This easy recipe for Chocolate Fondant Cake made with only 5 ingredients, in record time, is from our friends at Mirabeau wine. Hope you love it and if this isn’t a good excuse to bake a cake, I don’t know what is.

Launched in 1995, Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Les Baux de Provence was a bold step for a dozen winemakers. They joined forces in an attempt to carve out a unique identity in the ocean of mediocre (at the time) Provencal wine. These wineries had fallen under the umbrella of the …

Things are starting to feel decidedly spring-like here in Provence. There are orchids in the grass, the almond blossom has just waned in time for the pear trees to start budding. We’ve had, as seemingly everywhere, a mild winter. We haven’t had anywhere near as much Mistral wind (though I …

Contributor blog post by Jill Barth: This article was part of Jill’s #12daysofwine series. …Vaqueyras… The first of my great Vaqueyras bottles was served to me and my husband on a rainy spring evening in the lounge at the divinely cultivated Château des Alpilles in St. Remy-de-Provence. It’s my deep …

Book review of Patricia Wells’ The Provence Cookbook: 175 Recipes and a Select Guide to the Markets, Shops, & Restaurants of France’s Sunny South, Harper Collins Publishers, First Edition, New York, 2004. When I was a college professor, I used to tell my students that early on in their lives …

The spring at the Fontaine de Vaucluse is extremely low at the moment with a level of just 2.30m, no doubt as a result of the extremely dry summer followed by so little rainfall over the autumn. If you are new to Provence and haven’t visited, it’s a good time …

Christmas markets in France are becoming increasingly popular every year, yet when many people think of Christmas markets in Europe, France probably doesn’t even spring to mind. A quick internet search will throw up many suggestions for Germany and Austria, maybe Belgium too, but France doesn’t often feature. Continue reading …

Much has been written about Vincent Van Gogh’s life, the famous Dutch painter who led an expressive, tortured life. This statue le voleur de tournesol (the Sunflower Thief) by Gabriel Sterk may just capture the essence of Van Gogh’s work – as you never quite look at sunflowers, irises, olive trees …

My birthday falls on the same date every year, and I had certainly dropped enough hints that maybe my hubby should plan something to acknowledge the day. Instead, at 12:45 pm we were headed towards Arles without any sort of agenda other than I suggested a visit to Abbey de …

This article was previously published on Ginger and Nutmeg. Cistercian Abbeys Classified as a French historic monument in 1840 L’Abbaye du Thoronet restoration work started the following year and continues today. The Cistercian Thoronet Abbey is the third “sister” to abbeys Silvacane and Sénanque in Provence. These religious structures are …