working at Michelin-star restaurants and abroad, he founded his own castle, where he can create and control all in his way. He was friendly and told us his background.

The chef uses organic and seasonal ingredients from local producers and the menu changes every day. My starter was smoked salmon. It was good. J had a kind of pate.  

I chose fish for main. I don't remember what kind of fish was but it was white fish. The filets was rolled like a ball and steamed it. The fish and the broth tasted very delicate and nice. I thought it could be a Japanese dish. In fact the chef has been to Japan and he likes Japanese cuisine. Some kind of vegetables and grain were served as side. They were tasty too. 

J's main was the meat of the day. I don't remember what it was but I think J liked it.

We didn't have desserts at the restaurant. Instead we tried Mr Chou, a pastry shop specialized in a classic French dessert, cream puffs. There was a fountain near Mr Chou.

Mr Chou offered more than a dozen flavored cream puffs! They looked small. We both got two. I chose Chou Tropézienne since I missed a chance to try Tarte Topézienne in Gordes. Also, I got Chou Fraise, or strawberry cream filled puff. J had Chou Apricot and one with a crunchy almond square (I don't know the name of the Chou). He also had espresso.

They looked cute but tasted ok. My expectation was pretty high because we were in France!

The outside seating of Mr Chou was comfortable. It was in the shade, with established trees, and quiet because we were the only customers at that time and the street in front of the shop was less touristy. 

We resumed our self-town tour. We found another fountain!

Should I count it as a fountain?

Here's a fountain! It was in the square that held the flower market that we passed by in the morning. I missed the fountain at that time. Actually the square looked different without the flower stands, maybe because we were facing the square from the opposite direction. 

The square had the Hôtel de Ville, or the Town Hall of Aix. I didn't notice it in this morning. How did I miss the historic building with an Italianate facade and a 16th century belfry with a 17th century astronomic clock when I was walking through the tunnel of the bell tower and passing in front of the building? I must have completely been distracted by the flower stands.  

I had information (from an unknown source) that the belfry does something every hour. It was about 10 minutes to 3pm. We (almost I. J didn't want to stay in the hot air.) waited until 3pm to see what would happen. In short, nothing happened...

Fresh madeleines cheered me up! Located just outside of the tunnel of the Town Hall's belfry, Christophe's Madeleines has been baking madeleines in a traditional way since 2006. According to online information, they offer several flavors, including plain, lemon, orange, almond, chocolate, rum and vanilla although there were only plain in that afternoon. They sell six in minimum. I thought six of one flavor sounded too many, but I wanted to taste their madeleines anyway. We bought six plain madeleines after all. I didn't need any worries, though. We finished them up in two days. They were so good, even on the next day!   

We also did a shopping of Calissons. Calissons are traditional Provencal candy in almond-shape, made with finely ground almonds, candied melon and orange peel, with a thin wafer on the bottom and topped with white icing. Le Roy René and Léonard Parli are two brands who has been making traditional Calissons for decades. Their shops in the old town are two doors down each other. We stopped by both of the confectionary stores so that we could compare them.

According to Le Roy René, "Listed as a living heritage of the city of Aix-en-Provence, the history of the calisson goes back to the time of King René in the 15th century. Legend has it that the King's confectioner made this delicacy to delight Queen Jeanne on her wedding day. She named these delicacies "di calin soun" (they are cuddly in Provencal)." The traditional calissons by Le Roy René and those by Léonard Parli looked exactly the same. We brought them home and what they tasted like would be perhaps another story... 

The last but not least place we visited in Aix was the Aix Cathedral. Their door was open in the afternoon. The inside was a little crowded. The current Cathedral was built in the 12th century, on the site of a first cathedral and a baptistery built in the 5th century, where originally a Roman forum existed. Between the 13th and 16th century, when the Cathedral was enlarged and partially rebuilt, the Gothic style was introduced to the original Romanesque architecture. Later Baroque elements were added between the 16th and 18th centuries. As the result, the Cathedral has three naves of those three different style architecture.

On the southwest was the baptistry with an octagonal font and Roman columns, which dates back to the 5th century. There was a Romanesque cloister that I was interested in seeing. However, it seemed that you need to join a free guided-tour that starts every hour. We just missed the 4pm tour. Oh well, next time if/when we come back to Aix. Then we could visit Cézanne's studio, too. He painted the view of the Cathedral seen from his studio in 1900s. It's located north of the old town, not so far from the Cathedral. Next time!

To be continued...