Martine Bertin-Peterson is intrepid; she had a window of 90 minutes of “downtime” between her back-to-back tour groups, yet she agreed to meet me for a glass of rosé. Beneath the walls of the immense Palais des Papes in Avignon, we chatted about her food and wine excursions in Provence. …

Contributor blog post by Michel: There are towns and villages we happily visit time and again which is good because our friends are getting to know the Vaucluse and surrounding area almost as well as we do. So it was an easy decision last fall to drive to Uzès; we love …

Contributor blog post by Vaucluse Dreamer: Anyone who really knows me will say I’m not really a city person. I’ve always lived in small villages or on the edge of small market towns and although I enjoy spending the odd day in a large town or city – I usually can’t …

After several centuries, cascades of turquoise water carved a 20km limestone canyon known as the Gorges du Verdon, which became part of the protected Parc Naturel Régional du Verdon in 1997. The Verdon River flows 166km from its source in the Alps to Lac St Croix engraving the sheer rock …

Contributor blog post by Aixcentric: This is unmissable! If you are new to Aix, make sure you go along to this special market when people from our twin towns come together to offer their food and regional products for Christmas treats and presents. Expect lots of German foodstuffs and wine, …

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 …

A tian is an earthenware dish similar to the Moroccan tagine but without a lid. It is used for baking a simple, local recipe of the same name. The recipe for Tian is an excellent example of rustic provençal cooking using just a few ingredients to enhance seasonal produce. It …

Need some ideas for souvenirs and presents to take home? Check out Christmas Presents from Provence and kitchen essentials for an aspiring Provencal cook. Speaking of Christmas the “marchés de noël” starts up in every town and village in late November. Of course there is food, that pretty much goes …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Ashley of Curious Provence writes about her favourite market stand, and a trip to a huge pottery market that is held every August in Aubagne. Yesterday, I went to one of the five largest pottery markets in Europe. For the past weekend, the bi-annual …

Millions of years of seismic activity, tectonic plate movement and freeze-thaw cycles created the diverse geology of present-day Provence. The region is also known as the Bouches de Rhône where the Mediterranean shoreline runs the gambit of beaches, brackish wetlands and vertigo-inducing cliffs. Other natural phenomena in the area include …