Fountains, Provençal markets, museums and hiking trails. Aix-en-Provence is a beautiful art city just 30 minutes from Marseille. Our guide to making the most of it.
Known as the city of a thousand fountains, Aix-en-Provence is one of Provence's most beautiful and most visited towns, drawing over 1.5 million tourists each year. Just 30 minutes from Marseille, it charms visitors with its 17th-century sandstone mansions, vibrant morning markets, world-class opera festival and a university-town energy that keeps the streets alive year-round. For Airbnb guests staying in Marseille or Aix, it is an unmissable visit, and a powerful selling point to highlight in your listing.
Cours Mirabeau and the old town: the heart of Aix
The Cours Mirabeau is Aix's great outdoor salon, a broad avenue lined with two-hundred-year-old plane trees, café terraces and moss-draped fountains. It runs from the Fontaine de la Rotonde in the west to the Cours Sextius in the east, flanked by 17th-century mansions in warm Provençal stone. Start with a coffee at Le Grillon (55 cours Mirabeau), a historic brasserie open from early morning, before exploring the medieval streets radiating from both sides of the avenue.
Must-sees within ten minutes' walk of Cours Mirabeau:
- The Fontaine de la Rotonde, the city's emblem, built in 1860, animated around the clock
- The Provençal market at Place Richelme, every morning, aged cheeses, olives, market vegetables and Provence flowers
- Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur, a millennium of layered architecture, from a 5th-century baptistery to a Gothic cloister
- The Hôtel de Ville and Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, flower market on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
- The mossy fountains of the Cours, fed by natural thermal springs that have been flowing since Roman times
In Cézanne's footsteps: a world heritage trail
Paul Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence on 19 January 1839 and died here on 22 October 1906. His paintings of the surrounding landscape, the Sainte-Victoire massif, the Bibemus quarries, the Arc valley, gave Aix a global artistic identity that survives today. His studio at Les Lauves, open to visitors year-round, is the place where he painted his final great series between 1902 and 1906. His personal objects, brushes and unfinished canvases remain exactly as he left them, one of the most intimate artistic interiors in France.
The Cézanne trail, marked by bronze medallions set into the paving stones of Aix's streets, connects the Lauves studio, his birthplace at 28 rue de l'Opéra, the Musée Granet and the landscapes of the surrounding countryside. The Musée Granet (place Saint-Jean-de-Malte) holds nine Cézanne paintings, the only ones conserved in the city that saw him born, alongside works by Picasso, Giacometti and Mondrian.
Mont Sainte-Victoire: hiking above Provence
Fifteen kilometres east of Aix-en-Provence, the Sainte-Victoire rises to 1,011 metres, an 18-kilometre limestone ridge that Cézanne painted over 80 times in oil and watercolour, transforming it into one of the most recognisable landscapes in Western art. Today it is classified as a Grand Site de France, with a network of marked hiking trails accessible from Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet and Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon.
Recommended trails by level:
- Pas de l'Étroit trail from Le Tholonet (moderate, 3h return) : views over Aix and the plain
- Croix de Provence from Beaurecueil (strenuous, 4h return) : 360° panorama over Provence
- Prieuré trail from Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon (easy, 2h return) : suitable for families with children
The Festival d'Art Lyrique: a global opera event
Founded in 1948 by the patron Gabriel Dussurget in the gardens of the Archbishop's Palace, the Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence has grown into one of the world's three great opera festivals, alongside Salzburg and Glyndebourne. Each July, it draws between 70,000 and 86,000 spectators, many of them international visitors from the United States, Japan and Germany, for opera productions and chamber music concerts in exceptional venues across the city.
For Airbnb owners in Aix, the Festival is the most commercially significant event of the year. Hotels fill weeks in advance, and short-term rental demand surges across the city. Nightly rates during the Festival can be two to three times higher than the annual average. The dates are published each January, tracking them and adjusting your calendar accordingly is one of the most impactful revenue decisions an Aix property owner can make.
The thermal baths: two thousand years of wellness
The name Aix-en-Provence comes from the Latin Aquae Sextiae, the waters of Sextius, a reference to the natural thermal springs exploited since the city was founded by the Roman consul Caius Sextius Calvinus in 123 BC. Two thousand years later, the Thermes Sextius (55 cours Sextius) still offers treatments using the same waters, which emerge naturally at 34°C. A welcome wellness stop two minutes' walk from the Cours Mirabeau.
Markets, calissons and shopping
The calisson is Aix's defining sweet, a confection of ground almonds and candied melon, coated in royal icing, produced in Aix since the 15th century. Roy René (rue Papassaudi) and Confiserie Béchard (12 cours Mirabeau) are the most respected producers. Include a small box in your welcome basket for a gesture that guests reliably mention in their reviews.
Getting there from Marseille
Aix is accessible from Marseille-Saint-Charles in 30 minutes by the Cartreize shuttle (line 50, every 20 minutes, €6). By car, allow 30 to 40 minutes depending on traffic. By TER train, a direct service runs to Aix-en-Provence TGV station (10 minutes from the centre by shuttle) hourly.
Elyos
