Les Deux Garcons

The legendary Cours Mirabeau brasserie, where Cezanne and Zola argued about art

Address 53 Cours Mirabeau, 13100 Aix-en-Provence

Les Deux Garcons, known to every Aixois as Les 2G, has been the most famous cafe on the Cours Mirabeau since 1792. Cezanne and Zola drank here as schoolboys, the Goncourts dined here, Picasso sat at the terrace, and the gilded mirrored interior is almost unchanged from the early nineteenth century.

A serious fire in late 2019 closed it for years; the building has since been restored. The food is honest brasserie cooking at tourist prices, but no one comes here for the menu. Order a pastis, sit on the terrace, and watch the Cours go by. It is one of the great cafe experiences in France.

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A story
When Emile Zola published his novel L'Oeuvre in 1886 — a thinly veiled portrait of a failed painter — Cezanne, who saw himself in the lead character, walked out of Les Deux Garcons and ended their twenty-year friendship that night. They never spoke again.