Rue des Étuves

The Rue des Étuves is a quiet lane defined by its narrow passage and ochre-colored facades, threading through the historic core of Aix-en-Provence. The name itself preserves a direct link to the city’s Roman origins as Aquae Sextiae, or the waters of Sextius. In the local dialect, the word refers back to the public thermal baths that once operated in this immediate area, drawing upon the same natural hot springs that prompted the Roman consul Caius Sextius Calvinus to establish the settlement here in one hundred twenty-two before the common era.