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 …

Ashley of Curious Provence writes about her favourite market stand, and a trip to an enormous pottery market held every August in Aubagne. Yesterday, I went to one of Europe’s five largest pottery markets. For the past weekend, the bi-annual Aubagne Argilla Marché Potier brought the city, best known for …

Last week I was welcomed into the atelier of ceramic artist Martine Guimet located in the beautiful hilltop village of St-Saturnin-les-Apt. I must say that I am quite in love with her work. Martine makes plaques, tabletops and sundials out of lava stone from the volcanoes of the Auvergne region …

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 …

Living in France was an evolution not a forgone conclusion, there was no straight-line from small-town America to small-town Provence. Sharon de Rham is an American with Swiss citizenship who calls Vaison-la-Romaine home.

Château Pesquié is Provencal postcard perfection, with the soaring limestone summit of Mont Ventoux as a backdrop and a leafy canopy of plane trees shading the bastide’s entrance. The Provencal name pesquié is a derivative of the Latin “pescarium” meaning fishpond or basin. This region may be one of the …

Aix must be a paradise for archaeologists: building work in town often yields ancient foundations and sewers, but sometimes sumptuous Roman mosaic dining room floors, everyday pottery and glass from the table, and even jewellery, oil lamps and statues. They dated from around 2000 years ago when Aix was the …

No matter how many times I visit the villages near Uzes, I find something new and irresistible. My destination was San Quentin La Poterie — the home of some of the most amazing potters in all of France. This time, I did find a pottery shop Explore this Post