By Elizabeth Gabay: Tasting the wines of Provence has been a bit erratic this year. While Cotes de Provence had a stand at both WineParis (11-13 February) and Prowein (17-19 March), the 2018 vintage had often only just been bottled and were still quite young and closed. My preferred time …

My visit to Fondation Carmignac, the newly-opened art centre at Porquerolles, last year was by far my favourite outing of 2018. I was lucky to get there just before it closed for winter, when lots of the exhibits went back to Paris. The centre re-opened with fresh artworks, on April …

Getaway to the Alps A road trip to the Alps delivers a combination of excitement, outdoor sports, beautiful vistas and alpine weather. Several mountain resorts are closer than you might think from Provence providing an excellent destination for travellers and sportspersons alike. The Alps stretch 1,200 km across Europe through …

Marseille has been working hard to get itself on the tourist ‘must-see’ list and the Tourist Office now offers many organised visits to different parts of this vibrant city. Apart from the obvious sites, visitors can opt for food-tasting tours, street art walks, lunch on a cruise ship, or behind …

By Aixcentric: What a terrific show at the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix. It features the work of Marc Chagall, from his black and white gravures from the 1920s and 30s, via his white marble sculptures, to his joyously colourful gouaches and oil paintings. His small sculptures, featuring entwined couples …

For new arrivals in town, what is nicer than a one-hour trip from Marseille’s Vieux Port to admire the key sites and hear about their history? This is the offer from Localanque with Story Boat. I have this information from ‘Pass My Provence,’ who offer 2-for-1 to cardholders: one person …

Nestled among rolling vineyards between the historic city of Aix-en-Provence (14km) and the stunning Luberon Valley (21km), you will find Château La Coste. Purchased by Irish real estate developer Paddy McKillen in 2002, the ordinary has been transformed into the extraordinary. Château La Coste is now a stunning domain set within 600 …

Occasionally it’s time to say goodbye to a house. Even if it is one that you built yourselves and where all four (yes 4!) of your children grew-up. Recently, I was hiking with Agathe Forest of Live & Love Provence in the Alpilles. She shared that their family home was on the market so …

You may be interested in the new space that opened in Fort Saint-Jean in July. It’s called the Galerie des Officiers, the arcaded section you can see in the photo.  Each of 5 small rooms has a short film on an aspect of the history of Fort Saint-Jean, with it a …

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 …