Some of us (myself included) are fascinated by striking images on Instagram, and the Love in St Rémy photo feed is no exception. Laetitia Labrune de Luca is the founder of the company and the visionary behind an exquisite collection of products for gifts (or for personal a treat). There …

By Aixcentric: Most museums have massive amounts of ‘stuff’ filed, heaped, mounded away in archives, basements and warehouses. The question is: what do they do with it all? It really is an issue. Marseille’s MuCEM inherited the contents of the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris and now …

Provence Love Stories A budding romance, a Provencal setting and voila – a love story. The following list of books only begins to scratch the surface of the popular women’s fiction genre. However, we recommend these authors as they write beautifully, inviting you into the lifestyle in the South of …

By Access Riviera October school holidays run from today until Sunday 4 November on the Côte d’Azur and it’s a time to sample some of the autumn activities in the region. There are lots of school holiday options for kids that aren’t attending the centre de loisirs/centre aérés or booked …

Travel Guides for Provence Remember when we carried around hefty paperbacks to guide our travels? In the 1980s, long before smartphones, tourists faithfully checked these guidebooks for reviews on hotels, restaurants and must-see sights. Backpackers conscious of space and weight often discarded the pages for a city or region once …

You’ve got Mail Who doesn’t like getting a beautiful package in the mail? Some gift boxes provide clues about their contents. There is the telltale cardboard shape of a book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. At Tiffany & Co, their packages in Tiffany Blue – Pantone 1837 (trademarked) tied …

October in Provence The grapes have been picked and now the nets have been placed at the bottom of the olive trees ready for this year’s harvest. The bright green traditional Alpilles olives vertes cassées have appeared in the markets and every store. Even olives are seasonal in Provence. Also …

Porquerolles is the largest of the 3 Iles d’Or (Islands of Gold), easily accessible from the coast. We did the short (20 min) crossing from La Tour Fondu, near Hyères, roughly a 90-minute drive from Aix-en-Provence, depending on traffic. I hadn’t visited Porquerolles for many years and was surprised at …

Joy of Cooking in Provence True confession: I am a committed foodie (although the grammar checker doesn’t seem to like the word). Maybe that admission will get me off the hook for being unable to delete thousands of photos of markets objectively. Over the years, we have taken many (did …

For many, Peter Mayle’s best-selling novel A Year in Provence was their introduction to the Provencal countryside. Images of the Côte d’Azur have long covered the pages of travel magazines. Still, it was Mayle’s descriptions of bumbling through a home renovation in the arrière-pays (translation: backcountry or hinterland) that shifted our …