The Mazarin quarter is a grid of straight, narrow streets laid out in 1646 by the brother of Cardinal Mazarin. The contrast with the medieval tangle north of the Cours Mirabeau is immediate — wide pavements, low traffic, almost no shops, and an unbroken run of dignified seventeenth- and eighteenth-century town houses.
Walk down Rue Cardinale to the Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins, a small square with a fountain of four chubby dolphins spouting water at each corner. The Musee Granet sits in the eastern half of the quarter, and several of the city's most lavish hotels particuliers — Hotel Boyer d'Eguilles, Hotel Maynier d'Oppede — line the streets, occasionally open for guided tours. The whole quarter is quieter and more residential than the rest of Aix; come in the early evening for an aperitif at the Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins and watch the light slide off the warm stone facades.