In which quarter house in Aix-en-Provence?

Are you moving to Aix-en-Provence, or are you going to visit Provence? Here are the best areas to stay in Aix-en-Provence and around!

Sub-prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department (13) in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region, Aix-en-Provence is one of the jewels of the Midi de la France, only 25 kilometers north of Marseille . Founded in 122 BC by the Romans, Aix-en-Provence – Aquae Sextiae – has an abyssal cultural heritage and is a major tourist destination of the southern French Provencal. Are you planning to stay in Aix-en-Provence? Know that hotel rents and nights here are expensive or even very expensive if you are looking for the city centre. We who had lived there for a year, can attest to you that it is a pleasant city to live in all points of view – history, culture, architecture, music, climate, holidays and outings – but we must have a certain budget: in fact, we surname the city of Aix “the 21st district of Paris”!

Are you looking for accommodation in Aix-en-Provence? Here is our presentation of the areas & neighborhoods where to live and sleep in Aix, the birthplace of the Paul Cézanne and many other celebrities.

Historic Centre

Between the colourful and enclosed alleys, the paved squares with fountains, the cracking of the cigales (from June to August), the museums to visit (in number), the bars where to party with the young student population and the exceptional natural sites around the city (including the Sainte-Victoire mountain and the Calanques of Marseille), there is a real dream of being able to stay in Aix-en-Provence to live there.

The historic centre of Aix-en-Provence contains 156 historical monuments, some of which date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, famous religious buildings: the Saint-Sauveur cathedral, the Madeleine church, the church of the Holy Spirit, etc. You will not miss the famous fountain of the Rotonde and the Cours Mirabeau, but if you are nocturnal, the night activity will take place in the Cours Sextius, the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville and the Palais de Justice: the rue de la Verrerie and the Place Richelme to merge the bars in the evening.

The historic centre is home to countless restaurants and hotels in Aix. Shops in the shopping streets will seduce the amateurs of regional products of the terroir between sausages, calissons, garlics, olive oils, olives, honeys, lavender products, flowers, and other objects of art deco. For museums, visit: Cézanne’s workshop (north of the centre), Granet Museum, Richelme Square and Alberta Square, Contemporary Art Space, or the Tapestry Museum.

For a tourist, the center is the best area to stay in Aix, but can be a bit loud if you are looking for calm. Choosing to stay east of the centre is ideal to go hiking on the Sainte-Victoire or to discover the typical Provencal landscapes of the Midi.

The Provençales

Modern quarter built in the south-west of the Rotonde, the Allée Provençales area consists of recent buildings where the middle class is located in the city centre, close to a shopping centre where there are large signs such as H≡M, Fnac, Maison du Monde, Jules or Zara, etc. It is a very commercial, very residential and very festive area because it is close to the bars of the centre, the Rotunda, the Sextius Course and the Mirabeau Course. The SNCF train station, not far away, can also be a good reason to choose this area where to sleep in Aix-en-Provence.

District Aix Sud

The Aix Sud neighbourhoods have few tourist attractions and the rents are less high: this is why they can be chosen to sleep in Aix. It is about 20-30 minutes’ walk from the city centre, and a few minutes’ walk from the Parc Jourdan – a nice park where to stroll –, from the university campus (Centre Shuman d’Aix-Marseille) and from the highway to the massif of the Star.