It’s not hard to imagine why so many artists come to make the south of France their home. From Picasso to Van Gogh, Cezanne to Chagall and beyond, the canvas of the countryside unfolds itself in a spectrum of shades of greens, golds, oranges and yellows, and of course purple as light appears and passes over and then disappears under the horizon.
We’ve now spent a few weeks, cumulatively, over three different trips to Provence. While a few weeks don’t make one an expert, it is long enough to formulate some favorites lists. So here’s ours:
Favorite city. From a city standpoint, we’ve visited Marseilles (didn’t care for it), Arles, Apt and Aix but our favorite was Avignon. Sweet little Avignon helped us fall in love with Provence and it remains our favorite city in the region. While there, be sure to check out the Palais du Papes.
Favorite market. We’ve been to the huge one in Aix, the massive winding one snaking through L’Isle-sur-La-Sorgue, and a sweet smaller one in Bonnieux. We avoided the one in Gordes, which is already a busy town with some difficult parking situations on busy days. Our favorite was in Roussillon. It isn’t huge, but it’s sizable, parking (just out of town) is easy and you can visit the charming red village and its neighboring ochre cliffs easily all on a market day (Thursday).
Driving… on the wider roads. “Sunday has a calming influence on the French motorist…. Tomorrow he will take up the mantle of the kamikaze pilot once again, but today it is Sunday in Provence, and life is to be enjoyed.” — Peter Mayle A Year in Provence
If you’ve driven in Europe you’ve undoubtedly experienced the “is this road a two way?” reaction as a white utility van or bus careens at you down a narrow lane. Throw in a pack of bikers expanding the width and refusing to yield and add to it the presence of an ancient stone wall on either side and you’ll understand the sentiment of driving on a wider road around Provence. The wide ones make the trip more enjoyable as you’re not always trying to navigate who should pull off to the side and how far can you move to the right before you land your tires in that drainage ditch dug perilously close to the driving surface.
Favorite hilltop village. We’ve visited several: Roussillon, Seguret, Bonnieux, more of them if you include those near the Côte d’Azur (Vence, St. Paul de Vence and Moughins) but our favorite is Gordes. We stayed there once, visited there more and it still holds up. Go early, if you’re there in summer, so you have some time to wend your way around before parking becomes a challenge and the hoards descend.
Shout out also to Bonnieux where we would likely stay next time we visit.
Favorite memories. Melissa sometimes says that when we are (hopefully) in our nineties and (likely) living a slower paced life, we will look back and say “remember that summer we went to those markets in Provence and bought fresh vegetables to cook up in our dinners?”
Our favorite memories and experiences are the slow evenings sitting on our terrace overlooking the olive grove of our Airbnb as the sun slips down below the horizon sometime well after 9 o’clock and our hosts’ dog sits at our feet.
Provence is meant to be experienced this way, right?
It’s not a trip to see lots of things, to check things off lists but to sit at a cafe for a while, pull off on the side of the road to take in a lavender field stretching to the horizon or pose in a field of sunflowers straining higher towards the sky. Or to sip on an inexpensively procured and nearly always good rosé or chilled red as the heat of the day winds down then wake as the sun expands in the east to slice up some freshly baked bread or baguette from the local boulangerie slathered with fresh jam procured at the local market and not miss a moment of what this next day has in store.
If you want to read more about what we did while visiting, you can do so here.
The Traveling Ridleys 
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