The number of large cranes gives us a clue to the scale of the construction projects going on in Aix at the moment. Thirty projects are underway on just ten of them, including the building of a great new music venue, a new centre for digital industries and start-ups, a …

Provence’s pine forests, Mistral winds and the summer symphony of the cigales fuel Tracy Rawles’ creative writing. Rawles published her first book Charlie’s World of Glittering Powers, in November 2015. Charlie is a cigale, a cicada (or at least inspired by the cicadas), this is a description of the book’s central …

Contributor blog post by Victoria Koning @MirabeauWine: With its mythical and ancient forest, the sacred site of Sainte-Baume is one of the oldest religious sites in the Western world. According to the ancient Greeks, Romans and Ligurians, it was inhabited by the goddess of fertility. It is believed that Mary …

Contributor blog post by Access Riviera: The 13th edition of Top Marques Monaco is the place you want to be with your kids on the last weekend of Zone B school holidays if they are remotely interested in supercars or fast shiny things! Hosted at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, the …

Lacoste is a well-preserved village that sits on a mountain ridge with great views to the east across a valley filled with vineyards and orchards to Bonnieux and the Grand Luberon Mountains. At the top of the village are the ruins of the castle of the Marquis de Sade now …

The repaving of the area outside the tourist office has been completed and I was really hoping for something a bit more attractive and tourist-friendly – some benches for instance wouldn’t go amiss. And why has Cezanne just been plonked down on the ground? The Cezanne statue and the market …

Aix-Centre-ville has been graffiti-free since Madame le Maire waged war on the taggers, paying a company to remove them within 48 hours. And she was surely right to do so, as much of it was just a mess. But increasingly, resourceful shop owners are decorating their store fronts by using …

This doesn’t take place until June but, if you are into this kind of event, it might be worth putting on the calendar now. Dozens of planes will converge on the Istres Air Base for this show, which takes place every five years. There will be Mirage jets, drones, and …

Artists and Art Teachers in Provence Provence is an endless canvas for artists, writers, photographers and frankly anyone with a fragment of a creative side. A place famous for its magical light, Provence has inspired master painters Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh and many of today’s creators (photos below). Tessa Baker …

‘L’art d’apprendre le francais’ and ‘l’art de vivre en Provence’ are combined for those signing up for courses with Destination Francais. It’s an Aix-based company started by two French teachers, tired of the classroom-based teaching methods they’d been tied to in the traditional system. They felt that learners need more …