Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BICYCLE Electric-cycles.fr
( 04 42 39 90 37;
www.electric-cycles.fr
; 17bis rue
Frédéric Mistral; per 1hr/day/week €4/20/90;
closed Mon morning & Sun)
rents bikes
with electrical motors.
BUS Aix en Bus
( 09 70 80 90 13;
www.aixenbus.fr
;
27 rue des Cordeliers; 1/10 tick-
ets €1/7, 3-day pass €5; 8.30am-7pm Mon-Sat)
runs local buses. Most run until 8pm.
La Rotonde is the main hub. The tourist office also has schedules.
»
Train station: Minibus 2 serves La Rotonde and cours Mirabeau.
»
Vieil Aix Diabline: Electric shuttles circle the old town (€0.50, every 10 minutes
Monday to Saturday).
»
Night shuttle: Must be 18 to 30 to ride.
Taxi
Taxis can be found outside the bus station. Also try
Taxi Mirabeau
( 04 42 21 61
61)
or
Taxi Radio Aixois
( 04 42 27 71 11)
.
SALON DE PROVENCE
Delve into old town Salon, fortified in the 12th century, from
place Crousillat
, the prettiest square. From 1547 until
his death in 1566, the philosopher Nostradamus lived at
Maison de Nostradamus
( 04 90 56 64 31; 11 rue
Nostradamus; adult/child €3.05/2.30; 9am-noon & 2-6pm Mon-Fri, 2-6pm Sat & Sun)
. His remains lie behind a
plaque inside the Gothic 14th-century
Collégiale St-Laurent
(place St-Laurent)
.
From the turn of the 20th century until the 1950s, soap was a buoyant business thanks to Salon's abundance of
olive oil and the palm and copra oils arriving from French colonies.
Savonnerie Marius Fabre
( 04 90 53 82
75;
www.marius-fabre.fr
;
148 av Paul Borret; admission with/without tour €3.50/2.50; 8.30am-noon &
2-5.30pm Mon-Thu, to 4pm Fri, guided tours 10.30am Mon & Thu)
, run by three generations dating from 1900,
paints a vivid portrait of the industry with its small museum.
Savonnerie Rampal-Latour
( 04 90 56 07 28;
www.rampal-latour.com
;
71 rue Félix Pyat; admission free; 8am-noon & 2-5pm Mon-Fri)
offers tours; book at
the
tourist office
( 04 90 56 27 60;
www.visitsalondeprovence.com
; 56 cours Gimon; 9.30am-6.30pm Mon-
Sat, 9.30am-12.30pm Sun Jul & Aug, shorter hrs Sep-Jun)
. You can buy soap at factory prices in its beautiful 1907
boutique.
The 12th-century
Abbaye de Sainte Croix
(
04 90 56 24 55;
www.relais-chateaux.com/sainte
croix; D16,
Val de Cuech; d €170-440, menus €52-109;
Apr-Oct;
)
, 2km east of Salon, is one of Provence's
great historic hotels and a gourmet restaurant.
