Martine Bertin-Peterson is the founder of the travel company Goût et Voyage. Her focus is small group tours featuring culture and gourmet delights in Provence and Tuscany. These food and wine excursions in Provence are like travelling with your best friends, as a Goût et Voyage tour never exceeds six …

Located in Provence’s wine country, Fontaine des Magnarelles is a delightful Bed and Breakfast (B&B). The 18th-century Provençal country house, constructed with traditional stone, has five spacious guest bedrooms. In addition, there is a communal space with room for sharing meals, playing board games, and planning excursions. Each morning guests …

Perched on hilltops throughout the region, the castles of Provence are intriguing. These seemingly impenetrable fortresses have stone foundations and ramparts for defensive purposes. Reflective of turbulent periods in French history, many of the châteaux in southern France were built on summits maximising the ability to anticipate enemy approach. Today, …

Artist Tessa Baker has finalized the details for two painting tours this fall. Now is your chance to visit the region and explore your artistic side. Join an intimate group of other creative types wanting to improve their painting skills in Provence with Tessa’s coaching. September 4 – 11, 2021: …

Painting in Provence Sometimes when you meet someone, it feels like you have known them forever, which was the case with Tessa Baker. Warm and welcoming, Tessa is a talented artist who runs small-group painting holidays and workshops in Provence, Italy and beyond. She had invited me to join her …

Travel and Literature: two passions that usually go hand in hand! After all, surprising stories are what we look for in books and the most diverse scenarios in the world. One of the most inspiring places in this context is Provence. Lavender fields, mountain inland villages, historic cities, nature parks, …

Enamoured with Provence, Caroline Longstaffe is one of our regular contributors. Her blog, Shutters and Sunflowers, is about passion, living the journey and not waiting to get to the destination. A traveller at heart, Caroline says she was most probably born under a wandering star. Born in England, she lives …

Creative Retreat to Provence Tessa Baker of Painting Provence with Tess invited me to join her painting group for dinner on their last night together. The retreat location in the Vaucluse, a restored farmhouse with a driveway lined with cypress trees, offered the group the benefits of privacy, quiet and …

An Artist in Provence Born in London, Tessa Baker’s spent her early years in the English countryside. Her creative education included Chelsea School of Art and later at Slade School of Fine Arts. Baker also studied culinary arts in Switzerland. Fast forward, she has painted for over 30 years, and …

This is the month where just about the whole of Northern France descends onto the beaches of the Côte d’Azur. On the radio, they announce “black weekends” which signify lots of Parisians heading south causing a rather lot of traffic. Everyone is finally on vacation. Don’t expect to see a …