Eating can be a challenge, an adventure, a delight, or a nightmare if you are squeamish. Many restaurants in and around Aix-en-Provence provide translations of the menu and "carte". Ingredients, preparation and taste are, in general, highly recomandable. In addition to its refinement, provençal cooking is notoriously balanced and wholesome. The "cuisine du Midi" >meedee< (south of France), is composed of localy grown produce and reflects the daily and seasonal market.

where to eat | what to eat

Café life is one of France’s great institutions and Aix a fine example in the art of a rich and varied futilitarianism… to idle musarder >myzahdeh< as antidote to"overdote” of modern living. The café is the place to practice, and the cours Mirabeau, a school for sitting, staring, and being. Like the barber’s chair, it is a massage for the sagging soul. A front row seat on the terrace of a café cost the price of a coffee, a "sirop", a "pression" or a "ballon de rouge" ou "un petit blanc". If you can’t afford that, sit on one of the benches facing the cafés… drink a Monoprix coke, and enjoy the passing scene.

where to drink | what to drink