A city of water and art, Aix-en-Provence would be the dominant city of central Provence were it not for the great metropolis of Marsielle, just 25 kilometres away to the south. Historically, culturally and socially, the two cities are totally different and the tendency is to love one and hate the other.

Sextius Calvinus, the Roman preconsul, founded Aix, Aquae Sextial, because of the abundance of water, both warm and cold, in 123 BC. From the twelfth century until the Revolution, Aix was the capital of Provence.

In its day as an independent county, its most mythically beloved ruler ‘Good’ king Rene of Aujou (1400-80) held a brilliant court renowned for its popular festivities and patronage of the arts.

At Aix’s heart is the Cours Mirabeau. A café-stopping stroll beneath the gigantic plane trees that shade the cours is a must. Many claim that it is France’s loveliest boulevard

Aix is the birthplace of Paul Cezanne and the city has an avenue named after him on which at No.9, you can find his studio, the atelier. Cezanne died in 1906 and to mark the centenary there will be an exhibition ‘Cezanne in Provence’ from 29 January to 7 May 2006.

The Deux Garcons, 53 Cours Mirabeau is an Aix institution– a classic café with an old literary tradition and Empire décor. It still has its intellectual habitués but the younger set have deserted it for the flashier grillon, Café de Cour, Belle Epoque in the same street.

The Cour is flanked on its south side by the once aristocratic Mazarin quarter largely seventeenth century. East down the Rue Cardinal lies the Fountain of Four Dolphins. Built in 1667, it was the first fountain in Aix to be placed in the middle of a street rather than against a wall.

On the north side of the Cour is Le Vieil Aix a maze of graceful streets, many of them medieval, leading towards the cathedral.

La Rotonde, erected in 1890, is a large fountain with three statues representing justice turned towards the Cour Mirabeau, agriculture towards Marsielles and fine arts, towards Avignon.
Cezanne used many studios in and around Aix but he finally had a house built for the purpose in 1902, at 9 Avenue Paul Cezanne. In the last years of his life Cezanne painted and drew the Ste-Victoire more than fifty times and as part of his childhood landscape, it came to embody the incarnation of life within nature.

The Mont St. Victoire lies 10 kilometres east of Aix, ringed at its base by the dark green and orange brown of fine woods and cultivated soil. The limestone rock reflects light, turning blue, grey, pink and orange. Further East is the village of Vauwerargues where Picasso lies buried in the garden of the Chateau he bought in 1958.

Cezanne became friends with Emile Zola at the Bourbon College. They later met up in Paris in 1861 and together were part of the original group, who sat at Manet’s feet in the Café Guerbois.

Although for a time he became an impressionist, his work never took on the ephemeral airiness of Monet or Renoir. He eventually split from the impressionists, believing their work to be too casual and lacking in an understanding of the depth of reality.

A dam outside Aix bears the name of Zola. It was built by Emile’s father, Francois, who died when Emile was seven. During the fifteen years he lived in Aix, except for the time he spent on escapades with Cezanne and Baille in the country, he had time to observe the town and its people which he wrote about later under the name Plassans.

He modified the name of the town and renamed its streets, but it is recognisable as Aix, a sleepy bourgeois town of the 19th century.

In 1866 he became an art critic for the daily, L’Evenement. He took up the cause of the impressionists. At this point he was less and less inclined to appreciate the painting of Cezanne and with the publication of Rougon Macquart he became a famous novelist. Inspired by Cezanne he created the character Claude Lantier, a failed painter. Cezanne was hurt and they didn’t meet again.

In 1898 on 13th January ‘J’accuse’, his article in defence of Dreyfus, was published in L’Aurore. He was found guilty of libelling the minister of war and given the maximum sentence of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. His appeal for retrial was granted on a technicality in March and the retrial was delayed till the 18th of July. He left for England instead of attending court.

Zola later returned to France when it was obvious that Dreyfus was innocent. On 29th September 1902, he died of fumes from his bedroom fire, the chimney having been capped either by accident or anti-Dreyfus design.

The artist is nothing without the gift,
But the gift is nothing without the work
Emile Zola