Guided tour in Aix

Last Saturday, I did an interesting guided tour to see Aix. Because we were students and/or under the age of 25, the tour cost only 4 Euros. A French guide, who could speak very good English, showed us some typical streets and (old) buildings and told us interesting (historical) stories.

I will give a very short summary of what I saw. We started at the Tourist office, where we had bought the tickets. Three statues are located in the middle of La Rotonde, each looking in the direction of a city in the region (Avignon, Marseille and Aix). The Cours Mirabeau, a famous (historical) street near La Rotonde, separated the ‘new’ neighborhood Mazarin from the Old town in the past. In Mazarin, I saw some nice architecture and the streets are in a rectangular pattern. The Old town pattern is totally different; I still get lost very easily in that part of the city center. However, you can find the ‘Hôtel de Ville’ and the ‘Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur’ in this area. While we were inside the cathedral, a bride entered the main area in a beautiful wedding dress. I want to go back to see more of the cathedral, because we couldn’t see everything.

After about 1,5 hours the guided tour ended near the cathedral and we had to find our way back to the Cours Mirabeau and La Rotonde. Luckily, it was around noon, so we walked towards the sun and went home.

This tour is important for me, because I want to know more about the city I will live in the next couple of months. Moreover, I hope to have a better orientation when I’m walking in the city center and I see some buildings in a different way. The guide told us that we could get the famous Calisson cookies for free in a church on the first Sunday of September. I’m sure that I will take that opportunity to taste Aix.