My wife and I have been to France a few times, and always rent a car. We also try to avoid the large cities for fear of getting lost, and wasting time stuck in traffic. We would love to visit the market in Aix, but not sure how easy it is driving in the city. Your tips or suggestions?

We drove in, it took quite a while, got a bit lost and then we struggled to find parking.

And this was not on market day...

Indeed: it's not the driving that's a problem; it's finding a parking place.

When we went to Aix for the day we did manage to find a parking garage. There was a handy map on the wall in the lobby where you paid but the directions looked really complicated to get out of the city. We were clearly tourists trying to figure things out and a local asked if he could help. We told him what we needed to do and he said "Follow me, I'm going in that direction." So we followed him and he lead us out of the city to get on the correct highway. It was not a straightforward shot by any means. We were very happy to have had an escort. We were also happy to have been able to spend the day in Aix.

Hi bar,

Have you considered using www.viamichelin.com to plot your route?