Visiting Provence
White limestone drops straight into the water at the calanques, between Marseille and Cassis. Drive an hour north and you are on the plain of Arles, its marshes and its bulls. Another hour and Mont Ventoux closes the horizon.
What Provence has of its own is a density of history the landscape does not hint at. A Roman arena still in use, a fourteenth-century papal palace, bauxite quarries turned into projection halls: all of it inside a fifty-kilometre radius.
You will love it if
- You walk: the calanques are only properly seen on foot or by boat
- Markets and tables matter to you as much as monuments
- You come in May, June or September rather than August
Look elsewhere if
- You are after cool air: the valley passes thirty-five degrees in July
- The mistral would ruin a beach day for you
- You plan to drive to the calanques in summer, when access is controlled
The must-sees
The highlights
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1 Calanques National Park +26 recs
Twenty kilometres of coves between Marseille and Cassis, Europe's only peri-urban national park. En-Vau has to be earned: two hours on the way in, no shade, and access is controlled in summer according to fire risk.
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2 The Palace of the Popes +37 recs
The largest Gothic palace in the world, built in twenty years in the fourteenth century when the papacy sat in Avignon. The rooms are bare, and it is the volume that impresses, not the decoration.
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3 The Carrières de Lumières +40 recs
Former limestone quarries at Les Baux-de-Provence, whose thirty-metre walls serve as the screen for monumental projections. The temperature stays at fourteen degrees all year.
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5 Arles and its arena +126 recs
A first-century Roman amphitheatre, still used for the ferias. The town kept its ancient street pattern, and its eight Roman and Romanesque monuments are World Heritage listed.
The classic mistake
Planning the calanques on a mistral day. The boat shuttles stay in, the paths become exposed and swimming is unpleasant. The wind is forecast three days out, and a plan B in town costs less than a lost day.
Our itineraries in Provence
| Length | Itinerary | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Long weekend (3 days) | Marseille › Cassis | City, port, calanques |
| 1 week | Marseille › Aix-en-Provence › Arles › Avignon | Calanques, antiquity, popes |
| 10 days | Marseille › Cassis › Toulon › Hyères › Aix › Arles › Avignon | Coast, islands and back country |
Two bases are enough for a week: Marseille or Cassis for the coast, Avignon or Arles for inland. An hour's drive separates them.
The train serves Marseille, Aix, Avignon and Arles, which makes the historic loop doable without a car. The moment you aim for the Luberon, the Alpilles or the coves, it becomes necessary again.
When to visit Provence
| Rating | Season | Weather | Crowds and prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| May, June and September | 20 to 28 °C, dry and bright | Busy, mid-range prices | |
| April and October | 15 to 22 °C, short showers | Moderate, good prices | |
| July and August | 28 to 36 °C, dry | Peak, high prices | |
| November to March | 6 to 14 °C, frequent mistral | Quiet, coast winding down |
Our advice
Choose June over September if the lavender fields matter to you: the Valensole plateau flowers from mid-June to mid-July, and cutting follows. For the sea, the water is at its warmest in September.
Getting to Provence
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1 By train Simplest
Eurostar to Paris or Lille, then the high-speed line puts Marseille three hours from the capital and Avignon two hours forty. Both central stations spare you a car for a city stay.
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2 By plane Fastest
Marseille Provence is twenty-five minutes from the centre by shuttle, and easyJet flies in from several British airports. Useful from abroad, rarely a gain once the trip to the airport is counted.
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3 By car Most flexible
essential for the Luberon, the Alpilles and the trailheads. In town it costs a lot to park, and both Marseille and Aix have a low-emission zone.
Getting around Provence
Between Marseille, Aix, Arles and Avignon, the train is enough and saves time. For hilltop villages and the calanques there is no alternative to a car, except the boat shuttles from Marseille and Cassis.
Worth knowing
Access to the Calanques massif is regulated every day in summer according to fire risk, and closure can be total. The next day's order is published late the previous afternoon: check it before you plan your walk.
What to eat in Provence
- Bouillabaisse: originally the fishermen's soup, made from unsold fish. Good houses serve the broth and the fish separately, and announce the day's species.
- Pastis: anise and liquorice, served with a jug of cold water. The ratio is one to five, and you add the water to the spirit, never the other way round.
- Pieds et paquets: stuffed sheep tripe, simmered a whole night in white wine and tomato. A Marseille winter dish, ordered at midday.
- Navettes: small dry biscuits with orange blossom, shaped like a boat. One bakery in the Panier district has baked them to the same recipe since the eighteenth century.
- Olive oil from Les Baux: an appellation of the valley, tasting of matured olive, stronger than the mild oils. The mills open to visitors in November, at pressing time.
- Camargue rice: grown in the delta paddies since the middle of the twentieth century, it goes with bull meat in gardiane.
- Calisson d'Aix: candied melon and almond on unleavened wafer, glazed with sugar. The almond shape has not changed since the fifteenth century.
Where to stay in Provence
| Area | What it is for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Marseille, Old Port or Panier | Museums, harbour, calanques trailheads | Lively late, transport until midnight |
| Cassis or La Ciotat | Coves, coastal path, boat | Small capacity, full in August |
| Aix-en-Provence | Town, markets, Cézanne | Central for inland, high rates |
| Avignon | Popes, Luberon, Alpilles | Full and expensive during the July festival |
| Hyères | Golden Isles, beaches, cycling | The most affordable on the coast |
One coastal base and one inland base: that split saves the most time, because the two landscapes are not visited from the same point.
For the Hyères islands, sleeping over changes the day: once the last boat has gone, Porquerolles has nothing to do with what it is at midday.
How much does a trip in Provence cost?
| Style | Length | Budget per person |
|---|---|---|
| Budget (campsite or hostel, markets, trails) | 7 days | 350 to 500 € |
| Comfortable (hotel, restaurants, museums and boat) | 7 days | 850 to 1,300 € |
| High end (boutique hotel, starred tables) | 7 days | 2,200 to 3,000 € |
- The season: on the coast a room costs 50 to 70 % more in August than in May, and Avignon doubles its rates during the festival.
- The calanques: the massif is free on foot. The boat shuttle and the private charter are the only outlays, and walking avoids both.
- The markets: a meal of bread, oil, cheese and fruit bought in the morning replaces a restaurant without losing anything.
- Parking: in Marseille and Aix it weighs as much as a meal a day. A car left in a garage on city nights costs less than the same car parked downtown.
- The lunch menu: in good houses it is half the price of the evening card, from the same kitchen.
Traditions and way of life in Provence
The mistral is not a weather anecdote: it comes down the Rhône valley a hundred days a year, it dries the air, and it is what gives the raw light Van Gogh painted in Arles. Old houses turn their backs to it, with no opening to the north, and the cypress hedges are planted to break it.
Pétanque is played everywhere and can be watched without intruding, but a game has its codes: you do not walk inside the throwing circle, and you do not speak to the player taking aim. The game comes from La Ciotat, where the feet-together rule was invented in 1910 for a player who could no longer run.
One summer habit to know: many village shops close between midday and four o'clock, bakeries included. You shop early, you sleep or swim in the afternoon, and life starts again after six, when the heat drops.
