Since 1969, Arles has established itself as a European focus for the art of photography. The vast Recontres d’Arles festival sprawls across town with 60 different exhibitions in museums, chapels, halls, showing the work of masters of the art – and new practitioners.

This restaurant is 2 miles outside Jouques and feels quite remote, lost in Provencal trees and garrigue. But the interesting thing is that when we went for Sunday lunch, it was packed. I have since learned that it has a very enthusiastic local following.

Of course, there weren’t any cameras around in 18th-century Rome, London, or Venice, but right now in Aix, we can get a fairly accurate view of what these cities looked like thanks to Antonio Canaletto’s careful and colourful paintings.  

Our French teacher explained to us that a guinguette was typically a make-shift café-bar, usually next to water, with strings of lights and music and bushes pour aller flirter. They were dotted around Paris for instance for workers at the weekends and of course were beloved of the Impressionists.

We locals have been watching the ongoing work on the 300-year-old mansion, the Hotel Caumont, for two years as workmen repaired the roof, stonemasons worked on the ancient façade, and lorries drove in and out of the garden area. You can almost hear the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves maneuvering …

Celebrating 30 years of bringing contemporary dance to Aix, there is an exhibition of photography of the Ballet Preljocaj which is running until 20th September. There will be photos from the archives but also those taken by three photographers, one of whom is Jean-Claude Carbonne.

This is the view as you drive over the rocky mountains towards the Mediterranean from the very eastern edge of Marseille. The breathtaking Calanque de Sormiou is the setting for Le Chateau, a family-run restaurant established in 1948. Provence’s Calanques: The Fjords of Provence Just east of Marseille lays the …

What a great idea – 640 tonnes of sand to be dumped on the MUCEM esplanade to make a big beach for the summer. It will be open all day for walks, picnics at shaded tables, pétanque games, ping-pong and, on Sundays, dances. There will also be workshops. MUCEM Museum …

If you fancy giving your painting skills a boost, I can recommend, from personal experience, the Atelier Ombres et Lumieres in Les Milles. Owner and artist Muriel Moutel will be teaching one-week courses for adults and ados during July. Muriel encourages her classes to start with interesting backgrounds of tissue.

That’s the question posed by the new exhibition ‘Lieux Saints Partagés’ at MUCEM. All around the Mediterranean, populations are either Christian, Muslim or Jewish, each with their seemingly different religious observances, rituals and places of worship. This exhibition argues that there are far greater commonalities between them than is usually …