Think of Provence and you conjure up images of golden sunshine, lavender fields, undulating hills with citrus and olive trees. So how do you bring the essence of Provence back home? This collection of souvenirs arrived with family after their brief sojourn in the towns of Bonnieux and Gordes. The provençal bread basket tied with [...]

I enjoy nothing more than bringing home with me food items from France that evoke the memory and taste of travel. When I first laid eyes on a box of Calissons d’Aix in a shop window in Avignon, I was smitten. Calissons d’Aix are a regional specialty of the provençal town of Aix en Provence. [...]

After successfully exiting Remoulins, we take various roads including the D986l to Beaucaire and onto Tarascon. We are quickly approaching French author Alphone Daudet‘s territory. The town of Tarascon is notable for his novel Tartarin de Tarascon and our next destination is on the D33 is Fontvieille, home to the Moulin de Daudet. Alphonse Daudet [...]

Leaving Avignon and Palais des Papes behind, we take the direction of Villeneuve-les-Avignon. We go over Pont de l’Europe to get on the RN100 then follow the D981 to Pont du Gard. Road signs are clearly marked and offer a choice of arriving on the right or the left bank. We take the rive gauche, [...]

The morning heat in our Avignon hotel room is palpable. I open the window and feel the gush of a cold breeze. Although the sun is out, there is an unusual chill in the air. After a breakfast of croissants, jus d’orange, cafe au lait and a selection of confitures, fromages and yoghurt, we settle [...]

In the blistering heat of the car, we start counting the kilometres to our final destination for the day. We have covered so much ground since we left Cannes in the morning. Our journey took us along the cote d’azur to St Tropez and the infamous Plage Tahiti, then en route through the rolling scenery [...]

Negotiating our way out of Marseille is a breeze. Back en route on the toll-free A51, we are heading to Aix-en-Provence. Without air conditioning in the car, we are roasting in the hot provençal sun, particularly Mr G who got sunburnt during our afternoon on the beach in Nice. The trip to Aix does not [...]