Provence: The Perfect Romantic Getaway

Fly into Marseille Provence Airport (MRS) and drive 30 minutes north to Aix-en-Provence — the most elegant city in Provence, the former capital of the Counts of Provence, and the birthplace of Paul Cézanne. The old city of Aix is extraordinarily beautiful: the cours Mirabeau — a wide boulevard of plane trees, fountains, and cafés — divides the old city from the Quartier Mazarin, the aristocratic quarter of 17th-century hôtels particuliers. Cézanne's studio (Atelier Cézanne) on the hill north of town is preserved exactly as he left it, with his coat hanging on the door. Drive into the Luberon — the massif southeast of Apt — and check into your mas. Dinner at the hotel restaurant or in the village — tian provençal (slow-roasted vegetables with herbs), daube de boeuf (Provençal beef stew), and the first glass of Provence rosé (the pale salmon-colored style from Bandol or Côteaux d'Aix) as the evening light turns amber on the limestone hills.

• ✦ Aix-en-Provence Cours Mirabeau — the most beautiful boulevard in Provence
• ✦ Cézanne's Atelier preserved as he left it
• ✦ Drive into the Luberon hills
• ✦ First Provençal dinner and rosé at dusk

Gordes is the most photographed village in Provence — a cascade of golden stone houses tumbling down a cliff face above the Luberon valley, with the imposing Renaissance château at the top. The view from below the village (take the D15 southeast) at any time of day but especially in the morning light is one of the defining images of France. The Abøy of Sénanque, 4km north of Gordes in a narrow valley, is a functioning 12th-century Cistercian monastery surrounded by lavender fields that bloom in July — the photograph of the abbey's golden stones against purple lavender rows, taken from the road above, is one of the most reproduced travel images in the world. Drive east along the Luberon ridge through the villages of Bonnieux (extraordinary view), Lacoste (the Marquis de Sade's castle dominates the village), and Apt for the Tuesday morning truffle market. Return through Ménerbes — where Peter Mayle lived and wrote A Year in Provence.

• ✦ Gordes village — the golden cascade village of the Luberon
• ✦ Abbey of Sénanque with lavender fields (July)
• ✦ Bonnieux, Lacoste, and Ménerbes — the Luberon hilltop village circuit
• ✦ Apt Tuesday truffle market

Drive an hour west to Arles — the city where Van Gogh arrived in February 1888 and produced 300 paintings and drawings in 15 months before his breakdown, including The Yellow House, Bedroom in Arles, The Night Café, and the entire Starry Night cycle. The Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles presents permanent and rotating exhibitions of Van Gogh's work with extraordinary contextualization. None of the actual paintings Van Gogh made in Arles remain in the city, but the paintings are so precisely referenced to specific locations — the Luma Foundation created a Van Gogh walk through the city following each canvas's exact location — that standing where he stood and looking at what he saw is genuinely moving. Arles also contains a magnificently preserved Roman amphitheater (1st century AD, still used for bullfighting), Roman theater, and the Alyscamps necropolis (Roman burial ground). The LUMA Arles cultural center, designed by Frank Gehry, opened in 2021 on the site of old railway workshops.

• ✦ Fondation Vincent van Gogh — Van Gogh walk through the city he painted
• ✦ Roman Amphitheater — 1st century AD, still used for events
• ✦ LUMA Arles cultural center by Frank Gehry
• ✦ Alyscamps Roman necropolis

The Camargue is the vast river delta of the Rhone at the Mediterranean coast — a protected natural park of shallow lagoons, saltmarsh, rice fields, and garrigue where flamingos feed in the pink-tinged marshes and the famous white Camargue horses (a semi-feral breed descended from ancient stock) roam freely. Drive south from Arles to the Camargue Natural Regional Park: the Pont de Gau Bird Park has extraordinary concentrations of flamingos, herons, and migratory birds. The fortified medieval town of Aigues-Mortes, built by Louis IX in 1240 as the embarkation point for his Crusade, rises improbably from the flat marshland on all sides with its complete circuit of towers and walls intact. The beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is wild, windswept, and beautiful in the way that only delta coastlines can be. Return via the Crau plain for the flat light of the Provençal interior at dusk.

• ✦ Pont de Gau Bird Park — flamingos feeding in the lagoons
• ✦ White Camargue horses in the marshlands
• ✦ Aigues-Mortes medieval walled city in the delta
• ✦ Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer wild beach

Drive northwest to the Pont du Gard — the greatest Roman aqueduct in existence, built around 50 AD to carry water 50km from a spring at Uzès to the city of Nîmes. Three tiers of arches rise 49 meters above the Gardon River; the structure carried 40,000 cubic meters of water per day and has stood essentially intact for 2,000 years. The scale, when you stand beneath it in the river, is truly remarkable. Nîmes, 25km southeast, has arguably the best-preserved Roman monuments in the world outside Rome itself: the Maison Carrée (a 1st century BC temple of extraordinary preservation, described by Thomas Jefferson as the most beautiful building he had ever seen), the Roman amphitheater (2nd century AD, used for bullfighting and concerts), and the Tour Magne on Mount Cavàlier. The Carré d'Art (Norman Foster's contemporary art museum directly opposite the Maison Carrée) is an extraordinary architectural conversation across 2,000 years.

• ✦ Pont du Gard — Roman aqueduct, 49 meters, 2000 years old and intact
• ✦ Maison Carrée in Nîmes — Jefferson's favorite building
• ✦ Nîmes amphitheater — Roman arena still used today
• ✦ Carré d'Art by Norman Foster facing the ancient temple

The Valensole Plateau east of Manosque is the largest lavender-growing area in Provence — in July the plateau turns purple from horizon to horizon, the air is heavy with fragrance, and the combination of lavender rows, golden wheat, and the occasional Provençal mas in the middle distance is one of the most complete sensory experiences in travel. Drive the D56 through the heart of the plateau early in the morning when the light is best and the bees are loudest. Visit a lavender distillerie — the steam distillation of lavender flowers to produce essential oil, done in copper stills with a fragrance that is overwhelmingly beautiful. Afternoon: wine tasting in the Luberon appellation at Domaine de la Citadelle (near Ménerbes, with an extraordinary corkscrew museum in the cellar) or at Château Val Joanis near Pertuis. Final evening dinner at a restaurant in one of the Luberon villages.

• ✦ Valensole Plateau — lavender from horizon to horizon in July
• ✦ Lavender distillerie visit and steam distillation
• ✦ Luberon wine tasting at Domaine de la Citadelle
• ✦ Final village dinner in the Luberon

Most Provençal hill towns have a morning market on a specific day of the week; consult the schedule and time your departure to catch whichever market is running. The Apt Saturday market is the best in the Luberon — 1,000 years old, covering the entire old town center with 200 stalls of produce, herbs, honey, olives, cheese, lavender, and antiques. The Coustellet Sunday morning organic market is smaller and more refined. Marseille Airport is 1.5 hours south; alternatively, the TGV from Avignon to Paris takes 2 hours 40 minutes with Paris CDG connecting onward. Take home herbes de Provence, a bottle of Luberon wine, santons (traditional Provençal clay figurines), and the memory of the light on the lavender fields in the morning.

• ✦ Apt Saturday market or Coustellet Sunday organic market
• ✦ Final village café and Provençal lunch
• ✦ Marseille Airport MRS or Avignon TGV for Paris CDG connection