Lunch with a girlfriend is always a treat, but the chance to visit with Patricia Sands twice during her stay in Provence was a gift. On the first occasion, we met at Cuisine de Comptoir, in Arles, a down-to-earth restaurant that serves tartines (open face sandwiches) on pain Poilâne (a …

Delicious wines, a gorgeous winery and a privileged location in one of the most beautiful spots in France: Château Romanin has it all. It is also a place where wine, religion and mysticism have intersected for centuries. It began with the Greeks, who built a shrine here to the goddess …

Provençal postcards, Pinterest boards and Instagram are filled with photos of sunny sunflowers. Long before the Internet these beautiful flowers inspired Vincent Van Gogh to paint a still life series called Tournesols (Sunflowers). He painted the first of the group in 1887, in Paris, and then later (1888-89) in Arles. …

A few years ago now we headed across to Les Baux-de-Provence with our boys, after having seen the spectacular site in the helicopter footage during the coverage of the Tour de France, which unsurprisingly is essential viewing in our house! Les Baux-de-Provence sits atop a rocky promontory on the Southern …

It took 20 visits to Provence before Keith Van Sickle and his wife decided to make the region their part-time home. A Northern California native, Van Sickle spent his early years on an island in the San Francisco Bay – Alameda, California. “It’s a sleepy town, an oasis of 1950’s …

Has Provence been on your travel bucket list for a while? Or, are you already a Provence fan looking for an experience away from the major tourist sights? The founder of Your Private Provence, Emily Durand, has created a wine-focused experience for an intimate group this September. Durand is an …

Occasionally, you catch a flash of the sun on the windows, a fleeting hint that something magical is taking place on the North side of the Alpilles. Initially, the meandering road that leads to Château Romanin parallels the Aéro-Club de Saint-Rémy les Alpilles glider runway. The striking backdrop of limestone fingers, the …

Nutmeg is reasonably certain she is not the first person to walk through the Glanum archaeological site, near St Remy de Provence, and consider that mankind is relatively insignificant in the passage of time. Ashes to ashes Dust to dust Rocks to rocks Glanum a Roman oppidum, protected by its fortified walls once …

Author and possibilitarian Patricia Sands never ceases to amaze me. She is on the cusp of publishing the third book in her “Love In Provence” series I Promise You This ~ is available May 17th. Here, is a little temptation to order your copy. “With sunlit backdrops and plot twists as …

I’m a real Francophile and have stayed in more than one hundred towns, cities, villages and hamlets in France. Twenty-two of these have been in Provence, the shortest for one night, the longest for four months. Every time I plan a trip to Provence, the dilemma is where to choose… …