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GOURMET

Les Deux Garçons

No Visit To Aix En Provence Is Complete Without
A Trip To Les Deux Garçons. The City's Legendary

Brasserie Known Informally As The 2Gs.

T he establishment was purchased some of these clients decorate the walls on the ostentatious entrance, the skilled deployment
in 1840 by Guerin and Guidoni main staircase. of sunglasses and the multiple kiss on the
two waiters who gave the Today the classy ambiance remains, though the cheek, and it is always amusing to watch.”
current brasserie its name, and clientele is just as likely to consist of tourists
it became a haunt for the beau monde of Aix. and students, described thus by Peter Mayle Waiters in long black aprons zip to and fro and
Paul Cezanne enjoyed a very leisurely three- in A Year in Provence: "Aix is a university along the wide terrace where patrons watch the
hour apéritif before dinner daily with the town and there is clearly something in the world in the generous shade of a plane tree in
novelist Emile Zola, or with other artists also curriculum that attracts pretty students. The summer or the comforting glow of an outdoor
partial to the simple peasant dish aïoli. terrace of the Deux Garçons is always full of heater in winter. The food is traditional bistro
them as if they are taking a degree course in fare although regulars are known to linger over
Many other famous names have downed a café deportment…” a rosé, a pastis or a coffee.
glass here too, including Picasso, Churchill, “It is,” Mayle describes, “a tough discipline
Piaf, Delon, Belmondo and Cocteau. More that involves perfecting the art of the subtly 53 bis Cours Mirabeau, 13100
recently, Sophie Marceau, Hugh Grant and Aix-en-Provence, France
George Clooney all dropped by. Sketches of lesdeuxgarcons.fr

Photo: Jean-Paul Belmondo

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