Musée Granet

The Musée Granet is the fine arts museum of Aix-en-Provence, housed in the former priory of the Knights of Malta in the Quartier Mazarin, beside the church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte. It takes its name from François Marius Granet, an Aix-born painter of the early nineteenth century who studied in Paris and Rome and left his own works and collection to his native city. The museum began as a municipal drawing school and picture gallery and grew steadily into one of the main museums of Provence, with galleries that run from antiquity to the twentieth century.

The reason most visitors come is Paul Cézanne, who was born in Aix and spent most of his life in and around it. The museum shows paintings by Cézanne in dedicated galleries, among them landscapes of the Provençal countryside and views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, the limestone mountain he painted again and again. Seeing them in the town where he lived adds to the experience, and it fits neatly with a visit to the Atelier de Cézanne, his studio on the hill north of the centre, and a walk toward the Mont Sainte-Victoire itself.

The rest of the collection is wide. The painting galleries include French, Italian and Northern European work from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, alongside Provençal painting, sculpture and archaeological finds from the region, among them objects from the Celtic-Ligurian site of Entremont near Aix. Nineteenth-century French painting is represented by Granet himself, whose views of Italian churches and interiors are often atmospheric, and by Ingres, whose Jupiter and Thetis hangs here and counts among the museum's prized works.

Temporary exhibitions are a regular feature and often cross over into photography and modern art; the museum has hosted a show of photographs taken by Paul McCartney in 1963 and 1964 during the early days of The Beatles, a very different offering from the old masters. The Chapelle des Pénitents blancs is used as an exhibition space and belongs to the same museum, and it is worth checking what is on there when you plan your visit.

The museum suits art lovers, followers of Cézanne's trail, and anyone who wants a quiet and cool hour away from the streets. It is a short walk from the Cours Mirabeau and the Fontaine de la Rotonde, so it combines well with a day in the old town. Check the current opening hours, ticket price and security arrangements before you go.