Inside MY Provence
The brocantes, Airbnbs and foodie hole-in-the-walls you won't find in any issue of Conde Nast Traveller. These are the places I know, love and am now ready to share
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I have been visiting Provence on and off for the last twenty years of my life. As a result it’s a place I know relatively well. But here’s the truth: Provence has never been particularly interesting. Or cool. Beautiful, yes, but not the sort of place you’d come to in search of great restaurants, art or even shopping. You come for the lavender fields, the hilltop villages and the little slice of heaven that Peter Mayle found back in 1989; basically the stuff of Anglo-Saxon wet dreams.
As a consequence the area that runs south of Gap to north of Marseille has always felt redolent of that time. The crowd has always been a little bit pink chinos and faces to match, if you know what I mean. For many years, from July to September the restaurants were filled only with twisted-faced teenagers who’d rather be fornicating in Kavos than sat next to dad as he regales the table about what sort of car he’s driving nowadays. For a long time Mayle’s book A Year In Provence had, it seemed, brought the worst of the British to this corner of France- the loud, moneyed, culturally-lobotomised class that fulfils every stereotype the French have about the English. (I mean, even Mayle fled to the US after the success of the book)
So four years ago my husband and I took a break from the area. We decided we’d explore other places instead- Gascony, Piedmont, a weird little nook of France on the Spanish border. But nothing compared to the light and beauty of Provence. So this year we returned.
And oh boy have things changed. There’s an energy about the place now -hip new restaurants have sprung up like wild flowers on a manicured lawn, jostling out the lazy bistros that have been serving the same Prix Fixe menus since 1991. (These are distinct from the ancient French bistros that I love very much by the way- Cafe Gaby in the village of Lourmarin being one fine example).
Arles is now the epicentre of cool; a bustling pink-tinged town where the stone walls are fly postered with news of a hundred different exhibitions taking place. Whilst the cool boy of fashion- Simon Jacquemus has brought the world’s attention to the romantic Camargue. I don’t know how it happened, although word is that lockdown sent hoards of creatively-inclined French flocking to the south. All I know is that it has and that now is a very good time indeed to head to this gleaming corner of France.
I’ve organised this by area on the assumption that to see the best of Provence you’ll probably need a car, though you can do much of this on the train network, which is very good and very clean. I’ve therefore put a few options for each area- somewhere to shop, eat, rest your head. That sort of thing. But I’ve also thrown in some surprises that I think everyone should know about but probably don’t. These are the places I return to time and again. Some are new and hot right now; others less so but are still deserving of a visit. This is the dream itinerary I wish someone would have given me a year or so ago.
Enjoy!
fx
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