Dreaming of south of France
The best of Provence
I’m very happy the season brings us to the best moment to start exploring South of France, that I love so much. I would start with Provence, that’s stunning in spring and fall but too hot in summer to plan a trip there, unless you have a beautiful villa with a pool and a shaded porch. Probably, the reason why I love it so much, it’s because it reminds me a lot my beloved Tuscany, both in the landscape and in the slow and simple lifestyle. I imagine long warm days, listening the song of cicadas while reading in the garden, liters of rosé by the pool and endless meals with simple raw ingredients that makes you enjoy food, life and friends. This is Provence to me and I hope you could feel it through the lines of this story. If you need a bit more of inspiration, I’ve shared A Good Year on Movie Club, an iconic movie from Ridley Scott, that I used to watch a lot before visiting Provence for the first time and dreaming about it.
The trip I’m sharing here is quite fast and easy, you can do it in 4 days by car coming from Milan. I won’t share a rich list of restaurants and bistrots, because I’m not used to properly eating out when I’m in Provence. My typical day start grabbing a croissant at the local boulangerie and eating it on the road, driving to the next destination, or sitting randomly in a coffee place and eating breakfast while reading few pages (there’s no place as south of France or my Maremma to quietly lost among pages), then lunch is often a sandwich or a salad, something fresh, quick and healthy, a bottle of wine at mid/late afternoon and a home cooked dinner, because we’re always exhausted at the end of the day.
Coming from Milan, I suggest to pin Roussillon as your first destination. This little village is listed in “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France” and it’s the typical hamlet that you imagine thinking about Provence. You can walk though it all in 1 hour, loosing yourself in the narrow alleys and taking the panoramic view on Mediterranean nature from the belvedere. When you want to have a refreshing stop, take a bottle of rosé at Restaurant La Treille and relax for a while under the climbing wisteria. If you have some time, a trekking along Le Sentier des Ocres is a peculiar experience, but remember to not bring your nice clothes because at the end you’ll be covered by ocher dust.
The next stop is Gordes, another picturesque village coming out from a hill and surrounded by nature, the little square in the middle, the church, the fountain and few Cafes populate the space as in a painting. If you want to have a quick lunch, try Le Potager Du Chateau, where you can also go shopping of French cheese and fresh groceries, or Le Bistrot de Gordes, for a meal in a lovely garden.
Aix-en-Provence is the one I suggest to skip if you don’t have too much time, it’s really touristic and too much decadent, but if you want to dedicate half day to it, I think it would be lovely to have a late breakfast/lunch at Le Petit Provence Crêperie for the best galette, and a very cliché tour and shopping at local flowers and food markets, my favorite is le marché de Place des Prêcheurs, but you can find everything happens each day here.
Then, my absolute favorite place to stay and discover in Provence is Arles. Each year, from July to September it hosts a huge photo exhibition called Le Rencontre de la Photographie, every edition is focused on a topic and shows artists from all over the works around the city, in galleries or public buildings as schools or churches. It’s a prefect occasion for visiting the city and discover some beauties. My favorite place for lunch is Saveurs et Terroirs in front of the Arena, very similar to Le Potager Du Chateau in Gordes, it’s a grocery shop where you can choose among some simple sandwiches and quiches made with veggies, cheese and charcuterie they have available, but also Le Buste et l'oreille - Bar à vin et Librairie is really nice for a bottle of wine and a cheese and charcuterie board before dinner. For Alres, I have a lovely apartment to suggest on Airbnb: LE PETIT REFUGE, it’s perfect for 2, very close to a parking area and lovely for summer dinners at home.
The last stop of our road trip is Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, not far from Arles, driving to South. Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer is a sea village in the Camargue, that looks stuck in the 60’s with kids running on the beach and jumping in the water, night walks along the beach sidewalk with an ice cream, tons of fish restaurants and old men playing pétanque. To get there you drive through a beautiful nature reserve with white horses and pink flamingos.
With an iced beer at the beach in Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, my tour of Provence ends with a filled heart and restored soul.
xx A.
