Getaway in Aix-en-Provence
A market morning on Place Richelme
La place Richelme retrouve chaque matin l’atmosphère familière de son marché provençal, au cœur du vieil Aix.
The old herb square of Aix
A few steps from the Town Hall, in the pedestrian old town, Place Richelme stands on the former Place aux Herbes. Surrounded by classical façades, cafés and shaded passages, it keeps an intimate, almost domestic scale in the middle of the city.
Its story dates back to the 14th century, when Queen Jeanne authorized a market here. King René later had a chapel built on the square, replaced in time by a fish hall lined with shops. The trading spirit of the place has never really disappeared: for more than six centuries, people from Aix have come here for fruit, vegetables, cheese, flowers and Provençal produce.
Morning beneath the plane trees, at market time
Place Richelme is still a place of habits as much as a place of passage. In the morning, the stalls compose a simple scene: full baskets, crates of fruit, bunches of flowers, producers' voices and coffee taken on the terrace before slipping back into the lanes.
The little Boar Fountain keeps watch beneath the plane trees. Light moves across shutters and pale façades, conversations linger, and the market gives Aix a very concrete face, far from the too-frozen image of a museum city.
The daily stage for Aix’s art of living
Around Richelme, the lanes of old Aix draw a tangle of passages, private mansions and quiet little squares. Just beside it, Place de l’Hôtel de Ville has a different presence: belfry, 17th-century façade, pale-stone fountain and terraces beneath the trees.
A little further on, Place d’Albertas offers a more delicate counterpoint. Its fountain, ordered façades and wrought-iron balconies create one of the most sensitive settings in the old centre. Between Richelme, the Town Hall and Albertas, Aix reveals three ways of inhabiting a square: trading, presenting, strolling.
Come early, when the city begins
The market on Place Richelme is best discovered in the morning. This is when the stalls are easiest to read, when cafés slowly fill and when the lanes still keep a trace of freshness.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the animation spreads into nearby streets with the other markets of the centre. But Richelme keeps its own role: a small, regular, living square where it quickly becomes clear why Aix remains so attached to its markets.
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