Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur: a condensed Wikivoyage guide to the region

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur packs Roman ruins, a papal palace, lavender fields, a turquoise river canyon and the Riviera into one region. Wikivoyage's guide calls it the most popular holiday region in the south of France, and this is a condensed overview of what the guide says about the places and the way of life.

The region and its departments. Photo: Shaundd, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Where it is and why it is called Provence

The region runs from the Mediterranean up to the French Alps and from the Rhône east to the Italian border. It includes the French Riviera and the original territory of Provence together with the County of Nice, which Italy once controlled. The guide says the name comes from "Transalpine Gaul," the first part of what is now France to become a Roman province, and that Julius Caesar launched his conquest of Gaul from here. Its sunny weather, countryside and language are its calling cards, and it is famous for wine and perfume.

Climate and language

Low-lying areas have a Mediterranean climate: dry and warm most of the year, hot and long summers, and brief winters with more rain and wind. The mountain zones are drier in summer but can be cool, and the southern Alps are the sunniest in the range, though winter snow is common.

French is official, but many locals have a regional accent, softly sounding the final e that standard French leaves silent. The guide traces it to Occitan, the dominant tongue a few generations ago. The dialect around Avignon is Provençal, which a group of writers and artists known as the Félibrige tried to preserve in the early 1900s, among them Frédéric Mistral, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1908. The language has largely disappeared but is spoken by a minority and taught in some courses, and some road signs are bilingual.

What to see

Lavender fields outside the Abbaye de Sénanque in Gordes, Vaucluse. Photo: EmDee, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Art. Nice has museums for Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse, and Vence has Matisse's Rosary Chapel. The guide says no Van Gogh paintings remain anywhere in Provence, but Arles still has many of the sights the artist pictured. Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation is in Marseille, and Avignon has the Collection Lambert of art made since the 1960s and a summer theater festival of three and a half weeks each July.

The Roman amphitheater in Arles. Photo: Oakenchips, CC BY-SA 4.0.

History. Arles has a well-preserved amphitheater still used for festivities, an underground cryptoporticus and Roman baths. The UNESCO-listed Roman theater in Orange, from the first century, stages opera from the end of June to the beginning of August, and Vaison-la-Romaine has a Roman bridge. In the fourteenth century the Church's western popes built an enormous Gothic palace in Avignon, the largest of its style, whose interior is now sparse after the French Revolution. Medieval hill towns include Gordes, in golden stone, and rocky Les Baux-de-Provence under a ruined château.

Glamour. Saint-Tropez has yachts, Cannes film stars and Monaco its pools. In Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat the guide points to Villa Kérylos and the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, ringed by nine themed gardens.

The entrance of the Verdon Gorge, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, seen from the bridge of Galetas on Lake Sainte-Croix. Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Food, drink and things to do

On the coast the cooking is fish-based. Bouillabaisse is a herb-rich fish stew, and salade niçoise combines tuna, eggs, anchovies, tomatoes, green beans and black olives; anchoiade, aioli and grilled sardines in Marseille are also named. In the hills the guide singles out ratatouille, stuffed vegetables and daube, a beef stew often mixed with olives. Christmas meals end with thirteen desserts, whose exact list is debated, and the tropézienne cake suits summer.

Local drinks include dry, light rosé and pastis, an anise liqueur of about 40 to 45 percent alcohol. Visitors can tour vineyards, olive groves and lavender fields: lavender blooms from June to August, grapes ripen from September to November and olives are harvested in November and December. Perfume is concentrated around Grasse, and weekly markets sell breads, cheeses, seafood, herbs, olives and crafts. Pétanque, the local boules game, is played in squares and parks, and the guide says visitors who are friendly may be invited to join.

Getting there

The main airports are Nice-Côte d'Azur and Marseille-Provence, and trains on the high-speed TGV line reach the Mediterranean in about three hours from Paris. The guide notes that local trains are prone to delays and that the region is among the most affected in France by rail strikes. Marseille, Nice and Toulon have their share of pickpocketing and muggings.

The Old Port of Marseille. Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sources

• Wikivoyage, "Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur" (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Provence-Alpes-C%C3%B4te_d'Azur), by its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Photos, under their own licences: Shaundd (map, CC BY-SA 3.0), EmDee (CC BY-SA 3.0), Oakenchips (CC BY-SA 4.0), Benh LIEU SONG (two, CC BY-SA 3.0). Changed here: condensed, with listings, route lists and most photos left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.