aterug

We are going to be there for a week starting Friday and have a cottage where we plan to just relax and unwind and perhaps cook a little.

Other than that, where would you recommend we go to get amazing food ? Wife is vegetarian so cant be a strictly carnivorous place but otherwise she is not picky.

We wont have a car ($700+ to get an automatic for the week) so are limited to Aix and perhaps Marseilles.


thank you!

SanDiego1K

Should you decide to rent a car for a day to explore the area, I recommend this restaurant. Or perhaps it's worth checking at your hotel to see what a taxi would cost, as it is on the outskirts of Aix.

Le Mas D’Entremont, just north of Aix – It was a grand house now made into a hotel. It's a bit shabby, but it has beautiful grounds including a large terrace where meals can be taken in the summer. Food was awesome. We hadn’t expected that; no Michelin star, has 3 red forks. Chef made a cheese in a jar that had to be spooned out. It was phenomenal.

aterug

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._Provence.html

Thank you - I will see if I can get there using the bus. Or might just take a cab.

NickB

I wholeheartedly agree with that recommendation. Probably my favourite in Aix in the summer (they close in the winter).
if you want to go there by bus, the bus you want is bus 13 and you want to take it westbound/Northbound towards Puyricard (as opposed to Eastbound/Southbound towards le Tholonet). You wll need to get off at the "La Rapine" bus stop. The bus will go past the entrance to the hotel and restaurant (on the left hand side of the road) and drop you a little further. You need to cross the road and backtrack some 200 meters or so. It should take about 15 minutes from the town centre (from the bottom of "Cours Sextius").

I have not taken a taxi in Aix in decades so I could not advise you on cost but I would not expect it to break the bank as it is not far at all (only a couple of miles from "La Rotonde", in the centre of town).

I just realised a downside re-reading your post, however, which is that this may not be a particularly vegetarian-friendly place as the menu is very much meat or fish-centred. See for yourself the menu on their website.

I also quite like Féraud, in a traditional provençal style, bang in the town centre, near the Town Hall (rue du Puits Juif). Not really sure how you would fare there as a vegetarian and, afaik, they do not have an online menu to check, but as it is in the town centre, you can go and check for yourself easily once you are there.

If you are looking for Michelin-starred restaurants, the only one in Aix is Pierre Reboul (the Clos de la Violette has closed).

MSPeconomist

Another suggestion that requires a car is Les Baux. It's a stunning old town on the top of an impressive "hill." There's a lovely R&C hotel at the bottom with a good restaurant. I don't know the current rating, but IIRC when I went it had two Michelin stars.

In Marseille, if you're facing into the town from the Old Port, I like the fish/seafood restaurant in the left corner. It's genuine high quality food and a local tradition, but not fancy.

Of course one must go to some of the sidewalk cafes in Aix.

NickB

That's widening the field quite a bit! Les Baux is in the Alpilles, near Arles rather than near Aix (about an hour drive away from Aix). What you describe sounds like l'Oustaù de Baumanière. Not a huge fan myself but undoubtedly firmly established on the fine dining circuit.

If you are going to look that far, there would also be quite a few places in the countryside nearer to Aix (eg: La Table de Ventabren, La Fenière in Cadenet, etc...) as well as in the Lubéron but these places would most definitely require a car.

serenade76

There where you could taste the famous Marseilles Bouillabaisse

MichaelBrighton

I don't know about the other places, but bus line 59 runs from Arles to Les Baux, so she's off on that "requiring a car" as well.

UAPremExecflyer

A vote for another restaurant that requires a car ... probably 75-90 mins from Aix ... in Le Barroux ... Gajulet
Ate there twice earlier in the year ... and the food and wine were really excellent ...

NickB

The idea that somebody would take a bus from Aix to Arles and then another one from Arles to Les Baux to have lunch at l'Oustau (dinner would be out of the question unless you stay overnight since the last feasible connection would mean leaving Les Baux around 5.30pm) and then the same thing in the other direction strikes me as utterly fanciful. Even if you like the food at l'Oustau, you are simply not going to spend a whole day in buses just to eat there.
If you are based in Arles, perhaps, but certainly not if you are based in Aix.

MichaelBrighton

The bus runs between Arles and Avignon. The ride from Arles to Les Baux is 35 minutes, from Avignon it is over one hour. I agree for someone based in Aix it is probably too far, but my point was that it is not necessary to have an auto to get there. I didn't say it was convenient (although if you're based in Arles, it is convenient).

But, if one would like to go there (and is based not so far away), there is train service to Arles and a 35 minute bus ride doesn't seem too much to reach an interesting and obscure location. And the last bus leaves Les Baux at 19:30. Getting to Arles station at 20:05. But, personally, I'd probably stay in the village that night and take the return trip the next day.

MichaelBrighton

Why, when the OP wrote he/she "won't have a car" do you recommend a place that "requires a car" ?

And do you know what? Just like the other poster who wrote "requires a car" - no, it does not. Bus 11 from Carpentras has 3 stops in the village. And Carpentras has a train station.

NickB

No more buses for Aix at that time, however. And making it in time for lunch in Les Baux would involve leaving Aix before 9am. This really is a complete non-starter from Aix. No problem from Arles, though, I agree.

MichaelBrighton

Why take a bus when there are trains? As it happens, there's a train leaving Arles station for Aix en Provence at 20:41, so, in theory, it is possible.

However, as I've written before: I don't find the distance convenient, as you wrote yourself earlier when this village was first proposed. So, these are suggestions for people who will be based closer to Arles where it makes more sense. Although personally I wouldn't necessarily spend my entire holiday with only one base.

NickB

Here speaks somebody who is not familiar with the train network in the region. Aix is not on a mainline and going by train to Aix would involve going down to Marseille and backtracking to Aix. Leaving Arles at 20.41 would mean arriving in Marseille at 21.42. If you run and the gods are with you, you might make the 21.45 to Aix, arriving at 22.29. Otherwise, you have to wait for the next train an hour later.

Alternatively, you could get off the train at Vitrolles Aéroport, take the shuttle bus to the airport and then take the bus from the airport to Aix. The airport-Aix shuttle is a frequent service so this might in practice work faster than taking the train all the way. If means 3 buses and one train all in all, though.

So, if you really, really, really, really want to do it, it is theoretically possible, in the same way as, if you really, really, really, really want to, you can probably go entirely by bus from London to Hong-Kong. If we come back to the real world, though, this is just not going to happen.