The grand boulevard of Aix runs east-west between two squares and four fountains, with four rows of plane trees forming a leafy canopy that turns the whole street green from spring to autumn. To the north sit the cafes — Les Deux Garcons, where Cezanne and Zola argued as students, still trades on its reputation — and to the south the dignified facades of the seventeenth-century town houses of the Mazarin quarter.
Walk it slowly. The Cours is for sitting, watching, eating an ice cream from Beraud, and getting your bearings. The big Saturday market spills onto its eastern end at La Rotonde, the fountain-roundabout at the western end is the symbol of Aix, and most of the city's interesting streets lead off the Cours to one side or the other.