French by birth, a traveller by nature, Martine Bertin-Peterson is a Marketing and Management Professor at the College of New Jersey. However, once classes wind down for the summer, Martine begins her bespoke Goût et Voyage tours in Provence.  “What more can a man ask of heaven? If I should happen to die …

My birthday falls on the same date every year, and I had certainly dropped enough hints that maybe my hubby should plan something to acknowledge the day. Instead, at 12:45 pm we were headed towards Arles without any sort of agenda other than I suggested a visit to Abbey de …

Admittedly, it would be a tough choice for anyone to pick between, between the lush gardens of the UK, the sunny skies of California and postcard perfect Provence. Caroline Longstaffe’s solution was to start writing a blog Shutters and Sunflowers her artistic outlet for west coast beauty, British heritage and …

November marks the start of the black diamond season in Provence (and other parts of France). Proof that good looks are not everything the Tuber Melanosporum or black truffle looks a bit like a lump of coal that sells for 1-2000 Euros/kilogram. Intensely pungent the ‘diamond of the kitchen’ has …

Lance Armstrong named his book It’s Not About the Bike, yet for Ken Wallace and Bill Flanagan it was 2-wheeling that brought them together. A shared passion for cycling, backgrounds in film (Ken and Bill) and Father Son Tour (Bill’s blog) appears like the perfect set of experiential ingredients to …

Take a stroll along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and you can be almost guaranteed of a couple things all year long: sun and plenty of people watching. The song Nissa la Bella (Nice the Beautiful) makes lots of sense for this coastal city on the Mediterranean where the …

Trailing her degrees from Yale and the University of New York, former actress Heather Robinson changed careers to become a travel writer. She has been living in France for over 14 years with her photographer companion. You can read more about Heather’s favourite spots in Arles and her “Lost in …

Famous artists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh captured the “painter’s light” and the stunning, natural beauty of Provence. Recently, we featured three talented artists based in the South of France a region that continues to inspire and bolster their creative confidence. In case you missed their stories, …

Attracted to Provence by the sun, Elke Walter is clear that the weather is better than in her birthplace Hamburg, Germany. Elke began designing clothing in the 1990s in France, and her business Elke Walter Design was officially launched in 2002 when she opened her atelier in Hamburg. Elke describes …

Sabine Werner is a recent transplant to Provence arriving with her family only in January 2014. However, she tells me that this region has long held her curiosity and is now inspiring her work. It is not that the sun never shines in Munich, Germany (Sabine’s birthplace) or Brisbane, Australia …