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A great way to explore the smaller villages, all in driving distance to Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, is to go during market days, where vendors sell fresh produce as well as homemade regional specialties, like olive oil, honey, lavender products and wine. Here’s a list of favorites.
<ul>
<li>Monday: Goult</li>
<li>Tuesday: Gordes; Vaison-La-Romaine</li>
<li>Wednesday: Arles (including antiques); Cassis; St. Rémy-de-Provence; Vence</li>
<li>Thursday: Aubagne; Roussillon</li>
<li>Friday: Bonnieux; Carpentras; Lourmarin</li>
<li>Saturday: Aix-en-Provence, Apt, L’Isle sur la Sorgue (antiques)</li>
<li>Sunday: L’Isle sur la Sorgue (antiques)</li>
</ul>

Aerial View-Shop the Markets , Provence, France

Shop the Markets

Provence is home to many famous chefs as well as bountiful markets. Depending on your interest, group size and level of culinary experience, we can tailor a cooking class to suit you. Begin exploring the markets and shops in a small village or in a state-of-the-art professional kitchen. Indagare members can contact our bookings team for options.


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Indagare Tours: Cooking Classes

The area where the chic and wealthy hide out in private hillside villas is also renowned for its Côtes de Provence vineyards. Locals adore Château des Marres, where award-winning whites are created. Other Côtes de Provence vineyards are scattered along Route D61, in nearby Gassin. Among the best: the classic Château Minuity, which makes delicious fruity rosés and highly rated reds; buy directly from the cellar, and have a peek at the 18th-century chapel on the grounds. And don’t miss the equally top-notch Château de Barbeyrolles. Indagare members can contact our bookings team to arrange for a guided tour.
Château des Marres
Route des Plages, Ramatuelle
33-4-9497-2261
www.chateaudesmarres.com
Château Minuty
2491 Route de la Berle, Gassin
33-4-9456-1209
www.chateauminuty.com
Château de Barbeyrolles
Route de la Berle
33-4-9456-3358
www.barbeyrolles.com

Exterior Veiw -  Indagare Tours: Vineyards in Ramatuelle  ,  St. Tropez, France

Indagare Tours: Vineyards in Ramatuelle

See & Do

A modern art wonderland in a blissfuly remote corner of Provence, Villa La Coste has sophisticated rooms, an on-property vineyard and an open-air museum.

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Villa La Coste

Peter Mayle readers might think twice about living like locals in Ménerbes, with all the daunting responsibilities that entails, especially when they can stay in a stylish hotel that feels like a private home minus the hassles of ownership. La Bastide de Marie is an 18th-century stone farmhouse, located on a quiet country road and surrounded by vineyards. Its views extend past a century-old cypress grove and towards the lush Lubéron National Park.

Embodying a laid­back country lifestyle, this chic Provençal farmhouse is exquisitely decorated with objects sourced from the nearby antique markets of L’Isle­ Sur ­La­ Sorgue (think exposed cobblestone bathrooms, wrought iron beds and clawfoot bath tubs). Stylishly restored by the celebrated hotelier Jocelyne Sibuet — who also owns <a title="Les Fermes de Marie" href="https://www.indagare.com/destinations/europe/france/megeve/megeve-megeve/hotels/les-fermes-de-marie/">Les Fermes de Marie</a>, in the resort town of <a href="/destinations/europe/france/megeve/">Megève</a>, and <a title="Villa Marie" href="/destinations/europe/france/st-tropez//hotels/villa-marie/">Villa Marie</a> in St.-Tropez — the farmhouse has 14 rooms and suites, each of which is unique. (Contact your Indagare Trip Designer for assistance picking the best layout for you.)

Another attraction is the ultra-fresh, simple and flavorful regional cuisine, prepared in an open kitchen in a tiny stone house that doubles as a cozy dining room. Guests may also take their meals on the vast linden-shaded terrace, which offers a sweeping view of the countryside. The chef excels in country fare. Try the chilled tomato soup sprinkled with pistachios and drizzled with local olive oil, the delicious rack of lamb with garden vegetables and, for dessert, a lavender crème brûlée. Sample one of the bastide's own wines, or choose from the wide selection of top vintages from the Lubéron. Before dinner, aperitifs are served in the main house, where guests mingle as if they were attending a cocktail reception at a stylish friend's home.

When you’ve had your fill of lazing by one of two small heated stone pools (there’s also an indoor pool), you can enjoy a range of activities, from mountain biking, horseback riding, golf and hot-air ballooning to shopping for antiques or the perfect goat cheese and vine-ripened peaches. You’ll also want to take advantage of the bastide’s small spa, which has two treatment rooms and is stocked with the Sibuet hotels’ trademark Pure Altitude beauty line, made with edelweiss that grows wild in the French Alps. Treatments include a range of massages with pungent essential mountain oils, honey and brown sugar scrubs, pink clay and mineral wraps, plus anti-aging facials with an Alpine mix of arctic raspberries, cloudberries, bilberries, musk rose and fern extracts.

For the ultimate gentleman-farmer experience, rent one of the neighboring villas: the five-bedroom, five-bath Grenache or the two-bedroom Syrah. Both boast private heated outdoor lap pools and country-style kitchens and dining rooms and are furnished in a sober but easy elegant style with antiques from the local markets, organdy-curtained wrought-iron beds with hand stitched quilts and embroidered linens in a harmonious mix of dove-gray, sunflower-yellow, olive-green, plum and pale lavender. The hotel will arrange private meals, gourmet picnics or massages. If too much serenity makes you restless, visit the neighboring village of Gordes, only a short drive away (pretty St. Rémy de Provence is about a 45-minute drive away).

Aerial View -  La Bastide de Marie, Provence, France

La Bastide de Marie

Up the fragrant winding roads of lavender country, perched atop a hill 25 miles northeast of Avignon, stands Crillon le Brave. Once home to a long line of dukes and to Brave Crillon, the favorite general of Henri IV, it is a sleepy hamlet today. Next to the tiny village’s church sits the hotel that bears its name, a rambling property of nine, small 16th- and 17th-century country houses connected by a maze of “secret” paths.

The 34 rooms and suites, each a different shape and size, are all done in pretty florals and soft beiges—the floors paved with terra-cotta tiles—and furnished with comfy armchairs and sofas. A favorite accommodation is a vast, split-level suite located in a 12th-century tower, which boasts a pair of claw-foot tubs facing a bay window and superb views from the private terrace.

Have breakfast on the restaurant terrace, then lounge by the stunning heated pool, both with incredible views of Mont Ventoux and the countryside below. If you wish to indulge in a massage or facial, there’s a small Tata Harper spa located in the former stables of the village. Come sunset, after a game of pétanque, head for the leafy terrace to sip a glass of Côtes-du-Rhône while looking over the vine-covered plains and white-gray limestone peaks of Mont Ventoux.

You can enjoy the same view, under a starry sky, at the outdoor restaurant, which serves refined regional cuisine by Chef Adrien Brunet. The impressive wine list features a wide choice of excellent affordable bottles from the Rhône valley that guests select before dinner. The more casual bistro, La Table du Ventoux, serves an ever-changing menu, featuring the freshest ingredients sourced from towns within a 25-mile radius—everything from asparagus and pork to olive oil and farmer's goat cheese.

The atmosphere is friendly, laid-back and unpretentious, and the hotel draws an international clientele of young couples with children (who are most welcome), cyclists, hikers and the inevitable honeymooners. It’s the kind of place that will make you want to return off-season.


Aerial View - Hôtel de Crillon le Brave, Provence, France

Hôtel de Crillon le Brave

Stay

Exterior View - Les Deux Garçons, Provence, France

Family-Friendly

Foodie Favorite

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Relaxed but Refined

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First Time Musts

Stretching from the border of Italy all the way past Cannes and into the charming hilltop villages with expansive sea views, the coastline of the French Riviera is legendary—not only for its epic landscapes, but for its effortlessly chic and seemingly carefree lifestyle. It's not hard to see why artists, Europeans, celebrities and jetsetters alike are drawn to this iconic holiday hot spot.

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French Riviera

The notion that Paris is always a good idea may feel exaggerated, but the fact is that a trip to the City of Light never disappoints. Perhaps that's because it has all the elements of cosmopolitan capital—Michelin-starred restaurants, legendary palace hotels and some of the chicest concept shops you'll find anywhere in the world. No other does it with quite the same attitude and conviction as Paris. As in Rome or London, when walking its cobblestoned streets for hours (no matter the arrondissement), it's hard not to be dazzled by the architecture, the views along the seine and the history all around you. Just like a Chanel suit, Paris is forever iconic.

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Paris

Located along the river Garonne, which is much wider than the Seine, Bordeaux is a beautiful French city in the southwestern region of the country. Long called the “Sleeping Beauty” of France and the world capital of wine, it is has been restored in the last decade (its Port of Moon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site), making it ripe for exploration and an ideal base from which to see the region.

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Bordeaux

Great Combinations

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Darby Fox, member since 2012

Get inspired with unique insights about Provence from the Indagare editorial team and community.

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