France - Montagne Sainte-Victoire and Cézanne sites

Overlooking the Pays d'Aix en Provence, the Sainte-Victoire mountain is a characteristic relief of the "limestone Provence": it culminates at 1000 meters. It is first of all a very rich natural site because of its palaeontological heritage (dinosaur eggs), the diversity 'of its flora (a thousand species have been listed) and its fauna (birds). It is also a cultural site whose prehistoric and historical vestiges bear witness to the great events and the diversity of human activities of the region has known since the oldest ages. But it is above all the unique beauty of its landscapes transcended by the work of Paul Cézanne that has made Sainte-Victoire Mountain famous throughout the world. Moreover, near the mountain, in Aix-en-Provence, the main places where Paul Cézanne lived were saved. These main sites are the Château de Jas de Bouffan, its workshop in the city center, the careers of Bibemus, the Black Castle, the banks of the Arc ... The Cézanian heritage of the Pais d'Aix is ​​therefore remarkably complete, and until now, well preserved. Today these sites Cézaniens are the object of an important frequentation of tourists amateurs of art which come from the whole world. The mountain is also a place for walking, hiking and high-level sports that attracts a very large number of visitors: more than 750000 in 1995.