The Cezanne exhibition in the summer of 2025 was beautifully presented and extremely well organised. This is the overwhelming reason I wanted to visit the museum. However, the permanent collection did not inspire me so much and the floor with the modern art section was closed and will be closed until October.
Whilst the exhibition was 5 stars, my following comments drop a star and they are based on the organisation and feeling given over to me about the museum. I paid full price and I do not believe this is a fair price for this type of gallery compared to others I have seen throughout France and elsewhere in similar European cities, especially when one of their major sections is closed. It does not encourage people to see great art when they visit a beautiful city like Aix. This is particularly true of younger people unless they can take advantage of a cheaper ticket. Arrival organisation of the visit: There is no ticket office at the gallery. I was told I could reserve a ticket online or walk to the tourist office, whilst close by, this is an inconvenience. I reserved my ticket online and it was a complicated and difficult process. The first message on entering the website was "Pour des raisons de forte affluence, les réservations peuvent être momentanément perturbées. Dans ces cas là, merci de réessayer ultérieurement. " In English, it was translated to something like the connection may fail and please be patient as it is overloaded. This was confusing and from what I was told from a person at an information point, this message is always visible. The process of booking a ticket online was unfriendly with many pages to scroll down to reach the point of booking. Regarding the entry to the building: the space taken up by security looks and feels unpleasant and unwelcoming. The grandeur of the security is intimidating. I hope that in the future someone will make the security more subtle and include a ticket office or improve what is...
Read moreThe temporary exhibition about Cezanne was fabulous however the organisation of the museum leaves huuuuuge space for improvement. The tickets can not be bought in the museum even if the next available slot is in the next 30 minutes. You have to buy online or in tourist office which is 700 meters away. The most ridiculous solution I’ve ever encountered in any other museum. You’re advised to come 30 minutes before just to stand in the queue. Instead of letting people enter on small groups they just put a mass of people to enter small space of the exhibition all together to make the small rooms super crowded. No logic at all. And the worst out of it is the stroller unfriendly policy! Nowhere at the stage of buying tickets online you learn strollers are not allowed. You learn it when entering museum. Parent must carry the child all the time. As I was nowhere before made aware of it I didn’t bring any baby carrier. They finallly made exception for me after consulting their head of security 🤯 the museum has lifts inside but first you need to make two round of stairs in front to enter the building which is a tough barrier for people with strollers or with wheelchairs. This all happens in France and touristic town! Shame and the difficulties they made for people with reduced mobility and first of all not informing the customer on the stage of buying ticket just spoils the whole experience. The staff also is not very helpful as this is a bother to have reduced mobility person as a visitor. Only one woman on the lower floor was actually nice. The rest was behaving as this is such a nuisance. Total disappointment and I’ve been to hundreds of museums before. 2 stars as the exhibition was first class but organisationally it’s a...
Read moreThe Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence Town Hall's cultural institution, provides over 4000m2 exploring artistic design from Antiquity, 16th-19th century French (Le Nain brothers, Ingres, Granet), Flemish (Rembrandt, Rubens) and Italian painting (the Flémalle master) to masterpieces from modern and contemporary art. The museum presents the wonderful Philippe Meyer donation, "from Cézanne to Giacometti". The room devoted to Cézanne features ten masterpieces including the latest acquisition, the Portrait of Emile Zola.
The priceless Planque collection joined the museum for 15 years in 2010. It includes almost 300 paintings, drawings and sculptures from the impressionists and post-impressionists (Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas) to major 20th-century artists such as Bonnard, Picasso, Braque, Léger, de Staël and Dubuffet. The museum has expanded into the White Penitents Chapel, a jewel of 17th century Aix architecture, to present the bulk of this fabulous collection.
The Musée Granet regularly hosts exhibitions on an international scale. It also provides an exciting schedule of temporary exhibitions, talks, educational and cultural activities.
Guided tours for groups and the general public are available in the museum's permanent and temporary collections in French, English, German and Spanish. Audioguides are available to hire in several languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese).
Activities for children and families are available all year round (guided tours and workshops). A games booklet for the collections is available for free, just ask at reception.
The Musée Granet has been awarded the Tourisme et Handicap label (motor, hearing...
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