No streetscape better epitomises Provence’s most graceful city than this 440m-long, fountain-studded street, sprinkled with Renaissance hôtels particuliers (private mansions) and crowned with a summertime roof of leafy plane trees. It was laid out in the 1650s and later named after the Revolutionary hero the Comte de Mirabeau. Cézanne and Zola hung out at Les Deux Garçons, one of a string of busy pavement cafes.

　　Among the most impressive hôtels particuliers is Hôtel d’Espagnet (1647) at No 38, a masterpiece of the Aix baroque style built for a successful cloth merchant who rose to the aristocracy.