Aix-en-Provence Restaurants in February, 2012
 

DH and I, along with one other couple, will be in Aix-en-Provence for 4 nights in February, 2012. Realizing that this is not high season and some restaurants may be closed, can anyone give us recommendations for restaurants which stay open year-round? We are not looking for the meal of our lives - good, simple food will meet our requirements.

We are staying at Le Manoir, which didn't have sterling reviews on TripAdvisor, but we have personal acquaintances who have stayed there recently and said that their experience was fine. We will have a car, but would prefer to walk to dinner at night, even in February.

Thank you.

Aix is a major university town and the seat of regional courts and government, so it does not shut down out of season.

One very simple restaurant that we have enjoyed over the years is Les Tournelles, at the top of Rue Cardinal. While it may have succumbed to the economy, we enjoyed good local cuisine under two different owners. The other customers were from the neighborhood, and you will need to be able to order in French, or would have five years ago when we were last there.

DH and I had a wonderful lunch at Brasserie de l'Archevêché (you can google it for map). From your hotel, if you walk up to Rue des Cordeliers and turn right, you'll also find all sorts of restaurants. You will pass them to reach nearby Place de l'Archevêché.

You might want to make reservations. It was crowded at lunch time. As Ackislander says, Aix's university status makes is less vulnerable to tourist season. We made it a base as well and loved the general area around the town hall.

I stayed at the Manoir several years ago. It has a car park, that makes a plus.
I enjoyed the place except for the aweful breakfast in the cloisters. Eat your breakfast eleswhere, unless it's changed.
The best restaurant, if you like fine dining, is
Closerie de lilas

I am bringing this thread back to the top to say thank you to the ones who responded. I have noted these restaurants in my file. I much prefer personal recommendations over randomly choosing a place.

This trip is partly a business trip for our traveling companions as they own a winery themselves and will have appointments at various vineyards/wineries. I am excited about this sort of 'back stage' visit. We will rent a car in Aix and stay there as our base for 4 nights. Then, we will drive to Modene and spend 4 nights there at Villa-Noria. We are waiting to hear back from the final place, Domaine du Quinson in Francillon, as to 3 nights there before returning the car in Valence and taking the train to Paris. We will stay 3 nights in Paris before coming home.

My husband and I have traveled abroad before - not extensively - but we are not novices, and I believe are fairly resourceful. We've not been able to access funds from an ATM in various places for one reason or another - but mostly because we bank with a Credit Union. They are members of the Plus and Cirrus systems, so we ought to be able to withdraw Euro no problem. We could not access our funds in Italy in 2008 and we've had occasional problems in the UK.

For our last two international trips, we opened a personal account with a national bank for travel purposes only. This seemed to be a good idea, until fees started totaling up. Unless we are traveling, we never kept more than $100 or so in the account.

I remember in Italy when we could not get Euro from the ATM, we planned a visit to the bank during regular business hours and received Euro from the teller using the information on our ATM card and showing our passports. I don't have a problem with this, even if they charge a convenience fee, but my hesitation now is that we will not be in very large cities where there may or may not be banks.

I am curious to know what others would do, and if anyone has any comments on where we are staying.

Topping

DH and I also have Cirrus. As you, DH usually tried to use an ATM outside of a bank. On maybe 1 or 2 occasions per trip, the outdoor unit refused his card so he just went inside the bank and was able to get money.

I can't think of why our cards wouldn't work though. If there's an ATM, there will be a bank and if there is a town with a post office, there will be a bank. I presume your pin number is of 4 digits? Just load up on cash before you go to the "boonies" I guess. Wish I knew how to help.

Your trip sounds so wonderful! We had no trouble in Aix if I remember correctly.