French regions - Provence

Provence, the Midi, these are magical names in a luminous landscape that inspired Van Gogh and Cezanne, and changed the course of modern painting. With its feet in the Mediterranean and its head in the Alps, the Provence has an extensive palette of colourful landscapes.

Compressed within a few hundred miles radius is scenery as varied and magnificent as anywhere in Europe. Vineyards, silvery groves of olives and lavender scented hills. The high wall of the Alps shelters the coast, and the climate is a wonderful reason to stay here.

The road from the High Alps descends from Briançon towards the Lake of Serre-Ponçon or the Gorges du Verdon for a sporting stop. Once past Mont Ventoux, the Lubéron and its lavender fields, you reach the sea, its calanques (coves), Saint Tropez and the Iles du Levant.
Stroll through landscapes reminiscent of Cézanne and Picasso or let yourself be swallowed up by the beauty of the Camargue on horseback. There are many ways of getting away from it all, with music in Aix-en-Provence, theatre in Avignon, history in Arles and Orange for the Roman trail.

A land of light, the departments consist of Alpes de Haute Provence, Haute Alps, Bouches du Rhone, Var and Vaucluse. This region inspires love at first sight.

French regions - Cote d'Azur

A few kilometres back from the Riviera coast is a world of romantic hill towns and perched villages balanced on craggy peaks. Worn stone steps and cobbled streets lead through clusters of narrow-fronted houses. Roman ruins, modern museums and perfume centres cling to steep hillsides. Here, olive groves and pine woods stretch for miles down to the shore. Perfumed foothills are carpeted with flowers in the luminous light that inspired generations of painters from Renoir to Matisse and Picasso. Now a gentle, subtle resort-life flowers in soft air and sun above the Mediterranean.

For many others, today's shoreline Riviera offers all the grandeur of old: casinos, splendid hotels and stunning villas. As long as anyone can remember, this is Europe's classic resort. Graced by palms and sub-tropical flowers, since the turn of the century European society would talk of a magical land where winter never came. The well-named Azur Coast is the preferred playground for those willing to settle for nothing less than the best.

The Côte d'Azur is dedicated to the joys of summer the whole year through. Some 3,000 annual events from Cannes to Menton satisfy everyone’s needs.

With the sheltering Alps as a backdrop and the calm blue Mediterranean on the door-step, France's glamorous southern coast, the Alps Maritime, is the rendezvous for affluent elite who come to enjoy the good life.

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