The best cycling routes around Venelles

The dam of Lake Zola can be reached via beautiful trails. It was built between 1847 and 1854 and is one of the first arch dams in the world; according to Wikipedia, it may even be the very first. The lake served to supply Aix-en-Provence with drinking water, which was piped there via an aqueduct. A beautiful destination directly from Aix, or from Le Tholonet.

A great walk to do early in the morning because the heat rises quickly!

A little rocky, ride gently

In the 15th century, the architect Jean de Paris, Controller of Royal Buildings, designed the Villeneuve district, to the east of the city, with a concern for regular perspectives and layouts. The "rue du boulevard" (Emeric David street) is the strong alignment of the new district. Ledoux centered the facade of his new Palace on it. Built on the site of the former Comtal Palace, the Palais de Justice was commissioned in 1787 from Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, who had simultaneously imagined the restructuring of the district. More than 200 houses were destroyed to create this new building. The Revolution broke out and the work was suspended, only to resume in 1822, slightly modified by Michel Penchaud, the prison architect. Completed in 1831, the Court moved in on November 13, 1832. In front of the Palace, monuments in honor of Siméon and Portalis* were erected in 1842, works by Ramus from Aix, inaugurated on November 8, 1847. The neoclassical pediment, planned like that of the Palais de Justice in Marseille, was never realized. Jean-Etienne-Marie Portalis (1778-1807) was a brilliant Provençal jurist, a long-time lawyer in Aix, and a member of the city council in 1789. Napoleon entrusted him, along with others, with the drafting of the Civil Code. Having become Minister, he marked his time by drafting the Concordat with the churches of France.

Originally, the church was in the shape of a Latin cross and consisted only of the nave, transept, bell tower, and watchtowers to the north and south of the choir, as well as the Hélion de Villeneuve chapel (14th century) with its beautiful ribbed vault featuring liernes and tiercerons. Outside, the twenty or so stepped buttresses topped with pinnacles are hidden on Rue Cardinale by the unimpressive buildings attached to the monument in the 17th century. The 67-meter-high bell tower was completed in 1376. The priory, now the Granet Museum, served both as the residence of the knights and as a hospice where pilgrims were welcomed and the sick cared for. The church and the priory were built in the fields, outside the city walls. They were set into the central vista of the Mazarin Quarter in the 17th century, built by Michel de Mazarin, brother of Louis XIV's minister. The building was remodeled during the 17th century by Prior Jean-Claude Viany, who had six chapels built within the buttresses and, for symmetry, added the south turret similar to the one on the north side that provides access to the bell tower. In 2018, after 225 years, the church received three new bells for its carillon, out of the four that comprise it. The three previous bells had been cast in 1793 during Napoleon's Italian campaign.

In its current form, the Church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte is the first entirely Gothic church in Provence. It was built between 1270 and 1280 by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, replacing an older building whose dedication is known to have been celebrated by Cardinal Pierre de Colmieu on May 3, 1251. The lightness and elegance of the Gothic rib vaults, which support the pillars, give the nave a dynamic and rhythmic quality that earned it the nickname "Sainte-Chapelle of the South." The side windows are less open than those in churches in the Île-de-France region, but the apse window is exceptionally large for Provence. The overall effect was restored during the recent restoration work carried out in 1996, by highlighting the two-tone effect of the ochre wall surfaces and the white architectural elements, restoring to the space its luminosity, simplicity, elegance, and dynamism. The current building was constructed as the mausoleum of the Counts of Provence: – the tomb of Raymond Berenger V and his wife Beatrice of Savoy in the north transept – the tombs of Beatrice of Provence and her husband Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples, which were destroyed during the French Revolution. This church can be considered a kind of ‘Provençal Saint-Denis’.

In front of the Palais de Justice stretches the Place des Prêcheurs, created in the 15th century, the center of public and social life before the creation of the Cours Mirabeau. Around 1640, the architect Jean Lombard continued the work begun by Jean de Paris during the expansion of the city with the Villeneuve district, by establishing the layout of the eastern bank of the Place des Prêcheurs with large buttresses of angled splays. The Fontaine des Prêcheurs was decorated in 1748 by Jean Pancrace Chastel with four medallions, destroyed in 1793 then reestablished in 1833, restored largely thanks to American patronage.

Very worthwhile excursion from Aix, the altitude is worth it!