Aix-en-Provence is celebrating its most famous son, Paul Cézanne, in 2025 with an extensive commemoration that highlights the artist's profound connection to the Provence region. The cultural and university city has launched a major exhibition at the Musée Granet, showcasing nearly one hundred masterworks under the title "Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan," running through October 12. The exhibition features approximately ninety paintings by Cézanne alongside several loans from major international museums.

Cézanne's presence is inescapable throughout Aix-en-Provence, where his name appears on street signs, building walls, and restaurant menus throughout the beloved cultural destination. Some local establishments even serve still-life presentations on plates, featuring artfully arranged fruits, vegetables, and cheese reminiscent of his famous paintings. The artist's deliberate approach to painting sets him apart from his contemporaries – he was known to take fifteen to twenty minutes between brushstrokes, constantly reconsidering and revising his work.

The newly restored family estate Jas de Bouffan has opened its doors to visitors for the first time, offering insight into the environment that shaped Cézanne's artistic development. The Cézanne family moved to this countryside mansion in 1859 when it still lay outside the city limits, complete with an enormous garden and swimming pool that still exists today. The property features towering cypress trees, the sound of flowing water, massive chestnut trees, and the legendary light of Provence, surrounded everywhere by rich lavender fields that create an atmosphere where time seems to flow more deliberately.

Cézanne was expected to follow his father into banking, as the former hat-maker held little regard for painting. However, he allowed his son to use the grand salon on the ground floor as a studio, where Paul painted the interior walls. During recent renovation work, traces of previously unknown wall paintings were discovered, adding new layers to understanding the artist's early development.

Visitors to modern Aix-en-Provence inevitably follow the traces of the famous artist throughout the living city, where Cézanne's influence flows organically through shady old town alleys, past bubbling fountains and colorful markets, over sun-warmed cobblestones. Bronze markers on the ground indicate the official Cézanne walking tour route. The Cours Mirabeau serves as the pulsating living room of Aix, featuring coffeehouses, fountains, city palaces, and abundant Provençal flair – the same streets where young Cézanne strolled before turning away from urban bustle.

Beyond the city center, nestled within pine forests, visitors can find the clear lines of the Bibémus quarry, whose stones were used to construct parts of the city. Cézanne loved this location, developing his visual language further among the rocks. Today, shuttle buses transport visitors to this protected area, which offers enchanting views and, ideally, silence amid wild nature and warm colors. What distinguished the artist from others was his treatment of light, inspired by the Impressionists and particularly through his stays in L'Estaque, a picturesque district of Marseille located directly on the coast, where the Mediterranean Sea and shimmering sunlight profoundly influenced his work.

Paul Cézanne eventually built himself a studio in Les Lauves, a district in northern Aix-en-Provence, where from 1902 he worked daily in the light-flooded room with a view from the north window toward Montagne Sainte-Victoire – the distinctive mountain he immortalized in numerous paintings. Visitors today can still experience the atmospheric elements of his workspace, where his hat and painting smock remain displayed. Cézanne died in 1906 from complications of pneumonia that he contracted while painting outdoors.

The journey through Cézanne's Provence extends to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where visitors can walk in the footsteps of another artistic giant at the former monastery psychiatric facility Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Vincent van Gogh found refuge here after his mental breakdown, arriving voluntarily following the infamous ear incident. His "Irises," "The Starry Night," and many other masterworks were created here. The location continues to function as a psychiatric facility while also serving as a museum and memorial site, with the picturesque garden still breathing Vincent's spirit.

The city of Arles, gateway to the Camargue region, forms another essential part of van Gogh's story, where he painted his most famous works including the sunflowers, the yellow house, and the nighttime café, while hoping in vain for an artistic community. Today the city attracts visitors with its ancient architecture, winding streets, and the legacy of another world-renowned artist. Unrecognized during his lifetime, Cézanne continues to teach people how to truly see – not to scan, not to like, not to rush, but to become still in order to translate the world into forms, lines, and colors. Provence represents not merely a landscape, but a state of being, and therein lies its particular appeal for art lovers and travelers alike.