Destination Provence & Côte d’Azur Scented hillsides, ancient villages, Europe’s biggest canyon, exotic gardens and the Mediterranean are on the itinerary as CARMEN KONOPKA explores this lovely south-eastern part of France 0 50 100 Kilometers 0 50 100 miles s Villa Ephrussi www.destinationfrancemagazine.co.uk SUMMER 2010 33 34 SUMMER 2010 Destination France PROVENCE & CÔTE D’AZUR ragrance pervades Provence and the Côte followed the Durance river valley northwards to the CLOCKWISE d’Azur. In the early part of the year gardens pretty mountain towns and villages around Forcalquier AROUND are heavy with the honeyed scent of before heading east to visit the Gorge du Verdon, a OPPOSITE PAGE: laurustinus bushes, mimosa and jasmine, 25km long canyon, up to 700m deep in parts. Nearby ✦ Lavender, then a little later with roses and lavender. I visited Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a town perched on one of the many FAromatic herbs like rosemary and thyme cling to the the edge of a ravine, which is famous for its faience fragrances of hillsides and find footholds everywhere in the tiniest ceramic workshops. Provence pockets of soil. Market stalls are redolent of locally Heading south, I stopped at the ancient Thoronet ✦ Gorge du Verdon grown olives, garlic and tomatoes and truffles. Abbey, built by the Cistercians in 1175, and the basilica (Picture: OT It’s a heady mix that takes your senses by surprise. in Saint Maximin with its tomb of Mary Magdalen, Moustiers) Travelling in Europe you often see remarkable sights, before visiting a vineyard established by the Templars ✦ Pine trees grow all along taste fantastic food and hear memorable music, but near Flassans sur Issole. the Côte smells are usually fleeting – and not always nice! Yet My first stop on the coast was at Hyères which d’Azur here in this sun-baked corner of south-eastern France became Provence’s first seaside resort when the French ✦ Coastline at Rayol-Canadel you find yourself luxuriating in perfume. King Charles IX spent the winter there in 1564, and in the Var The world’s perfume capital, Grasse, is in the east of which grew to become a favourite of our own Queen ✦ One of the region. Here tonnes of jasmine are harvested every Victoria and wealthy Brits in the 19th century. From the Picasso paintings on year and it’s the home of traditional perfume houses like here I followed the coast eastwards to Nice, exploring the painters’ Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard. On the Plateau de resorts, villages and gardens along what we call the trail at Antibes Valensole, where fields are filled with rows of lavender as Riviera and the French know better as the Côte d’Azur. ✦ St Martin de Brômes far as the eye can see, is the base of L’Occitane, the much Much of Provence is deeply rural and every town has in Alpes-de- newer but world-famous beauty products manufacturer. a market overflowing with local produce. Until the 20th Haut-Provence Of course perfume is not the only attraction. The century many people still spoke Occitan (the Langue ✦ Boats at Beaulieu region – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur to give it its full, d’Oc, ‘oc’ being the word for ‘yes’) rather than French. ✦ Desperate lengthy name – has a wonderfully varied landscape, Today the country accent is distinctive and you’ll hear Housewives with the mountains of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence people saying ‘bey oui’ rather than ‘mais oui’, and star Eva Longoria and Alpes-Maritimes départements, the great valleys they’ll refer to what sounds like vang when they pour Parker wearing of the Rhône, Durance and Verdon rivers, Europe’s you a glass of the delicious local rosé. an Emilio Pucci dress largest delta in the Camargue, and the spectacular By contrast, along the coast is a more glamourous at this year’s Mediterranean coastline with its combination of rocky world with the sophisticated resorts of Saint Tropez, Cannes Film Festival heights and sandy beaches. Cannes, Juan-les-Pins and Nice, to mention just (Picture: Artists have always loved this part of France, a few. Here you’ll spot sublime villas in exquisite Mike Marsland) flocking here to capture the special luminescent quality seafront locations, or tucked away secretly in of the light and the brilliant colours. Picasso, Matisse, the hills above. There are luxurious hotels and Chagall, Bonard, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne... the list divine restaurants – not to mention sophisticated of artists who have worked here reads like a museum nightspots – that are the haunts of the rich and catalogue. Luckily for us, many of them left work famous, along with plenty for those of us who are here – sometimes created on the walls of buildings, neither stars nor millionaires... sometimes pictures which have since been gathered into excellent museum collections. Historically Provence is fascinating too, and you’ll find traces of previous civilisations dating right back to HOW TO GET THERE Palaeolithic times. Both the ancient Greeks and Romans I travelled to France by train, first taking the Eurostar from London to Lille, then a high-speed TGV train to came here and there are extraordinary remains of their Aix-en-Provence. For the return journey, I left from Nice. presence, including the amphitheatre in Arles, the Return fares from London to Marseille and Nice triumphal arch in Orange and the Trophée des Alpes in start at £119 per person in standard class, subject to La Turbie, a massive monument built in 6BC. availability. For bookings visit www.raileurope.co.uk It was the Romans who named this region, calling or call 0844 848 4070. Personal callers are welcome at the Rail Europe Travel Centre, 1 Regent Street, it Provincia Nostra, ‘our province’, which eventually London SW1 evolved into Provence. It’s now a large region, covering the six départements of Vaucluse, Bouches du Rhône, MORE INFO Hautes-Alpes, Var, Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence and Alpes- www.terre-mediterranee.com Maritimes – too much for one journey, so in this feature www.frenchriviera-tourism.com www.alpes-haute-provence.com we travel through only the last three and we will explore www.visitvar.fr Vaucluse in the next issue of Destination France. I started this journey in Aix-en-Provence, then Destination France SUMMER 2010 35 PROVENCE & CÔTE D’AZUR HIGHSPOTS AND PANORAMAS fantastic views of the surrounding countryside climb up riving in Haut Provence and the Côte the citadel tower – you can see across to the Alps, the d’Azur is not for the faint-hearted. Valensole Plateau and the Luberon. Glorious! Expect steep climbs and hairpin bends This area boasts some of the clearest skies in Europe, on the mountain roads. Along the coast with the result that it is home to 13 astronomical you can imagine yourself as glamorous observatories, among them the Observatoire de Haute- DGrace Kelly or Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Provence, a national facility for French astronomers Thief as you zigzag along the famous Grande Corniche. which can be visited by the public during the day. In fact there are three corniches between Nice and The villages nearby are delightful to explore, among Menton – the Grande at the highest level, the Inférieure them Lurs, perched on a rocky spur above the Durance or Bas closest to the sea, and the Moyenne in between valley. Walk along the Promenade des Evêques to the – and yet more along other parts of the coast. Literally Notre Dame de Vie chapel to see fabulous views of the corniche means ‘road on a ledge’ and often they go olive groves all around and, depending on the season, up, down and around bends dramatically. However, fields of poppies, sunflowers or lavender. as a reward for your driving you will see spectacular panoramas at almost every turn. Away from the coast, in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence my first stop was in Forcalquier, a village perched on a conical hill topped with an octagonal chapel. For Bormes les Mimosas, perched high on a hill 36 SUMMER 2010 Destination France Heading east across the Plateau de Valensole is Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a pretty little town so precariously positioned on a ledge at the base of a cliff that you wonder how they ever managed to build houses here. Its buildings are on either side of a fast- flowing waterfall that in days gone by powered 20 mills for flour, wood and pottery. Remarkably, Moustiers was one of the first places in France to have electric Moustiers-Sainte-Marie lighting, thanks to a hydroelectric plant installed in the Moustiers-Sainte-Marie late 19th century. (Picture: OT Moustiers) Today it’s enchanting to explore the quaint narrow streets dating back to the 5th century. There are numerous potteries producing faïence – tin-glazed earthenware with its characteristic white finish and delicate hand-painted decorations – and many of the potters are happy for you to watch them at work. The biennial pottery festival takes place this year from September 25-October 3. Look up and you’ll see a great star suspended from a chain stretched between two cliffs above the town. Legend has it that the star was originally put there by the Chevalier de Blacas in thanks for his safe return after being captured by the Saracens in the Crusades. Travel down the windy road south-east from Moustiers and you come to Pont de Galetas, a crossing over the Verdon river which marks the end of the extraordinary Gorge du Verdon where it flows into the great Lac de Sainte Croix. This is a perfect spot for those who want to swim, canoe, go white-water rafting, climb, walk..