• France Guide

  • Introduction to France
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore France

  • The north
  • Alsace and Lorraine
  • Normandy
  • Brittany
  • The Loire
  • Burgundy
  • Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast
  • The Limousin, Dordogne and Lot
  • The Pyrenees
  • Languedoc
  • The Massif Central
  • The Alps and Franche-Comté
  • The Rhône valley
  • Provence
  • The Côte d'Azur
  • Corsica

• Cities

  • Aix-en-Provence
    
  • Ajaccio (Aiacciu)
    
  • Angoulême
    
  • Avignon
    
  • Bayonne (Baïona)
    
  • Bordeaux
    
  • Caen
    
  • Cannes
    
  • Clermont-Ferrand
    
  • Dijon
    
  • Grenoble
    
  • Lille
    
  • Limoges
    
  • Lyon
    
  • Marseille
    
  • Montpellier
    
  • Mulhouse
    
  • Nîmes
    
  • Nancy
    
  • Nantes
    
  • Nice
    
  • Orléans
    
  • Paris
    
  • Perpignan
    
  • Rennes
    
  • Rouen
    
  • Strasbourg
    
  • Toulouse
    
  • Tours
    

France Guide

Provence

Aix-en-Provence

• Accommodation
• Cafés and restaurants
• Drinking and nightlife

AIX-EN-PROVENCE would be the dominant city of central Provence were it not for the great metropolis of Marseille, just 25km away. Historically, culturally and socially, the two cities are moons apart and the tendency is to love one and hate the other. Aix is complacently conservative and a pretty place, its riches based on landowning and the liberal professions. The youth of Aix dress immaculately; hundreds of foreign students, particularly Americans, come to study here; and there's a certain snobbishness, almost of Parisian proportions.