We locals have been watching the ongoing work on the 300 year old mansion, the Hotel Caumont, for two years now as workmen repaired the roof, stonemasons worked on the ancient façade, and lorries drove in and out of what would be the garden area.
Twenty million euros later, all has been revealed and what an elegant renovation it is.
The ground floor is taken up with a large shop and a café and restaurant spilling out into the garden. Upstairs, there are two floors with galleries, currently showing the work of Canaletto.
You can eat or have a coffee without paying to see the exhibitions. You have to go to the ticket desk at the entrance and ask for a Café Pass. Unfortunately they have run out of them at the moment – ‘beaucoup du monde’ – but the desk lady just shouts over to the lady checking tickets to let you through!
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- Take tea in a corner of the beautiful cafe
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- Hard to believe this was an empty building site until recently
The food is very French, very elegantly served: salads all week, quiches and plats du jours on weekdays, brunch at the weekend. The ingredients were top quality
Barbier de Seville salad; artistically served
and carefully presented rather than being filling. About 16-18€. The desserts are patisseries served from a counter inside – what a choice! They obviously have a very good patisserie chef.
They offer a child’s menu for 9€ which is good but it does seem a rather formal setting for little ones – for instance, polite notices tell you to keep off the grass.
The lower garden is stunning with a typically Provencal fountain against the far wall, lines of perfectly tailored trees and huge pots of white flowers. I’m not normally into formal French gardens, my English soul preferring our blossoming billowing herbaceous borders, but the Hotel Caumont garden is simply lovely.
You can read here http://www.caumont-centredart.com/fr/decouvrir/restauration-lhotel-caumont/restauration-jardins how they found landscape architect Robert de Cotte’s original plans in the archives and how they adapted them.
We were expecting lots of people today as it has only recently opened plus it is ‘la Fete des Meres’, but at mid-day we got a good table in the shade with no trouble.
Open daily. Details – http://www.caumont-centredart.com/fr/preparer-sa-visite
What a wonderful experience and a big plus for Aix. Chapeau to Culturespaces!
Post on the Canaletto exhibition will follow.
aixcentric 
Wonderful. Just what Aix needs in contrast to the Allees Provencales.
Yes – it’s fabulous. I wonder what the Musee Granet make of it?