Ancient and youthful, Aix has been a crossroads from the beginning of history, a place of excitement and learning. With the current influx of people brought by the growing numbers of international businesses, Aix is enriched with influences from all over the world.

Aix boasts one of the best universities in France and the town is dedicated to warmly welcoming its students while preserving the intellectual, visual and cultural pleasures that are associated with the finest aspects of life in France.

Being a university town, Aix provides a natural intellectual environment from which the Institute for American Universities benefits and to which it contributes. The many concerts, summer festivals, libraries, museums, bookstores, markets, and cafés have earned Aix its reputation as one of France's most engaging cities. This is a city whose diverse offerings are easily accessible for students-it is small enough that one can walk across the main part of town in 15 minutes. Aix is emphatically not, however, a sleepy village. It bustles with pedestrians, cars, mopeds, and the voices of its inhabitants.