Look up ahead and you’ll spot Place Richelme by its lively market scene: colorful tents, piles of fresh vegetables, and a canopy of plane trees shading the square, all tucked among the warm yellow shutters and bustling faces of Aix-en-Provence’s old town.
Imagine the buzz all around you-shouts from vendors hawking tomatoes and olives, the smell of herbs drifting through the air, sun casting dappled light across heaps of vegetables, and the shuffle of locals picking out the ripest produce. Welcome to Place Richelme, which has been at the very heart of Aix-en-Provence since the Middle Ages. Back in 1360, after the two parts of this town became one, this was the “place aux Herbes”-the spot where everyone came together to trade in the freshest goods, largely thanks to Queen Jeanne, who put it on the map with royal approval in 1365! If you visited in the days of good King René, you might have seen a chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian right here, but-spoiler alert-that was replaced by a fish market in 1618, and if you’re unlucky you might catch a whiff from the ghosts of old sardines.
But there’s more: this square is really two squares snuggled together, each from a different era. One corner still carries the memory of the “banc du Roi”-the King’s bench-where special stone seats once lined the market, and anyone who claimed that prime seat was the envy of every tomato-seller. In 1930 the “place aux Herbes” got a fancy new name: Place Richelme, honoring Marie-Rose Richelme, whose uncle was a local opera star-can you picture the arias echoing among the cabbages? Even today, every morning, farmers and gardeners show up just as they have since medieval times, so no trip to Aix would be complete without a whiff and a wander here. And don’t leave without finding the “Fountain of the Boar” at the south end-a bronze beast with a tale as tangled as the roots of the old market stalls. Now, on to our next adventure!
