Aix-en-Provence - The Cours Mirabeau

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).