The best cycling routes around Peynier

A superb road clinging to the hillside between rocks and vineyards, offering sweeping views across the plain. The surface has been almost entirely redone... it's like a billiard table!

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)

very beautiful and easy climb, view of Saint Victoire below, rapid descent towards St Sac

It is beautiful here

Superb view of the Ste Victoire

Bronze statue of the famous Aix-en-Provence painter, Paul Cezanne, created by Dutch sculptor Gabriel Sterk. Standing 2.25 meters tall, Cezanne is depicted ready to paint "from life," with his hat, backpack, and walking stick. Sterk was inspired by a photograph when creating his work. The sculptor, renowned for his bronzes, particularly those of artists such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh, settled in Aix-en-Provence in 2000. Surprised by the lack of a statue paying tribute to the local boy, he decided to create one. It was subsequently donated to the city by the Aix-en-Oeuvre association and installed in 2006 on the centenary of Cezanne's death. The statue faces the Rotunda and the Cours Mirabeau, but above all the Sainte-Victoire, the painter's favorite subject.

In the 15th century, the architect Jean de Paris, Controller of Royal Buildings, designed the Villeneuve district, to the east of the city, with a concern for regular perspectives and layouts. The "rue du boulevard" (Emeric David street) is the strong alignment of the new district. Ledoux centered the facade of his new Palace on it. Built on the site of the former Comtal Palace, the Palais de Justice was commissioned in 1787 from Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, who had simultaneously imagined the restructuring of the district. More than 200 houses were destroyed to create this new building. The Revolution broke out and the work was suspended, only to resume in 1822, slightly modified by Michel Penchaud, the prison architect. Completed in 1831, the Court moved in on November 13, 1832. In front of the Palace, monuments in honor of Siméon and Portalis* were erected in 1842, works by Ramus from Aix, inaugurated on November 8, 1847. The neoclassical pediment, planned like that of the Palais de Justice in Marseille, was never realized. Jean-Etienne-Marie Portalis (1778-1807) was a brilliant Provençal jurist, a long-time lawyer in Aix, and a member of the city council in 1789. Napoleon entrusted him, along with others, with the drafting of the Civil Code. Having become Minister, he marked his time by drafting the Concordat with the churches of France.

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.