The Markets & Countryside of Provence

Depart the U.S. on your flight to France.

Arriving in Nice, the major city on the Côte d’Azur, and meet your guide, who will accompany you to your hotel. You will have time this afternoon to stroll through the streets and squares nearby or to walk the Promenade des Anglais that follows the great curve of the Bay. English travelers having long been drawn to the warm and sunny Mediterranean coast, it was the city’s English colony that raised funds in the 1830s to build the seaside Promenade. Return for your Welcome Dinner at the hotel. D Nice Hotel (4-star).

Enjoy a half-day tour of Nice, from the top of Castle Hill to the Promenade des Anglais. While the Castle is in ruins, its site offers a panoramic view of Nice and the Côte d’Azur. You will also see Queen Victoria’s Winter Palace, the Franciscan Monastery, and the Roman ruins, which are situated in a beautiful Mediterranean garden. Russian as well as English aristocracy were regular visitors to Nice, and the Russian Cathedral, built under Tsar Nicholas II, is the largest Russian church outside Russia. Walking through the Old Town, notice the Italian-style balconies and façades. Nice was a part of Italy until 1861. You will pass studios, galleries, boutiques, and restaurants where you may decide to return for lunch or dinner. (If you like, your guide will help you select restaurants for meals on your own.) In the Cours Saleya is the daily flower and vegetable market, one of the many delights of this colorful city.Enjoy lunch on your own and an afternoon exploring whatever interests you most: the Roman ruins, the Matisse Museum, the Palais Lascaris (a Baroque palace open as a museum), stopping for a coffee in the Place Garibaldi or the Place Rossetti, or watching the parade of people at leisure as you walk the Promenade. B Nice Hotel (4-star)

Travel to ancient Aix-en-Provence and discover what may be the most charming central boulevard in all Provence. This university town was once a seat of aristocracy. Founded in 122 B.C. by a Roman general, it was in turn a military outpost, the administrative capital of a province of the Roman Empire, the seat of an archbishop, and a center of art and learning under the Medieval counts of Provence, including the beloved 15th-century King René. You will find his statue along the central tree-shaded boulevard, the Cours Mirabeau, and his image in a triptych in the Cathedral St. Sauveur. Walking down the Cours Mirabeau you will also find three of the finest of the city’s many fountains, 17th- and 18th-century buildings with beautifully carved doorways, and cafés where you can sit and enjoy the buildings opposite, with their wrought-iron balconies and beautifully carved doorways. On the side streets and squares of the Old Town are shops, markets, churches and historic sites.

Have lunch on your own before we continue to the small town of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to visit the famous food and antique markets. In this lovely town the green waters of the River Sorgue, fed by a spring in nearby Fontaine de Vaucluse, divide into five branches that form a series of islands. Tour the food market, visit the 17th-century Notre-Dame-des-Anges, and stroll along the canals and riverbanks lined with plane trees. Then enjoy browsing the open-air flea market, or visit the antique dealers along the water. We continue to Avignon for dinner and the night. B/D Avignon Hotel (4-star)

For the next five days we will be based in the walled city of Avignon. During the 14th-century schism in the Roman Catholic Church, the nine breakaway popes who ruled from Avignon resided in the Palais des Papes,* a veritable fortress. Have a guided tour of this magnificent princely residence to view its corridors, chambers and chapels, richly decorated with frescoes and tapestries. We will also visit the 12th-century Cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Doms and walk to the portion of the St. Bénézet Bridge, the famed “Pont d’Avignon,” that survived the floods of 1668.

Take a stroll through the nearby Place de l’Horloge, where you will find several fine small restaurants, or step into one of the tempting bakeries or delicatessens for lunch. This afternoon we will visit the castle ruins and the famed vineyards of Châteuneuf-du-Pape, built as the summer residence of the Avignon popes. Though only fragments of the fortress survived the 16th-century Wars of Religion, the vineyards they planted yield one of the finest of the Côtes du Rhône, and the view from the site is magnificent. Though the exact dates of harvest change from year to year, you may well be there just when the grapes are ready. En route back to Avignon, stop at a wonderful Chocolaterie. B Avignon Hotel (4-star)

Set out for the spectacular medieval cliff-top village of Gordes, one of the most beautiful in France. Gordes hangs on a rocky cliff, its houses built on terraces high above the Vaucluse Plateau. Originally a Roman outpost, it grew to a village in the Middle Ages. The chateau, which was completed in 1540, holds a strategic position at the pinnacle. Within it are one of the finest Renaissance fireplaces in France and a “Didactic Museum” of the work of Hungarian artist Victor Vasarély, who funded the castle restoration in the 1960s and was offered the museum in return.

Wander through the colorful Gordes market, where you will find Provençal fabrics, baskets, herbs, olive wood and lavender products. Art galleries, crafts boutiques and jewelry stores are abundant. You may want to tour the chateau and the 18th-century church, which was built atop Roman ruins. After lunch on your own, we will drive to a valley surrounded by lavender fields to see the Abbaye de Senanque, one of the purest extant examples of Romanesque architecture. Then before returning to Avignon we will visit the Lavender Museum and stop at the Pont Julien, a 1st-century Roman bridge named after Julius Caesar. Have dinner in Avignon on your own. B Avignon Hotel (4-star)

Spend today on your own in Avignon, perhaps making a morning visit to the Flower Market or strolling through the Crafts Market. The Petit Palais, once the residence of the archbishop of Avignon, is now a museum displaying Romanesque and Gothic sculpture, and paintings by Italian masters. The Calvet Museum is housed in the Hôtel de Villeneuve-Martignan, an 18th-century mansion considered by many to be Avignon’s most beautiful. Visit the 12th-century Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-des-Doms, where some of the apostate popes are buried, and continue along the Promenade du Rocher-des-Doms to enjoy the garden and the view across the Rhône. Discover more of the city’s delightful old streets and squares, perhaps stopping for lunch at a sidewalk café at the Place de l’Horloge in the shadow of the Gothic clock tower. We will have dinner together at an Avignon restaurant. B/D Avignon Hotel (4-star)

After breakfast, drive into the Luberon, the mountainous area that is largely designated as a Regional Nature Park. One of its villages, Mirabeau, may be familiar from the films Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. We will drive to Roussillon, a town situated in the heart of one of the biggest ochre deposits in the world. Its name is derived from the many hues of ochre—from light yellow to deep red—that color its houses, creating a world of intense color against green pines and blue sky. Roussillon is a magical place, both for its own beauty and for the unforgettable view of the Luberon all around it. Take a walk in the village past the colorful houses, small gardens and squares, visit the 11th-century church, and admire the Val des Fées and the rust-red cliffs. We will have lunch in Roussillon before returning to Avignon. B/L Avignon Hotel (4-star)

Travel through olive groves and vine-covered hills, along roads lined with plane trees, and into the heart of the Alpilles region to Les-Baux-de-Provence. Standing high on a rocky spur, this spectacular natural fortress and the ruins of its castle dominate the Alpilles Valley. The breathtaking view from the dungeon extends all the way to the Camargue. It is in this castle and village that the 12th- and 13th-century Court of Love originated. The huge Medieval weapons on display remind us that while poets composed their passionate verses for ladies of the court, lords and their knights fought some of the bloodiest wars in the region’s history. The castle, which once housed 6,000 people, was destroyed in 1632 during the Wars of Religion. Visitors now enjoy the narrow streets lined with Renaissance houses, galleries and boutiques that offer a great variety of Provençal crafts and fabrics. We will visit the Santons Museum, which displays the Neapolitan and Provençal terra cotta figurines called santons.

After lunch we will continue to Arles,* The ochre walls and tiled roofs will be a familiar sight by now and may bring to mind the colors—and the subject matter—of van Gogh’s paintings. These sights are interspersed with well-preserved reminders of the city’s Roman past. We will tour the Arena, the largest Roman building in ancient Gaul, which has been used since as a Medieval fortress, an enclosed town of over 200 houses and two chapels, and a bull ring. Nearby is the Roman Theater, whose stone was raided for later buildings but whose two remaining columns are called the “two widows.” A few steps further we reach the Church of St. Trophime, whose 12th-century Romanesque exterior houses magnificent Romanesque and Gothic cloisters. From Arles we will return to Avignon, for dinner on your own and perhaps an evening walk. B Avignon Hotel (4-star)

Check out after breakfast and leave for Carcassonne,* a city that rises on a bank above the River Aude, with the snow-capped Pyrenées in the distance. The citadel was restored in the 19th century by the architectural historian Viollet-le-Duc, who applied his research into long-misunderstood Medieval building techniques to both Notre-Dame in Paris and to Carcassonne. The town’s fairy-tale quality evokes bold knights, fair damsels and passionate troubadours but belies its history as the target of assault by all manner of medieval weaponry. Its strategic location placed it at the center of conflicts between France and Spain and between the Inquisition and the dissenting sect called the Cathars, or Albigensians, who were given sanctuary there. Our afternoon walking tour will take in the Romanesque and Gothic Basilica St.-Nazaire, the remnants of Gallo-Roman walls, and the Château Comtal, a fortress within a fortress with its own moat and towers. In the late afternoon, check into the hotel in Carcassonne, where we will hold the Farewell Dinner and spend the last night of our Provençal journey. B/D Carcassonne Hotel (4-star)

After continental breakfast at the hotel, leave for the Toulouse airport for your return flight to the U.S.