We were ambling back from the Tuesday market — a trip for fish, cheese, freshly picked strawberries and a few vegetables — when a woman’s voice said, “Star Market (a reference to our bag) … Boston.” We looked up to see a familiar face, Nathalie, who with her husband retired to Aix quite a few…
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BANON, France — The tourist office was shut tight for the two weeks of school vacation when we visited this village last Thursday. It’s early spring in the alpine foothills of northeastern Provence, and the tourists who come here in modest numbers in summer have not yet arrived. By most measures, Banon is a sleepy,…
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Kathy and I have covered a lot of ground by car in the last week: Visits to Saint Remy de Provence, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Gordes, Roussillon, Arles, Avignon, Cassis, Mont Sainte-Victoire and Banon. Each stop has brought its own surprises — a snippet of history, a special shop, freshly painted shutters or the slant of afternoon sunlight…
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The D17 is the scenic route through the scrub pine forests along the southern base of Mont Sainte-Victoire. It’s also the only route, a narrow, sometimes single-lane-wide road with no center divide. Thankfully, at this time of year, there are few cars and, once off on the trails, fewer people. The road heads east from…
It’s not as if we’ve been lacking for good meals here in France. Not close. In Aix, we’ve consistently enjoyed the lunchtime formule at Bistroquet, a plat du jour, dessert and glass of wine for about $22. Or we’ve relished the chevre chaud, plat du jour and absolutely divine chocolate cake at Fanny’s Bistrot Gourmand.…
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Vincent Van Gogh spent most of the last year of his life in an asylum, Le Monastere Saint Paul de Mausole, in the Provence town of Saint Remy. When he committed himself to the mental hospital on May 8, 1889, doctors noted that Van Gogh was suffering from acute mania and both visual and auditory…