Provence

Lavender A Paris Travel will help with all your trips arrangements for Provence. We have fully-escorted tours and also will work with you on a consulting basis to design your personalized itinerary! Contact us and we can talk about what will work best for you! You can travel on the TGV/Bullet train from Paris Gare de Lyon to Aix-en-Provence in about four hours. Don't think of doing it in a day trip! Let us help you enjoy some relaxation in a pleasing itinerary customized for you!

Mont Saint Victoire The Essence de Provence is a beautiful aroma, a picturesque sight, a marvelous market. It is quiet and vibrant. It's the seaside fjords and the Lubéron hillsides. It’s serene countryside and bustling cities. It is vivid landscape. Provence must be smelled and touched and felt to know it! It's a region of contrasts! It's a sensory experience which one meets at every step, in every village, and all in the most luminous light! Allow at least five days. We'll work on your itinerary together!

Le Mont Ste. Victoire so intrigued Paul Cézanne that he repeatedly captured it with his brush! As a native of the area, he appreciated the many angles of the mountain so much that he painted it more than sixty times. It dominates the area around Aix-en-Provence (the town where À Paris Travel stays with its fully-escorted tours), since it seems to emerge out of the plains. Intriguing in the light so unique to Provence, it appears to change color. Up close, it’s powerfully beautiful with its limestone glistening in the sunshine and from a distance, it is rather like a staged backdrop for the Provençal countryside.

"I go to the country every day, the motifs are beautiful and so my day is spent more pleasantly here than anywhere else."

- Letter from Paul Cézanne to his son. Aix en Provence, 22 September 1906

Van Gogh discussed Provence's lighting when he wrote:

"Here, nature is most amazingly beautiful. Everything is spectacular, the dome of the sky is a remarkable blue, the rays of the sun are pale sulfur."

Nice French Riviera: Will provide Mediterranean beach resorts and casinos, sunny, mild climate, and small villages perched on cliffs or coastal fishing villages.

Sounds like an advertisement for a dream vacation, but it is a reality! A Paris Travel believes you need to spend at least five days exploring the Riviera (separate from Cezanne's Provence!). We would happily design an itinerary for you.

Nice on the Riviera is a city of beaches, wonderful markets, and splendid museums. The Cote d’Azur is a destination haven for those in search of glitz and excitement. You can enjoy the lively towns of Cannes, Nice, and Monaco. Sometimes we have clients who visit the Riviera following a barge trip or perhaps they'll have a couple days to visit as their cruise ship docks at Villefranche-sur-Mer. Whatever you need, we can make this visit to the Riviera memorable!

Not far from the crowds of these Riviera cities, one can escape to the tiny coastal towns or to hilltop villages. The calmer, more whispered seaside villages of Beaulieu, Menton, or Cap Ferrat are an escape from the lively cities! The hilltop medieval villages such as Sainte-Agnès offer magnificent panoramic views of the sea and mountains. In St. Paul-de-Vence tourists can browse through shops and galleries set on narrow winding cobblestone streets.

Throughout the region are charming country homes and terraced private villas overflowing with colorful flowers. Decisions! Decisions! It can be overwhelming to figure out what to do when and where to go how. Our consulting department is ready to help you customize your trip. Contact us!

Men playing boules Provence is the sight of men playing Pétanque. (There’s no law against women playing it, but I challenge you to find any doing so!) This game, also called boules, is a relaxed game, a sort of spirited yet quiet activity and the accompanying friendly repartee seems to naturally suit the region. The sounds of the cigales/cicadas singing in the background seem to mimic the easy chatter among the players.

Wherever you travel in the South of France, you'll want to return for more. Let us help you with your plans and then you'll know that you're maximizing your time and enjoyment. Whether you need a transfer, a private tour, or accommodations, À Paris Travel is ready to help!

Les villages perchés, the hilltop villages of the Lubéron are unique to the region. This limestone mountain range includes about 50 little communities. We offer private guides in Provence to show you the countryside! Once high fortresses with warring tribes and enemy feudal chieftains, they are today charming destinations with forever vistas, wonderful shops, and quiet escapes from the bustle of the big cities.

Perched above lavender fields, vineyards and olive groves, they exude a tranquility and majesty each one as unique as its history! Bonnieux, Gordes, Lacoste, Roussillon, Oppède-le-Vieux--none should be missed and yet each is different! Pristine, stunning, medieval, little pockets of charm! Truly the towns of the Lubéron are magic, so contact us and let us arrange an itinerary so that your travels to France include a visit to Provence!

Frederick Mistral, a native of Provence and a prolific poet wrote about his native homeland:

"Provence grants us a gleam of the Beautiful."

Provencal fabrics To experience a Provençal market, is to truly understand the region. The colors of the fabrics are feasts for the eyes while the robust aroma of the paella permeates the weekly market. During our fully-escorted tours to Paris and Provence, we have several days to enjoy the market. What a thrill! The sound of the cicadas is temporarily drowned out by the banter between the merchants and the customers.

From fresh herbes de Provence, to soaps from Marseilles, to locally made pottery to every cheese known to man (and then some!) to fresh produce (unparalleled in its flavor!) to flowers with seemingly magical petals of color, and to much much more to be discovered, one is overwhelmed by the experience and enthralled by the charm of the phenomenon... so special in this country and so intricate to the life of each little French village!

The South of France is very accessible to Paris and can be combined easily! Our consultants can help you with your plans.

"Oh delightful fragrances! Oh light! Oh gentle nature's peace; what longings of paradise you place in my child's soul."

-Frédéric Mistral

Cassis Provence is the countryside and it's also the seaside. Cassis (where we visit on our fully-escorted Paris-Provence trip) is just one of the colorful villages along the Mediterranean Sea. Whether exploring the winding streets, venturing out in a boat into the Med to view the fjords (called Calanques) formed along the shore, immersing yourself in the history of the area, or simply sipping Pastis (the National drink of Provence...it is an aniseed-flavored, alcoholic drink which is a classic apéritif) in a relaxing café, it's always impressive to experience the light which is so unique to Provence and it is very easy to understand why the artists were drawn to this area, attempting to capture its illusive beauty!

Travelers to the Riviera and to Provence would like to do like Peter Mayle and have "A Year in Provence", but generally our busy lives preclude this option. However, À Paris Travel is ready to help you see as much as your time allows! Contact us for more details.

"The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breathe."

-Alexander Dumas

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