/ Aix-en-Provence is so lovely that various French surveys have chosen it the most desirable city in which to live, due to the ambience of this special place. The modest population of just 150,000 residents gives it a small-town charm, yet Aix is big enough to provide all the necessities and comforts of urban living. Nearly 30 percent are university students, lending an air of youthful energy, culture and enthusiasm, plus you'll always find budget places to eat when there are so many young people around.
You'll most likely begin your explorations of Aix on the main street, which is also the first street you'll come to, Cours Mirabeau, the broad street established in 1651. Simply called the Cours, it is sometimes considered the most attractive boulevard in all France: lined with shops, outdoor cafés and restaurants in all price ranges along a wide sidewalk with magnificent plane trees towering overhead and three moss-covered fountains in the middle of the street.
You'll experience a human scale throughout town -- even the public buses are small, some are electric powered and very tiny for just a few passengers, providing excellent service.
Another attractive square is the Forum des Cardeurs, whose pastel façades surrounding the large central plaza, creating a distinctly Provençal atmosphere, enhanced by a row of outdoor restaurants. Cardeurs is often frequented by university students, and the local yuppie crowd out for lunch, so it's a prime spot to have a meal.
So you really have the best of all worlds. It's a sophisticated urban place, and yet it's a small city, so you've got all the amenities: the walking distance, you've got a shop on the corner you got the café around the bend. there's a bar, there are restaurants, outdoor plazas, fountains, beautiful boulevards, wonderful colors of the buildings, tree-lined streets -- what more could you possibly ask for? There's a mix here in population of University kids, there's older folks, there's working people, there's some immigrant vitality. You've got train stations that will take you to some nearby places that are wonderful, such as Arles and Marseille, you've got the entire Cote d'Azur you are just an hour or two away. And you're in Provence. This is the good life.