Aix-en-provence Self Guided Tour of the City of Fountains

Pause at a former synagogue to hear about a pastor facing an impossible wartime choice.

10 min

Look beyond the mansion façade for a concierge’s wartime secret and a bride’s abruptly altered future.

Pass by, no stop

Meet two schoolboys whose friendship began here, with bullies, ambition and a much-debated basket of apples.

5 min

Study four stone dolphins for clues to the powerful family behind Aix’s carefully planned mansion district.

5 min

Find the birthplace of a marquis whose unusual calling led him toward bulls and white horses.

5 min

Look up at the Hospitallers’ church, where missing bells connect a revolutionary war with a modern search.

10 min

Trace Cézanne’s early drawing lessons and a painted mother’s extraordinary request to the ruler of the gods.

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Examine the grapes in King René’s hand and hear the wedding legend behind an Aix sweet.

10 min

Enter a narrow shopping passage where a stubborn neighbour and a royal burial complicate the ground beneath.

10 min

Study two straining stone giants for clues to a cloth merchant’s pursuit of noble status.

10 min

Search the moss-covered thermal fountain for traces of the sculpted figures hidden beneath its green coat.

5 min

Examine Aix’s three-layered calisson at a family pastry shop with a workshop behind the window.

5 min

Survey a judge’s carefully staged square and ask what stood in the way of his view.

5 min

Study Cézanne’s bronze profile above a fountain whose displaced waters connect two old-town streets.

5 min

Look for a river’s protruding foot above the grain hall, then consider the hunger behind its grandeur.

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Find the wooden season beneath the clock and hear why changing it requires someone with keys.

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Look at shell-shaped madeleines and hear the kitchen-disaster legend behind the little cake’s name.

5 min

Look beyond a diamond-studded doorway for the painted staircase that caught Louis XIV’s attention.

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Read the cathedral’s changing stonework, then follow King René’s connection to a painting of a burning bush.

15 min

Search an archbishop’s carved doorway for clues linking a French marshal with a Scandinavian throne.

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Face the courthouse columns and piece together the vanished palace and neighbourhood beneath this civic monument.

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Read five names beside a family doorway where Resistance messages and a secret radio once converged.

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Read a Provençal plaque marking the day revolutionary violence reached a lawyer’s front door.

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