Provence - France, Europe   

‘Provence,’ observed the legendary English food writer Elizabeth David, ‘is a country to which I am always returning, next week, next year, any day now, as soon as I can get on a train.’ One glimpse at this languorous region to which so many people refer simply as ‘the South of France’ and you, too, will understand why a countryside and a lifestyle so simple can exert such an irresistible call to the soul.

Picture villages where old buildings made of yellow stone glow as if gilded. Imagine rugged hillsides and meadows fragrant with mint and tarragon, rosemary and great fields of purple lavender. Call to your mind venerable olive trees, and the sweet extra-virgin oil of their fruit that joins together with garlic, herbs, and all the other gifts from this fertile landscape to form a casually intoxicating form of cooking that has can be poetically yet wholly accurately described as ‘the cuisine of the sun.’ Not surprisingly, some of France’s most celebrated dining destinations are sequestered in the Provençal countryside.

The sun always seems to be shining on Provence. Villages like Aix, Apt, Carpentras, and Saint-Didier entice visitors and residents alike with markets that seem like casual open-air monuments to the earth’s bounty. But Provence offers more than landscape and cuisine alone. Visit the ancient city of Avignon, for example, and you’ll see spectacular centuries-old buildings, including the Palais des Papes, built in the 14th century after Pope Clement V left the Vatican to establish a papal seat here. Nearby Nîmes safeguards spectacular Roman ruins.

In short, Provence offers the visitor an extensive menu of things to do, from historical touring to museum-going, fine dining to exhilarating hiking to sybaritic sunbathing. The only challenge is to find time to do it all, which is why one should always plan to spend as much time in Provence as possible, and to return always.