Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons
MonumentHidden Treasure
Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons, located in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.5273, 5.4505
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00081069
A living emblem of the Cours Mirabeau, the Café des Deux Garçons is an 18th-century Aix institution where Cézanne, Zola and Picasso sipped absinthe, set in a Second Empire décor of rare elegance.
History
At the heart of the Cours Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence's most famous thoroughfare, the building housing the Café des Deux Garçons is one of the most eloquent examples of French café life as it flourished between the 18th and 19th centuries. Founded in 1792, the establishment occupies the ground floor of a building in the classic Provençal style, whose sober, elegant façade harmoniously contrasts with the hundred-year-old plane trees shading the avenue. There's an immediate sense of that typically southern duality: the architectural rigour of French classicism tempered by the sensuality of the ochre and limestone of the region. What really sets the 'Deux G' apart, as it is affectionately known in Aix, is the remarkable preservation of its Belle Époque interior: gilded wood panelling, endlessly bevelled mirrors, blood-red velvet banquettes, and patinated bronze light fittings that cast a golden glow on a skilfully aged herringbone parquet floor. Every detail evokes the golden age of Parisian literary cafés, transported to sunny Provence. The experience of visiting goes beyond simple architectural contemplation: to sit on the terrace under the plane trees, with a café crème in front of you, is to become part of a dizzying historical continuity that links you directly to Cézanne sketching his first mental canvases, to Émile Zola feverishly discussing literature, or to Picasso observing the low evening light on the gilded façades of the Cours. The café has remained open and alive, making it a living monument, perhaps the most precious of all statutes. The Cours Mirabeau itself, laid out in 1649 on the site of the old medieval walls, is an ideal setting for this building. The mossy fountains that punctuate the avenue, the monumental perspective of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mansions on the south side, the succession of cafés and bookshops on the north side - all combine to make this address not just an architectural monument, but a fragment of Provençal collective memory, rightly protected since 1984 as a Historic Monument.
Architecture
The façade of the Café des Deux Garçons building is typical of classical 18th-century Provencal architecture, in keeping with the style of the tenement buildings lining the north side of the Cours Mirabeau. Built of local limestone in warm shades ranging from creamy white to golden ochre, the building's facade is arranged over several storeys, punctuated by moulded windows and wrought-iron balconnets. The top cornice, with its modillions, crowns the whole with the elegant sobriety characteristic of southern classicism, which is distinct in its lightness from its Parisian equivalent. The commercial area on the ground floor was extensively remodelled in the mid-19th century to accommodate the Second Empire interior decor for which the establishment is now renowned. The main room features a coherent ensemble of painted and gilded panelling, high bevelled mirrors that multiply the space infinitely, coffered ceilings decorated with floral motifs and cartouches, and a solid carved wooden counter. The gilded bronze light fittings, suspended from plaster rosettes, complete a décor of remarkable quality that finds few equivalents so well preserved in the provinces. The outside terrace, which harmoniously extends the establishment onto the shaded pavement of the Cours, is in itself an essential architectural and heritage feature, an extension of the interior space towards the great urban theatre of the Cours Mirabeau.
Related Figures
Paul Cézanne — peintre post-impressionniste né à Aix en 1839, client emblématique de l'établissementÉmile Zola — écrivain naturaliste, ami d'enfance de Cézanne, habitué du café dans sa jeunesse aixoisePablo Picasso — artiste espagnol ayant fréquenté l'établissement lors de ses séjours en ProvenceAlbert Camus — écrivain et philosophe, figure intellectuelle du Midi méditerranéenFrédéric Mistral — poète provençal et défenseur de la langue d'oc, figure incontournable de la vie intellectuelle aixoise du XIXe siècleErnest Hemingway — écrivain américain ayant séjourné sur la Côte d'Azur et dont le passage aux Deux Garçons est attesté par la tradition orale
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons located?
Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons is located in Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons built?
Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons open to visitors?
Immeuble du Café des Deux Garçons is currently closed to visitors.