Aix-en-Provence is a French city, located in the Bouches-du-Rhône
department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.
Aix-en-Provence (more simply called Aix) is a medium-sized town in
Provence (about 140,000 inhabitants), famous for its many fountains, and
for having once hosted Cézanne and Émile Zola. It is a very pleasant
place, especially in summer when you can have a drink outside, under its
sunny climate. It is also a city where there is a very large student
population. Indeed, 40,000 students attend the university and renowned
institutions such as the Institute of Political Studies or the National
Graduate School of Arts and Crafts.
Aix has long been a bourgeois
city, and the traveler looking for a cheap hotel would do well to stop
further (Marseille, 30 km away, is much cheaper). However, it is a place
to stop between two stages. The narrow and old streets of the city
center are very pleasant to walk (but a nightmare by car). Aix also
contains a number of architectural jewels, from its seventeenth-century
hotels to its cobbled squares. The Albertas square near the Cours
Mirabeau is one of the most beautiful in the city.
The historical language of Aix is Provençal, which was gradually
replaced by French from the total integration of Provence into
France in 1789 and the authoritarian francization of the Provençal
population during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Many
Provençal-speaking writers from Aix-en-Provence have contributed to
the richness of Provençal literature.
The city of
Aix-en-Provence has a remarkable architectural heritage within its
historic center, especially with regard to the periods of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With 156 historical monuments
classified or registered under the law of December 31, 1913 on
historical monuments (including 9 fountains and 75 hotels) the city
of Aix-en-Provence is ranked 17th French city in number of
historical monuments.
It should be noted that Aix-en-Provence
has more than one hundred and fifty mansions dating from the
sixteenth to the eighteenth century, including the Olivari hotel,
the Perrin hotel and the Arlatan Hotel, making it the second city in
France (after Paris) by the number of mansions and the first in
number per inhabitant.
Places and monuments
The city of
Aix-en-Provence holds the label City of Art and History. It
previously held the Ville d'art label.
Aix-en-Provence has
two stars in the Michelin Green Guide.
The Saint-Pierre
cemetery houses the final resting place of many personalities from
the art world: Paul Cézanne, Darius Milhaud, Auguste de Forbin,
Joseph Villevieille, etc.; letters: François-Auguste Mignet, Abbot
Bremond, and local politics.
The National necropolis of
Luynes is a military cemetery of the first and second World wars.
Religious buildings
Cathedral of St. Saviour. Triptych of the
Burning Bush (altarpiece of King René) by Nicolas Froment;
altarpiece of the Legend of Saint Mitre (fourteenth century);
tapestries: Life of the Virgin and Jesus (late fifteenth century).
Saint-Sauveur Cloister: late twelfth century. The formed roof is
supported by arches. The twin columns, the capitals with foliage or
historiated give a lot of elegance to the construction.
Church of
the Magdalene. Located on Place des Prêcheurs, the current building
dates from the late nineteenth century, succeeding several
constructions since the thirteenth century.
Church of the Holy
Spirit. This church was built from 1706 to 1728 by the Vallon
brothers. The sculptures and decorations were made from 1726 to
1728. Mirabeau's wedding was celebrated in this church.
Church of
St. John of Malta. Located not far from the Cours Mirabeau, it is
the first Gothic church in Provence.
Church of Our Lady of the
Seds. The current building dates from 1853 and is the work of the
Aix architect Henri Révoil. This church is built in a
Romano-Byzantine style.
Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste du
Faubourg.
Chapel of the Oblates.
Convent of the Preachers of
Aix-en-Provence.
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption of
Puyricard.
Church of the Immaculate Conception of Couteron.
Church of Our Lady of the Arch of Aix-en-Provence.
St. Andrew's
Church in Val St. Andrew.
Church of St. Mary Magdalene of the
Miles.
Church of St. Anne of Tournon.
Saint-Eutrope Church of
Aix-en-Provence.
Church of Saint-François-d'Assise in
Aix-en-Provence.
Church of St. George of Luynes.
Church of
Saint-Jean-Marie-Vianney of the Beraud Bridge.
Saint-Jérôme
Church in Aix-en-Provence.
Church of Saint-Thomas-de-Villeneuve
of Aix-en-Provence.
Church of Saint-Paul of Aix-en-Provence.
Civil buildings
Rich in buildings of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries essentially, Aix-en-Provence attracts many
tourists by the quality of the buildings that adorn the streets of
the city center. The town hall, built between 1655 and 1678 by
Pierre Pavillon, whose facade inspired by Italian palaces borders
one of the sides of the Town Hall square and its Clock Tower,
crowned with a bell tower, attract the eye when entering the
historic center. We must also visit the Albertas square, the
neoclassical style courthouse, built after the Revolution on the
ruins of the old count's palace, the Tourreluque, tower dating from
the fourteenth century, the only remnant of the medieval enclosure,
but also many private mansions, such as the Hotel
d'Estienne-de-Saint-Jean (rue Gaston-de-Saporta) or the hotel de
Castillon (eighteenth century, 21, cours Mirabeau). The Place des
Quatre-Dauphins, in the heart of the Mazarin district, designed in
the seventeenth century by the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence Michel
Mazarin, located at the intersection of the Cardinal street coming
from the church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte and the rue du
Quatre-Septembre, leading to the Cours Mirabeau, surrounded by
private mansions, such as the hotel de Boisgelin, the hotel Baron de
Saizieu, the hotel Dugrou, the hotel Dedons de Pierrefeu, which
offer a testimony of the architecture of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in Aix . The opera district offers access to
the top of the Cours Mirabeau. The Rue de l'opéra, which saw the
birth of Paul Cézanne, offers a bird's-eye view of the main artery
of the city and has three remarkable mansions, the Grimaldi Regusse
hotel (1680), the Arlatan hotel (1684) and the Lestang-Parade hotel
(1650). On the other side of the street is the Jeu de paume theater,
which is one of the few Italian-style theaters in France. Nearby is
the Baroque-style silver fountain.
In the peripheral
districts, modern buildings also deserve to be moved, such as the
Black Pavilion, hosting the national choreographic center, directed
by Angelin Preljocaj. Outside the city, there are many historical
monuments, such as the Saint-Pons bridge or the Trois-Sautets
bridge. Not far from this bridge (coordinates 43.511885, 5.466974),
we can notice the old infirmaries built between 1564 and 1671. They
now house a hotel.
The Bastide of Bellevue, Fontrousse road,
property of Balthazar of André de Bellevue and his wife Thérèse
Mignard. In 1790, it was sold to the Mayol of Saint Simon, and
became the bastide of Saint Simon. The descendants of André's family
live at the Aubussargues castle, near Uzès, in the Gard.
Museums, foundations and libraries
Aix-en-Provence has many
museums that contribute to the cultural reputation of the city. The
main museum of the municipality is the Granet Museum.
Granet
Museum :
Located directly opposite the church of
Saint-Jean-de-Malte, the building that houses it was built in 1671,
the priory being transformed into a museum in 1838. The museum has
an annex located in the Chapel of the White Penitents a few blocks
from the main building.
François Marius Granet bequeathed an
important collection of paintings there and the establishment took
the name of its donor in 1949.
Museum of Tapestries :
The
Museum of Tapestries consists of a vast collection from the former
archbishopric. There are tapestries executed in Beauvais in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of which were made after
Bérain, as well as a series of nine panels from the life of Don
Quixote, and four other panels executed after Leprince.
Museum of
the Old-Aix :
Rue Gaston-de-Saporta exists since 1933 the museum
of Old Aix, located in the hotel of Estienne-de-Saint-Jean. It has
collections of costumes, earthenware, puppets, recreating life in
Aix-en-Provence under the Old Regime, as well as in the nineteenth
century.
The Caumont Hotel - Art Center :
This
eighteenth-century mansion, after having housed the Aix Conservatory
of music, has become an art center after restoration. Located at 3,
rue Joseph-Cabassol, it is located a minute walk from the Cours
Mirabeau.
Natural History Museum: Founded by the geologist Henri
Coquand in 1838, it is a museum that had been installed since 1950
in the prestigious Boyer-d'éguilles hotel, a historical monument
dating from the seventeenth century, in which the famous Aix
botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort stayed. Its imposing
paleontological, zoological or ethnographic collections no longer
have a site open to the public.
In the city center you can also
visit the Vendôme Pavilion, a former mansion housing the
Vendôme-Dobler Pavilion museum.
The Paul-Arbaud Museum,
meanwhile, is the headquarters of the Academy of Sciences,
Agriculture, Arts and Belles-Lettres of Aix-en-Provence. It offers a
collection of Provençal earthenware from the eighteenth century and
portraits of the Mirabeau family but also hosts a library of 1600
documents and an important private archive fund.
In the
peripheral districts of the city of Aix-en-Provence is located, at
the Jas-de-Bouffan, the Vasarely Foundation, built in 1973 on the
plans of the artist Victor Vasarely. Its facade, a succession of
huge black or white circles, is characteristic of his work.
On
the site of the old match factory, the Cité du livre was built on a
vast rehabilitated industrial wasteland; it brings together the
Méjanes municipal library and its institutional, associative and
educational partners.
Since April 2002, a planetarium has been open in Aix, first
temporarily installed in the Saint-Mitre park located in the western
districts (Jas de Bouffan) of the city, it has been since November 2014
in a municipal property (Villa Clair Matin) adjoining the Saint-Mitre
park. It bears the name of Peiresc (1580-1637), a humanist and
astronomer from Aix who was a councillor in the Parliament of Aix. This
planetarium, whose dome has a diameter of 8 m, is the largest in
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, with 47 inclined seats distributed in two
concentric circles around the sky simulator ; it is equipped with a
traveling planetarium allowing it to respond to requests from all over
the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It thus welcomes a large number
of visitors (nearly 20,000 per year) by offering planetarium sessions
(school and general public), educational workshops and conferences of
good scientific level.
Other institutions
On October 5, 2019,
the National Conservatory of the Memory of the French of North Africa
was inaugurated.
The city of Aix-en-Provence is also home to the
National Overseas Archives.
The most famous route in Aix-en-Provence, both locally and
nationally, is the Cours Mirabeau, traced in the seventeenth century, on
the ramparts. It has at its western end a monumental fountain called
Fontaine de la Rotonde erected in 1860. Nearby stood, until recently,
the old casino-theater with typical art-deco architecture of the 1920s,
witness to the thermal past of the city. At the other end of the course,
stands a statue built by David d'Angers (nineteenth century)
representing King René holding a bunch of muscat grapes.
To the
north of the Cours Mirabeau (axis oriented east-west) is the oldest part
of Old Aix (narrow or even steep streets, and not rectilinear, anarchic
set of lanes, squares and fountains). In the heart of this district,
there is a street with the picturesque name of "rue Esquiche-Coude"
("rue Serre-Coude" in French), two passers-by can only cross by hugging
each other.
To the south of the Cours Mirabeau is the Mazarin
district, the most recent part of Old Aix, a district developed in the
seventeenth century, by the will of Michel Mazarin, brother of Cardinal
Mazarin. This district is a homogeneous flat set, of rectilinear paths,
with numerous mansions and fountains.
The Old Aix is presented
around a network of roads that surround it in a harmonious way, on the
route of the old ramparts, destroyed since the nineteenth century. From
the cours Mirabeau starts the avenue Victor Hugo, then the boulevard du
Roi-René, the boulevard Sadi-Carnot (politician), the cours Saint-Louis,
the boulevard Aristide-Briand, the boulevard Jean-Jaurès, the cours
Sextius and finally the avenue Napoleon-Bonaparte which, by the place de
la Rotonde (officially named place du Général-de-Gaulle) where the
fountain of the Rotunda stands, leads back to the cours Mirabeau.
Since the 1960s, the city has expanded considerably to the west,
first by the construction of the Encagnane ZUP and the Jas-de-Bouffan
ZAC, along the tracks: avenue de l'Europe, Galicia road and Éguilles
road. The expansion of Aix has never stopped since. The north of the
Encagnane district (Casino Partouche) and the new districts of
Allées-Provençales and Cité-du-Livre (former industrial wastelands) now
constitute the city center.
By plane
By plane you can reach Aix-en-Provence via
Marseille-Provence Airport (IATA: MRS). It is located about 20 km
southwest of Aix-en-Provence in the commune of Marignane.
From
Marignane Airport you can reach the bus station (Gare Routière) on the
edge of the center of Aix-en-Provence in about 40 minutes by a shuttle
bus (Navette), which stops at the Gare TGV. The bus runs every half hour
in both directions and costs € 8.60 for a single trip or € 13.80 for a
round trip (as of 2018).
By train
Aix-en-Provence is connected
to the French TGV network. The Gare TGV, located about 15 km southwest
of the city, can be reached from Paris in just under 3 hours. From
Frankfurt am Main, a TGV runs daily via Karlsruhe and Paris to
Aix-en-Provence in 8½ to 9 hours. There is a regular bus service from
Gare TGV to the central bus station (Gare Routiėre) in Aix-en-Provence.
The Stadtbahnhof is served by regional trains (TER).
By bus
The bus station (Gare Routière) is located not far from the Rotonde and
therefore close to the center. There are good bus connections from there
by bus to Aix or from Aix to the Cote d'Azur (Nice, Cannes) or to
Marseille.
The long-distance bus stop is on the highway.
International bus connections can be found e.g. Flixbus.
By car
From the north, Aix-en-Provence can be reached via the A7 and the A51,
along the Mediterranean coast via the A8.
Due to the lack of
parking space in the city, it is advisable to make sure that there is a
parking space for the car when booking a hotel. Attention! It may well
happen that a hotel still offers free rooms, but the vehicle parking
facilities are fully booked. Therefore, it makes sense to ask
specifically.
Within the city you can easily get around on foot, otherwise you can
take a bicycle. For tourists, a car in the city center of
Aix-en-Provence is rather a hindrance, and there is a massive lack of
parking space. Unlike many tourist towns in Provence, there is not
enough parking on the outskirts of the old town, and the multi-storey
car parks are chronically overcrowded.
Bus connections within Aix
can be found at AIX EN BUS, timetables also at the stops. A single trip
costs € 1.10 (as of 10/2006). Well-frequented lines run every 10 - 15
minutes, on Sundays the offer is significantly worse.
The outer
districts can also be reached either by bike or by car. However, bus
connections to the more remote parts of the city are rather sparse, and
it is idle to rely on them.
The Aix cuisine is a Provencal and Mediterranean cuisine characterized by the important use of fresh products: fish, vegetables, fruits. We therefore consume most of the Mediterranean cuisine and, in particular, pistou soup, Provencal stew, pieds-paquettes and aioli. The real specialty of the city, however, is a confectionery known as "calissons d'Aix". These calissons are made with almond paste flavored with melon and candied orange, which have been the specialty of the city since the seventeenth century.
Accommodation in Aix is sometimes quite expensive. So you have to
expect for a studio (large room with kitchen and small bathroom, about
20-30sqm) already with > 600 € / month. It is recommended to look for
something outside of Aix. For example, you can find a very romantic room
for about 20 € / night in the old country house "Les Marronniers" in the
district "Les Platanes" (about 5 km outside the center towards the
mountain). Monthly flat rates are also negotiable. The family speaks
English as well as French and is very welcoming. With a little luck, you
can also drive a tractor there. The taxi drivers in the city center on
the Rotonde know the way, it's called the house.
One should
definitely AVOID the student dormitories in particular. Les Gazelles!
They are cheap but absolutely dirty and got down. Especially in the
summer you hardly get air in the narrow rooms. There are no
refrigerators in them anyway and toilets are broken or extremely dirty.
Look out!
The Paul Cézanne University (Aix-Marseille III) is quite nice. The grounds are clearly laid out, and the caféteria even has a Wi-Fi connection, if you have access. The library, on the other hand, is an open-plan space and absolutely stuffy in summer.
Security in Aix is basically not a problem. True, as in the south of France in general, you have to be wary of pickpockets or mostly teenage con artists. But you should not be afraid to move freely in the center as a tourist. In principle, you should be more careful at night in the southern part below the university ("residential ghettos") than in the southern part ("bourgeois"). Also, especially as a woman, you should be careful around the student dormitories in the southern part at night and possibly prefer a taxi, since shady characters are walking around there.
In the fourth century BC, Lower Provence is occupied by a
Celto-Ligurian confederation called the Salyens or Salluvians, whose
capital, the oppidum called Entremont, is located north of Aix, on
the road to Puyricard.
In 123 BC, following the call of the
Greeks from Massalia (Marseille), in constant conflict with the
Ligurian and Gallic tribes in the neighborhood, the consul Caius
Sextius Calvinus takes and destroys this city-oppidum. He then set
up a camp there, near the thermal springs, which quickly became a
city, named Aquae Sextiae ("Waters of Sextius"), in order to ensure
the safety of commercial transport between Rome and the Phoenician
city of Massalia. Thus Aix had been created to hold in respect the
Salyan people who could worry Marseille, the ally of Rome.
In
102 BC, during the Battle of Aix, Marius stood up, at the foot of
Sainte-Victoire, to the hordes of Ambrons and Teutons whom he
defeated. Aquae Sextiae is gaining momentum and gathers a large
population composed mainly of the descendants of the Salyan
populations subjected by Rome. The city has ramparts as well as a
theater that make it an important city in the region, ideally
located to protect Roman interests in Marseille.
In the
following centuries, several districts of the city were abandoned.
The ancient theater is dismantled. This state does not mean a
decadence of Aix, but simply a new territorial organization of
inhabited spaces. In the fourth century, the city becomes the
capital of Narbonne second and is endowed with a diocese of which
Lazarus becomes the bishop. It was then occupied by the Visigoths in
477. In the following century, it was invaded alternately by the
Franks and the Lombards, then in 731 by the Saracens.
While
the city of Aix is coming out of a long period of economic and
demographic slowdown, the Counts of Provence (houses of Anjou and
Aragon) decide to make it their new residence in 1189, to the
detriment of the cities of Arles and Avignon, where they formerly
ruled. This position of strength will not only give Aix the status
of capital of Provence, but above all allow an unprecedented
development of the city. As such, the installation of King René,
Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence, titular king of Sicily, in the
fifteenth century, marks the golden age of the city, which will
forever retain the title of "city of King René". This monarch,
surrounded by a refined and literate court, will make Aix, from
1409, a famous cultural and renowned university center, endow the
city with a court of justice and contribute to its beautification,
after centuries marked by economic stagnation. King René was, in
reality, a deplorable politician whom the Provençals decked out with
a mask of good-naturedness.
From 1486, a governor resided
there to represent the Count of Provence who is now, simultaneously,
King of France. The union of Provence with France is underway, but
it remains until 1789 an independent state associated with France
"not as an accessory to its principal, but as a principal to another
principal, and separately from the rest of the kingdom" and the city
of Aix, like Provence, intended to retain its franchises. In 1501,
Louis XII established the Parliament of Provence there, which lasted
until the Revolution. Most often, the states of Provence meet there
to vote on the tax.
At the beginning of July 1608, the
suburbs of Aix-en-Provence were covered with a shower of blood. Some
monks explained this event by satanic influences. Nicolas-Claude
Fabri de Peiresc recorded this rain by collecting a few drops on the
wall of the cathedral cemetery. He discovered that it was the
excrement of butterflies that had been observed recently. The city
center had not been invaded, so he had remained untouched. This
scientific explanation did not calm the popular terror.
Aix-en-Provence is the city where Frédéric Mistral studied law, Paul
Cézanne (1839-1906) spent his life and Émile Zola his first eighteen
years. It was at Bourbon College (now Mignet College) that the deep
friendship that united them was forged.
The city is marked by
the Earthquake of 1909 in the South of France, which sees the roof
of the Augier vermicellerie collapse and where "the Place des
Prêcheurs is filled with people sleeping on mattresses," as the
mother of an academician testifies. Shortly before the main tremor,
on June 11, we notice the abnormal behavior of birds flying low,
with cries of fright, dogs screaming to death, and horses squawking.
During the First World War, the Aix residents were mainly
mobilized within the 55th and 61st infantry regiments, garrisoned in
Forbin and Miollis barracks. They will be part of the 15th army
corps and in particular involved in the Case of the 15th corps in
August 1914.
After the Second World War, the city will expand
widely beyond the "ring road" formed by the boulevards Jaurès and
Briand (formerly Notre-Dame), Roi-René, République and Cours Sextius
and Saint-Louis. The faculties of law and letters move from the old
town and the appearance of underground car parks and leisure areas
give the city its current appearance (creation of the Place des
Carders in 1963, demolition of the old Aix station replaced by the
Provençal Alleys in 1980).
Aix hosts the Aix-en-Provence TGV
station, the Arbois and Rousset technopoles. Aix also has many
universities (letters, law, economics, political sciences, arts and
crafts, fine arts).
The city celebrated the centenary of
Cézanne's death with in particular the international exhibition at
the Granet Museum: "Cézanne in Provence" from June 9, 2006 to
September 17, 2006 which brought together nearly 120 works by the
master on the theme of his "dear Provence".
Aix-en-Provence is located 30 kilometers north of the center of
Marseille by road and 20 km as the crow flies from the Mediterranean
Sea, between the Sainte-Victoire massif to the east and the Trévaresse
range to the west.
With 18,608 hectares, it is the 11th largest
municipality in metropolitan France and the 4th in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
The situation of the city of Aix-en-Provence places it in an area
whose seismic risk is estimated between low and medium6, like the
municipalities of the north of the Bouches-du-Rhône. The earthquake of
1909 caused quite significant damage there.
The neighboring municipalities are Bouc-Bel-Air, Cabriès, Éguilles, Gardanne, Meyreuil, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Rognac, Rognes, Saint-Cannat, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Le Tholonet, Velaux, Venelles, Ventabren and Vitrolles.
The coastal rivers Touloubre and Arc, as well as its tributary the Torso cross the city from east to west.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the frank
Mediterranean climate type, according to a study by the National Center
for Scientific Research based on a series of data covering the period
1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a typology of the climates of
metropolitan France in which the municipality is exposed to a
Mediterranean climate and is in the Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon
climatic region, characterized by low rainfall in summer, very good
sunshine (2,600 h / year), a hot summer (21.5 ° C), very dry air in
summer, dry in all seasons, strong winds (frequency of 40 to 50% winds >
5 m / s) and few fogs.
For the period 1971-2000, the average
annual temperature is 13.9 ° C, with an annual thermal amplitude of 16.2
° C. The average annual cumulative rainfall is 621 mm, with 5.7 days of
precipitation in January and 1.9 days in July. For the period 1991-2020,
the annual average temperature observed on the meteorological station
installed in the municipality is 14.7 ° C and the average annual
cumulative rainfall is 608.8 mm. The maximum temperature recorded on
this station is 42 ° C, reached on June 28, 2019; the minimum
temperature is -20.2 °C, reached on February 12, 1956.
The
climate parameters of the municipality have been estimated for the
middle of the century (2041-2070) according to different greenhouse gas
emission scenarios based on the new DRIAS-2020 reference climate
projections. They can be consulted on a dedicated website published by
Météo-France in November 2022.
Many personalities have been born in Aix-en-Provence. One of them,
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), painter of the Sainte-Victoire mountain, had
once written: "When I was in Aix, it seemed to me that I would be better
off somewhere else, now that I am here, I regret Aix ... When we were
born there, it's fucked up, nothing tells you more. "Several other
artists were born in this city: André Campra (1660-1744) composer,
Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745), François Marius Granet (1775-1849),
Jacques Pellegrin (born in 1944) are among the painters, but writers can
also be cited, such as Louise Colet (née Révoil) (1810-1876), Paul
Alexis (1847-1901), Alfred Capus (1857-1922), academician from 1914 to
his death in 1922, Folco de Baroncelli-Javon (1869-1943), Joachim
Gasquet (1873-1921) or José de Bérys (1883-1957), Bruno Durand
(1890-1975). Aix-en-Provence is also a city that has seen the birth of
several artists: the composer Emmanuel de Fonscolombe (1810-1875), the
couturier Emanuel Ungaro (born in 1933), the sculptor Beppo (born in
1943), the pianist Hélène Grimaud (born in 1969) or the actress Mylène
Jampanoï (born in 1980).
Many sportsmen have turned out. They too
were born in Aix-en-Provence: Raoul Giraudo (1932-1995), Henri Michel
(born in 1947), former footballer and coach of many football teams,
Franck Cammas, (born in 1972), navigator, Arnaud Clément (born in 1977),
tennis player or Virginie Dedieu (born in 1979), triple world champion
in synchronized swimming.
Aix-en-Provence is also a city of
churchmen or politicians and has been for centuries; Eleanor of Provence
(1223-1291), queen consort of Henry III of England, is a striking
example. It is also possible to mention the Duranti family (fourteenth –
nineteenth century), a family of the nobility of dress who gave several
consuls to the city, then advisers in the Chamber of Accounts and a
general of the order of Minims, confessor of King Henry III. Jean
Cabassus (1604-1685), theologian and confessor of Cardinal Grimaldi.
Bruno-Philibert Audier-Massillon (1746-1822), French magistrate and
politician of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was also born in
the city, as was Jean Espariat (1747-1827), first mayor of Aix, Eugene
de Mazenod (1782-1861), bishop of Marseille canonized in 1995, from
François-Auguste Mignet (1796-1884), historian and councilor of state or
Maurice Rouvier ( 1842-1911), politician or the cardinal-Archbishop of
Paris Joseph Hippolyte Guibert, builder of the Basilica of the Sacred
Heart in Paris.
But many people whose lives have significantly marked, or even
transformed the city of Aix-en-Provence, also deserve to be mentioned,
even if they were not born there. Honoré Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau
(1749-1791), deputy of the Third Estate of the States General in 1789,
is a striking example; his name is today closely associated with the
city of Aix-en-Provence, to the point of having given its name to its
most famous street, the Cours Mirabeau.
Perhaps the oldest
personage linked to Aix-en-Provence is Mitre of Aix, also called Saint
Mitre (433-466), a Catholic and Orthodox saint who evangelized Aix and
whose cult has been perpetuated over the centuries.
Aix, because
of its position as the former capital of Provence and the seat of the
Parliament of Provence and the civil court, had an early vocation to
attract the most famous politicians, such as Raimond Berenger IV of
Provence (1199-1245), Count of Provence and Forcalquier, last of the
Catalan counts to reign in Provence, Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis
(1746-1807), statesman, jurisconsult, philosopher of French law and
co-editor of the Civil Code, Jean Joseph Pierre Pascalis (1732-1790),
lawyer, assessor of Aix and prosecutor of the country of Provence under
the Old Regime or Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877), lawyer, journalist,
historian and French statesman. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc,
although born in Belgentier (Var) on December 1, 1580, spent his entire
life in Aix-en-Provence, where he was a councilor in Parliament; he died
in Aix on June 24, 1637 and was buried in the church of the Madeleine.
But Aix-en-Provence is also a city of arts, there are many artists
who have made their careers there or part of it: Jean-Baptiste Boyer
d'Argens (1703-1771), Émile Zola (1840-1902), Blaise Cendrars
(1887-1961), all writers; Fernand Pouillon (1912-1986), architect; Jean
Murat (1888-1968), French actor ; Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), French
composer of classical music, deceased in Geneva, but buried in Aix
(according to his wishes); Bruno Étienne (1937-2009), university
professor. The famous botanist Gaston de Saporta (1823-1895), born in
Saint-Zacharie (Var), lived all the rest of his life in Aix-en-Provence.
In music, Gérald de Palmas and Christophe Maé are also linked to the
city, as well as the composer and clarinetist Jean-Christian Michel, who
has lived there since 1975.
The philosopher Maurice Blondel
(1861-1949) spent almost his entire career in Aix-en-Provence.
The pedagogue Pierre Estienne directed the normal school of
Aix-en-Provence from 1903 to 1907, date of his death.
The French
sculptor and ceramist Émile Just Bachelet (1892-1981) ended his days in
Aix-en-Provence.
The football player Ouissem Belgacem was born in 1988 in Aix-en-Provence.