Provence
Présentation
There is a moment in Provence — it comes in July, in the early morning, when the lavender is still wet with dew and the light is young and golden and the mistral has paused for a breath — when the landscape delivers on every promise it has ever made. The fields stretch in rows of violet to the horizon. The cicadas have begun. The air carries the combined fragrance of thyme, rosemary, and something older and deeper that has no name in any language.
Provence is the most sensory region in France — and perhaps in Europe. It is the region that captivated Cézanne, who painted Mont Sainte-Victoire over and over for thirty years and still felt he had not captured what he saw. That moved Van Gogh to some of the most intense canvases in the history of art. That inspired Peter Mayle to write a book that changed the way the English-speaking world thought about the good life. That keeps those who visit returning — season after season, year after year — with the particular loyalty reserved for places that have become, in some essential way, a part of who you are.
But Provence is not merely beautiful. It is also ancient, stubbornly proud, and of extraordinary cultural depth. The Palais des Papes in Avignon — where seven popes resided in the 14th century — is one of the most important Gothic buildings in the world. Les Baux-de-Provence, perched on its rocky spur above the Alpilles, is the most dramatic village in the south of France. Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne's city, with its cours Mirabeau lined with plane trees and its daily markets piled with the finest produce in France, is among the most civilised small cities on earth.
At Safrans de France, we know Provence as intimately as it is possible to know a region — its hidden truffle markets, its best vignerons, its most beautiful mornings, and its most generous tables. We are here to share all of it with you.
Itineraries
Three ways to experience the very best of the region — each one crafted to reveal a different facet of this extraordinary destination.
Lavender, Luberon & the Villages of Haute-Provence
The classic Provence — and still, somehow, exceeding every expectation. The villages of the Luberon: Gordes, its limestone houses cascading down the hillside; Roussillon, its ochre cliffs blazing orange in the afternoon; Ménerbes, quietly elegant above its vineyards. The lavender fields of the Valensole plateau in July — the most photographed landscape in France, and more beautiful than any photograph. A private rosé tasting at a domaine in the Luberon. And long, slow evenings on restaurant terraces where the mistral carries the scent of pine and wild herbs through the olive trees. Provence, at its most quintessential.
Aix-en-Provence, Les Baux & the Alpilles
A journey through the most artistically resonant corners of Provence. Aix-en-Provence — Cézanne's city, its cours Mirabeau one of the most beautiful streets in France, its markets among the finest in the south. Les Baux-de-Provence, its ruined citadel perched above limestone cliffs in the most dramatic setting in the region. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh was hospitalised and painted some of his greatest canvases in the surrounding fields. And the Carrières de Lumières — the most extraordinary son et lumière experience in France, in a former quarry below Les Baux. Provence, through the eyes of its painters.
The Complete Provence
A full week devoted to the full spectrum of Provence — from the papal grandeur of Avignon to the wild flamingo-pink marshes of the Camargue, from the lavender of the Vaucluse to the truffle markets of the Var. The Palais des Papes at dusk, when the tourists have gone and the light turns the stone gold. A dawn truffle hunt with a hunter and his dog in the oak forests above Apt. A morning at the Aix market with a private chef, selecting the day's ingredients for a cooking lesson in a Provençal mas. And throughout, the rosé — poured cold, poured generously, poured at tables where the afternoon lasts until it becomes evening. Provence, complete and unhurried.
Things to See & Do
Provence is inexhaustible in its pleasures. Here are the experiences we consider essential — and a few that only insiders know.
The Luberon & its Villages — The hilltop villages of the Luberon are among the most beautiful in France: Gordes, Roussillon, Ménerbes, Bonnieux, Lacoste, Oppède-le-Vieux. Each one a study in the art of building with local stone, of living within a landscape rather than imposed upon it. A private guided day through the most beautiful villages — at the right season, at the right hour of the day, with a guide who knows which terrace has the best view and which baker opens first — is one of the great pleasures of Provence.
Avignon & the Palais des Papes — The most important Gothic building in the world outside of France's cathedrals, the Palais des Papes rises above the Rhône in a statement of medieval power and ambition that dwarfs everything around it. A private guided visit — entering the state rooms with an art historian, understanding the political drama of the seven Avignon papacies — transforms the experience entirely. In July, during the Festival d'Avignon, the city becomes the most concentrated theatre festival in the world: a private evening in one of the festival's most sought-after productions is among the most memorable experiences we arrange in Provence.
Les Baux-de-Provence & the Carrières de Lumières — The most dramatic village in the south of France, perched on a rocky spur of the Alpilles above a landscape of olive groves and limestone scrubland. The ruined citadel, the medieval streets, the views over the Camargue plain. And below the village, in a former bauxite quarry of extraordinary dimensions, the Carrières de Lumières — where the works of a great painter are projected floor-to-ceiling across the raw limestone walls in an experience of complete visual immersion unlike anything else in France.
The Truffle Markets — From November to March, the black truffle of Provence is the most coveted ingredient in French cuisine. The weekly truffle markets of Aups, Richerenches, and Carpentras — where producers sell their harvest directly, the air fragrant with the extraordinary fungal perfume of a kilo of fresh Tuber melanosporum — are among the most authentic and most fascinating markets in France. A private visit with a hunter and his dog, at dawn in the oak forests where the truffles grow, followed by a truffle breakfast at a local restaurant, is one of our most treasured winter experiences.
The Rosé of Provence — Provence produces eighty percent of the world's rosé, and the finest of it — from the Côtes de Provence, the Coteaux d'Aix, the extraordinary Bandol — is of a quality that surprises those accustomed to thinking of pink wine as a summer afterthought. A private tasting at three different domaines in a single afternoon — from a large celebrated estate to a tiny biodynamic producer — reveals the full range of what Provence rosé can be.
Where to Stay
Provence's finest hotels share the quality of the landscape itself — a beauty that appears effortless because it has been refined over centuries into something entirely natural and entirely extraordinary.
Baumanière Les Baux-de-Provence — Les Baux (5 stars, Relais & Châteaux) The most celebrated hotel in Provence — and one of the great addresses of French luxury hospitality. Four generations of the Charial family have presided over this estate at the foot of Les Baux since 1945, building a constellation of bastides and farmhouses around a three-Michelin-starred restaurant that is among the finest in the south of France. The olive groves, the swimming pool, the silence broken only by cicadas and the distant sound of the kitchen at work — Baumanière is quintessential Provence, elevated to its most refined expression.
Airelles Gordes — Gordes (5 stars) Perched on the cliffside of the most beautiful village in the Luberon, with views across the valley that are among the most photographed in France, the Airelles Gordes is a hotel of exceptional beauty and ambition. Its terraces, its Sisley spa, its restaurant celebrating the finest produce of Provence — and above all, its setting, which delivers at every hour of the day a view that makes all other views feel slightly insufficient. For those who wish to experience the Luberon from its most dramatic vantage point, there is no finer address.
Villa La Coste — Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (5 stars, Relais & Châteaux) A wine estate of 1,300 acres near Aix-en-Provence, transformed into one of the most extraordinary art and hospitality destinations in France. Intimate villas scattered across olive groves and vineyards, a Michelin-starred garden-to-table restaurant, a spa of considerable refinement, and a permanent collection of site-specific works by some of the most celebrated contemporary artists in the world — Richard Serra, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Ufan, Tracey Emin. For those who believe that art, wine, and landscape are most powerful when experienced simultaneously, Villa La Coste is a revelation.
Guy's Provence Pick
Go to Provence in November. The lavender is long gone, the summer tourists have departed, and the region has returned to itself — quieter, more austere, and more beautiful than in any other season.
The truffle markets have opened. The light is low and amber. The villages are empty in the mornings and the cafés are full of locals. The mistral blows through the Luberon for three days and then stops, and the air is so clear that you can see Sainte-Victoire from the streets of Aix as Cézanne saw it — sharp-edged, luminous, more real than real.
Drive to the Valensole plateau one morning, when the bare lavender fields are silver with frost. Then south to a truffle market in Aups — buy the smallest truffle on offer, take it back to your hotel, and ask the kitchen to cook eggs with it. Nothing more. No other ingredient.
This is Provence at its most honest. And it is better than the postcards.
— Guy
The Safrans de France Experience
Our Provence journeys are shaped by access to the region's most intimate and most extraordinary pleasures — the ones that require the right knowledge and the right relationships to unlock.
A private truffle hunt at dawn in the oak forests above Apt, with a hunter whose family has been working these woods for four generations, ending with a truffle breakfast at a table where the eggs are from the farm next door and the truffle was underground forty minutes ago. A private evening visit to the Palais des Papes in Avignon, after the site closes to the public, with an art historian from the city's own conservation team. A morning with the winemaker at Domaine Tempier in Bandol, tasting vintages from the cellar that have been ageing since before you were born, followed by a long lunch in the vineyard.
These are the Provence moments that stay with you — in the particular quality of the light at that hour, in the smell of the truffle on your fingers, in the particular shade of rosé in the glass on the table as the afternoon turned to evening. And they are precisely the ones we exist to create.
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