We decided to base ourselves in St Remy, a beautiful town, not far from Aix en Provence that sits in the heart of Provence itself. For some bizarre reason, I had never been to Provence, so this was an opportunity to discover some of the heartland of this incredible place. We took in the big places like Arles and Avignon and Aix and the small areas that sit along the Luberon village path.
They are strung out like a necklace through the Alpille landscape. The highlight for me was probably a visit to a museum of antiquities in Arles on the other side of the river from the town itself and home to a 30 m , barge that had survived in the silt of the rhone river for 2000 years. There were incredible mosaics and statues, and all the paraphernalia that you would associate with the first Province outside of Rome! Provence is home to lots of firsts. A papal first in Avignon where many popes resided for nearly 100 years.
The charming half bridge of nursery rhyme fame. My first French song!! And then there was just the wonder of all of the things around and about that the Romans came to put down and I’m always reminded of the life of Brian and the Monty Python guys when somebody shouts out “what have you done for us lately“ and then somebody points out that the Romans not only built civilization, but they provided pretty much all of the stuff that we would take for granted in modern day life. My favorite village was Roussilon, the stunning red ochre village with narrow streets that must’ve been used on a movie set somewhere in some film. Quite spectacular and the water wheel village of Isle de Sorgues where there were markets, not to mention the vineyards, the food and the people who were absolutely delightful and forgave my terrible French at every interaction.
The drive to Nice gave us an opportunity to stop and see the extraordinary Matisse Chapel in Venice before reacquainting myself with Nice and the buzz of the old town and the promenade along the cobblestone beach. You should try to visit all these places. These please are easy to get to, just a fast train ride to Avignon or Marseilles from Paris on the TGV and if you are lucky enough go see or stay in St Remy where Van Gogh checked himself into the hospital there for a year. It’s a tranquil place and VG painted many of his finest works there.
Those of you traveling out there, the National Gallery in London has one of the largest and most sensational collections of VG to ever feature under one roof. It’s an exhibition that runs from now all the way through the end of January. Breathtaking. There’s a reason these guys came down to Provence. The light. The consistent flora and the sheer size of the Roman influence. And the mighty Rhône zig zagging down to the Camargue.
