The Cours Mirabeau and other Aix-en-Provence, France Things to Do Tips

Created in 1649 and refurbished just this year, the majestic tree-lined Cours Mirabeau is often described as the most beautiful street in France. Well, it is pretty, but not as wonderful as all that. It's not even the most beautiful in Aix, really, but it is the Main Street in many ways.
Coming from the Rotonde in high summer, you will find the Cours a welcome break from the beating sunlight, with it's shady plane trees. On the left hand side of the street is the bustle, for this is where the cafes are. Pass Le Festival, and you have Le Bistro Roman, and Movenpick ice creams (they do marvellous, if small, milkshakes - get the Tequila Sunrise one. Mmmwwaah!). This is the heart of chic Aix, the bourgeois capital of the south. Further on is Monoprix, the supermarket, outside of which can be found a fat but much-loved crepes man (with a match in his mouth, always), who in the winter swaps the crepes for roasted chestnuts, whose smell will drive you crazy! Next is the Librairie de Provence, a grand bookshop which sells foreign magazines and newspapers. Further up is Quick, the fast food restaurant that is Really Slow (see my Belgium pages for explanations!!). Les Deux Garcons, where Cezanne used to drink, is just a bit further up, and at the end is the Papeterie Michel, which sells stationary and cards and art materials for all. Aix is really a town for the artist in you.
Up and down the centre of the Cours are a series of fountains, very small, very old. The one outside Monoprix is covered in moss, but further up is one that may be even mossier, but brings forth warm water - this is part of Aix's legacy as a thermal spa town, whose history goes back to the Roman times.
On the other side of the Cours, the southern side which borders the classy Quartier Mazarin, can be found banks, not cafes. However, if you fancy watching a film, there is the Renoir cinema, which shows films in VO (original language).

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In the north of the town is the golden and surprising cathedral. Make your way through crowds of American students, who take courses at the American school opposite, and you will find architecture featuring just about every major period from the fifth to the eighteenth centuries. It is a calm wonder inside, and it's huge colourful walls are lit by subtle, colourful windows. It is worth coming here just before Christmas, when there are choral services for the English and American communities. Just below, in "La Cave", there are regular social gatherings celebrating the various cultures of the world, represented by foreign students in Aix. This takes place every Tuesday.

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Aix is full of pretty, romantic spots, where the evening closes in like it does in films. But nowhere is like the Place d'Albertas. With it's pretty central fountain, which to be fair is no more than a big bird-bath, this cobbled courtyard, enclosed on three sides by old rococo walls, is usaully lit up by the evening, and in summer hosts live music. But if you meet your date here before you set off for a meal at La Pizza or somewhere, then love will surely be in the air. Ah yes..!

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Directions: Follw rue Espariat from the Rotonde, and it is on the right past rue Aude.