Rolling fields of olive groves. Hilltop villages dotting the horizon. Stone-walled farmhouses and fields of poppies that may as well have been plucked straight from an Impressionist painting. Welcome to Provence!
These sun-drenched hills in Southern France have captivated writers, artists, and ex-pats romanticizing a slower lifestyle for hundreds of years.
If you love drinking crisp wine on patios, crave bold Mediterranean flavors, want to see Impressionist paintings IRL (Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh—the gang all painted here), and/or just want to breathe in a little bit of magic…my friend, Provence is for you!
Ben and I spent 10 days here as a part of my dream 40th birthday trip.
Here’s everything you need to know, whether you’re planning a trip of your own, or just want to take a little desk vacation along with me.
Planning Your Time
Provence has a ton of options for where to visit and stay, to the point it gets overwhelming.
Making your choice more complicated, anyone who spends significant time here becomes convinced their village is “the best,” which, while endearing, makes trip planning genuinely hard.
We wanted authentic experiences, the right mix of towns, and to avoid tourist traps, so we worked with Aida from Salt and Wind Travel to help plan. I cannot recommend her enough!
Aida helped us build a trip that blended cities and villages of different sizes. We covered a lot of the region, without feeling like we were constantly repacking our suitcases.
We took day trips to hilltop towns, spent two days wine tasting, had a fabulous cooking class experience, and even went truffle hunting with the truffle dogs!
Below, find exactly where we stayed, what we ate, and the activities that made this trip one I will treasure forever.
One essential: you need a car. Trains get you to the larger cities, but the villages that make Provence, well, Provence require wheels. We’ve had the best experiences with Hertz in Europe. Sixt is a solid alternative.
