Before my recent trip to Provence, I didn’t know much about the area other than it was known for its lavender and pastis. It’s only 3.5 hours from Marseille to Nice, so I figured it couldn’t be that hard to find a place to stay. Despite its relatively small size …

Samantha Mureau’s career in search of the latest fashion and style trends brought her to Europe on too many occasions to count. Now, she runs Trendline Europe from Aix en Provence in the South of France. You can read more about Samantha and Discovering Designers an event that she recently …

Sarah Pernet spends her days guiding visitors around Provence. Her company Discover Provence founded only four years ago, has already achieved Trip Advisor certificates of excellence and Rick Steves’ stamp of approval. You can read the full story here. We asked Sarah to share her Perfectly Provence picks with readers: …

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 …

You can almost hear the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves maneuvering their master’s carriages on the cobblestones. Glance through the majestic iron gates into the cour d’honneur at l’Hôtel de Caumont and let the elegant limestone façade transport you to another era. The grand entrance was unique even in the …

Before we moved to France I had read Peter Mayle’s account of his idyllic year in the Luberon region of Provence, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, when planning our great escape from the grey-skied rat-race that is the City of London we never contemplated moving to the Luberon. Somehow it …

We locals have been watching the ongoing work on the 300-year-old mansion, the Hotel Caumont, for two years as workmen repaired the roof, stonemasons worked on the ancient façade, and lorries drove in and out of the garden area. You can almost hear the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves maneuvering …

The thing I love about Provence is that it’s not Paris. What I mean is: Paris is obvious. There’s the Tour Eiffel, l’Arc de Triomphe, a whole slew of “must-see” tourist destinations. But Provence, on the other hand, still has a lot of hidden secrets that the average tourist is …

It must have been a bit of a letdown for Sarah Pernet, the founder of Discover Provence, to meet with travel guru Rick Steves one week and myself the next. It is obvious why Discover Provence (established 2012) is on Mr Steves’ radar, this young company has achieved the number …

Every June, there’s a must-visit exhibition in Aix from a talented local family – painter Jill Steenhuis, her sculptor husband Sergio Ruffato, plus their son Serge, also a sculptor. Jill paints in an impressionistic style and usually takes her inspiration from Aix, the Sainte-Victoire and the countryside around her lovely …