Aix-en-Provence

From the top of Cours Mirabeau, duck north through the narrow Rue Aude — 3 minutes of shaded stone alley and you step suddenly into Place d'Albertas, an 18th-century oval courtyard with a single fountain that looks borrowed from a Roman stage set. Continue two blocks north to Place de l'Hotel de Ville with its 16th-century clock tower, then one more block to Place Richelme, where the daily produce market has been trading since 1741. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings the square fills with stalls of goat cheese, Cavaillon melons, tapenade, and Banon wrapped in chestnut leaves — Provence condensed into 40 square meters.

Tip: Place d'Albertas is empty before 11 am — shoot it straight-on from the Rue Espariat entrance with the fountain centered. At Place Richelme, skip the first cheese stall (tourist pricing) and head to the one at the northeast corner under the plane tree; ask for a sliver of Banon affine — the farmer will hand it to you on the blade of his knife.

Two minutes east of the market, at 5 Rue Mignet, Benoit Fradette runs what locals quietly agree is the finest bakery south of Lyon — named "Farinoman Fou" ("Flour Madman") for a reason. The sandwich counter uses his own 48-hour sourdough stuffed with the kind of fillings Paris bistros charge three times for: Provencal pan bagnat (8€) layered with tuna, anchovies, and spring vegetables, or the saucisson-comte baguette (7€) that needs no introduction. Grab it to go and eat on the stone steps of the Hotel de Ville a block away — this is how Aix lunches.

Tip: Arrive by 12:15 — by 12:45 the pan bagnat is gone and the queue spills into the street. Order at the counter, then ask for a pain des amis on the side (2.5€) just to tear while you walk; it's the best sourdough you'll eat in France and they will not sell it in the afternoon because it sells out.

Walk north from Rue Mignet for 4 minutes along Rue Gaston de Saporta — a cobbled street of bookbinders and tapestry shops — and the cathedral's octagonal baptistery rises on your right. Saint-Sauveur is one of France's great architectural palimpsests: a 5th-century baptistery fed by the same Roman hot spring as Cours Mirabeau, a 12th-century Romanesque nave, and a 13th-century Gothic nave glued together into one building that tells 1,500 years of Provencal history in a single floor plan. Entry is free; the Romanesque cloister alongside is 4€ and worth every cent for ten minutes of silence.

Tip: The cathedral's masterpiece is the "Buisson Ardent" triptych by Nicolas Froment (1476) — but it's protected behind a shutter that only opens on request. Ask the sacristan at the left-side office ("Est-ce possible de voir le Buisson Ardent?") between 14:00 and 17:00; they open it in 30 seconds, no charge, and you get 5 minutes alone with one of the finest panels in France.

Exit the cathedral and walk due north along Avenue Pasteur, which becomes Avenue Paul Cezanne — a 25-minute uphill climb through a quiet residential hillside lined with the same pale-ochre walls Cezanne painted. At number 9, the Atelier des Lauves sits behind a wrought-iron gate in a garden of chestnuts and olives; Cezanne built it in 1902 and worked here until his death in 1906. Even from outside, the north-facing window he designed for his painter's light is visible through the trees. Continue 10 more minutes uphill to the Terrain des Peintres, a free terraced viewpoint where Cezanne set his easel dozens of times — and where Mont Sainte-Victoire rises before you across the valley, exactly as it sits in thirty of the world's most famous canvases.

Tip: Time your arrival at Terrain des Peintres for 16:30-17:30 — the late-afternoon sun hits the western face of Mont Sainte-Victoire (the face you see from Aix) and turns the limestone the exact pink-gold Cezanne chased for thirty years. Stand at the lowest terrace, not the top: that's the angle he actually painted from, and the cypress on the right edge will frame the mountain the way it does in the 1904 Philadelphia version.

Walk 30 minutes downhill back into the old town and thread into Rue du Puits Juif, a narrow medieval lane two blocks from the cathedral. At number 8, Chez Feraud has been run by the same family for over 40 years and serves the Provencal classics no tourist menu dares anymore: pieds et paquets (slow-braised lamb tripe and trotters, 24€), daube provencale with its day-old black-olive gravy (22€), and a house aioli on Fridays that arrives as a mountain of cod, carrots, and fennel. Budget 40-50€ a head with a pichet of Cotes de Provence rose. This is the meal that tells you you were actually in Provence, not just near it.

Tip: Reserve the day before by phone (+33 4 42 63 07 27) — they only have 30 seats and walk-ins are turned away by 19:30. Ask for the small back room, not the front terrace. A genuine Aix pitfall to avoid: the restaurants lining Place des Cardeurs and the south side of Cours Mirabeau (the ones with English menus at the door and photos of the dishes) are tourist-graded and charge Paris prices for microwaved ratatouille — every local eats two streets inland, never on the main drag.

From the market, walk four minutes up Rue Gaston de Saporta — a pedestrian lane of 17th-century hotels particuliers, the best preserved in the old town. Three churches in one: a 5th-century baptistery with re-used Roman columns, a Romanesque cloister, and a Gothic nave. The treasure is Nicolas Froment's 'Burning Bush' triptych (1476), depicting King Rene of Anjou kneeling before Moses — still kept shuttered to protect the pigments.

Tip: The Burning Bush panels are opened only on request by the sacristan, between 10:00 and 11:30 Tuesday through Saturday. Most visitors never ask; this is the single most important painting in Aix and costs nothing to see.

Double back down Rue Gaston de Saporta, then duck right into Passage Agard — a covered 19th-century arcade opening onto Cours Mirabeau. Laurent Corti's cheese and charcuterie room occupies the first floor: stone walls, long wooden tables, no tourist menu. The 'ardoise du fromager' (20€) rotates seven cheeses from small Provencal producers with house bread and fig chutney; pair it with a glass of Bandol rose (8€).

Tip: Ask specifically for the 'Banon AOP' — a creamy goat cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves, made only in this corner of Provence. Lunch service ends at 14:30; arrive by 13:00 to secure a window table over the arcade.

Exit Passage Agard at its southern mouth — you emerge directly onto Cours Mirabeau. Turn right and walk the full 440 meters: plane trees shading a carriageway since 1649, 17th-century hotels particuliers on the shaded north side, cafes on the sunlit south side. End at the Fontaine de la Rotonde, the city's 1860 showpiece — three tiers, three bronze statues facing Avignon, Marseille, and Nice.

Tip: Afternoon is when light threads through the plane-tree canopy onto the sandstone facades. The best photo is looking east from the Rotonde fountain with the sun behind you around 15:00 — the avenue compresses into a tunnel of green and gold.

From the Rotonde, walk seven minutes east through Place Saint-Jean-de-Malte, into the Mazarin quarter — aristocratic Aix, laid out on a 17th-century grid. An unexpectedly great museum for a city this size: nine Cezannes (including the portrait of his father reading), a small Giacometti hall, and European masters from Ingres to Rembrandt. The Cezannes were donated by the French state only after the city refused them in 1894 — a snub Aix still quietly apologises for.

Tip: The Cezanne room is ground floor, second door left after the ticket desk — go there first before museum fatigue sets in. Closed Mondays; free entry first Sunday of the month, but crowded then — pay the 8€ on any other day.

Walk six minutes west from the museum down Rue Cardinale — a quiet street of mansions now housing antiquarians — then right on Rue Espariat, left on Petite Rue Saint-Jean. Aix's standout Michelin-starred table, cooking contemporary Provencal with the precision of Parisian training. The 95€ 'Signature' menu moves through five courses; the pigeon with figs (late summer) and the line-caught loup de mer with bouillabaisse jus are the pillars. Twelve covers, stone walls, low light.

Tip: Reserve two weeks out for weekends. The 19:30 seating is harder to get than 21:00 — locals dine late. Beware the 'menu touristique 25€' boards along Cours Mirabeau: frozen ratatouille, microwaved duck. Walk a single block off the Cours and prices halve while quality doubles — Place des Cardeurs is the other trap to skip.