The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Aix-En-Provence

One of the smaller squares in Aux and a very stylish one. In the Baroque period, Jean-Baptiste Albertas bought several plots of land around the square and had the star architect of the time, Vallon, create a harmonious ensemble in one go. The square impresses with its architectural unity, as well as with the many elaborate details on the houses and, of course, with the artistic fountain.

Lovely square in Aix. I passed by at night, but it's even prettier with the Christmas decorations!

Magnificent fountain with the Cours Mirabeau. Resting point and starting point for very diverse circuits and nearby countryside. The only downside: Aix en Provence is absolutely not equipped for cyclists, but fortunately you can get out of it quite quickly (Gametta and its roundabout below deserve to be very careful)

Originally, the church was in the shape of a Latin cross and consisted only of the nave, transept, bell tower, and watchtowers to the north and south of the choir, as well as the Hélion de Villeneuve chapel (14th century) with its beautiful ribbed vault featuring liernes and tiercerons. Outside, the twenty or so stepped buttresses topped with pinnacles are hidden on Rue Cardinale by the unimpressive buildings attached to the monument in the 17th century. The 67-meter-high bell tower was completed in 1376. The priory, now the Granet Museum, served both as the residence of the knights and as a hospice where pilgrims were welcomed and the sick cared for. The church and the priory were built in the fields, outside the city walls. They were set into the central vista of the Mazarin Quarter in the 17th century, built by Michel de Mazarin, brother of Louis XIV's minister. The building was remodeled during the 17th century by Prior Jean-Claude Viany, who had six chapels built within the buttresses and, for symmetry, added the south turret similar to the one on the north side that provides access to the bell tower. In 2018, after 225 years, the church received three new bells for its carillon, out of the four that comprise it. The three previous bells had been cast in 1793 during Napoleon's Italian campaign.

In its current form, the Church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte is the first entirely Gothic church in Provence. It was built between 1270 and 1280 by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, replacing an older building whose dedication is known to have been celebrated by Cardinal Pierre de Colmieu on May 3, 1251. The lightness and elegance of the Gothic rib vaults, which support the pillars, give the nave a dynamic and rhythmic quality that earned it the nickname "Sainte-Chapelle of the South." The side windows are less open than those in churches in the Île-de-France region, but the apse window is exceptionally large for Provence. The overall effect was restored during the recent restoration work carried out in 1996, by highlighting the two-tone effect of the ochre wall surfaces and the white architectural elements, restoring to the space its luminosity, simplicity, elegance, and dynamism. The current building was constructed as the mausoleum of the Counts of Provence: – the tomb of Raymond Berenger V and his wife Beatrice of Savoy in the north transept – the tombs of Beatrice of Provence and her husband Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples, which were destroyed during the French Revolution. This church can be considered a kind of ‘Provençal Saint-Denis’.

In front of the Palais de Justice stretches the Place des Prêcheurs, created in the 15th century, the center of public and social life before the creation of the Cours Mirabeau. Around 1640, the architect Jean Lombard continued the work begun by Jean de Paris during the expansion of the city with the Villeneuve district, by establishing the layout of the eastern bank of the Place des Prêcheurs with large buttresses of angled splays. The Fontaine des Prêcheurs was decorated in 1748 by Jean Pancrace Chastel with four medallions, destroyed in 1793 then reestablished in 1833, restored largely thanks to American patronage.

The Rotonde, located on Place du Général de Gaulle, is where the past and future of Aix's urban development unfold. The square (100m in diameter) was created between 1840 and 1850. In 1860, the Rotonde fountain was built based on plans by the engineers Tournadre and Sylvestre. Twelve meters high, the fountain is constructed of cold stone and consists of two basins. Lions, dolphins, swans, and children, works by Truphème, adorn it. The three statues that surmount it represent Justice (toward the Cours), Agriculture (toward Marseille), and Fine Arts (toward Avignon), forming a star-shaped road. Ramus, Chabaud, and Ferrat are its creators. First supplied sparingly by the Zola canal (1854), then with full water every day by the Verdon canal (1875), it is now connected to the Provence canal.

Description of the hike: follow the path from the parking lot to reach the source. The start is under a large metal portico bearing the inscription "Chemin de l'Infernet". The walk is part of the GR13. It is marked with red and yellow lines. A very simple little walk, no equipment necessary. Very few places for parking!