The Rough Guide to Provence & Cote d’Azur

434 Pages·2016·49.566 MB·English

by  Rough Guides

INSIDE THIS BOOK
START YOUR JOURNEY WITH ROUGH GUIDES
INTRODUCTION What to see, what not to miss, itineraries and more – everything
you need to get started
BASICS Pre-departure tips and practical information
THE GUIDE Comprehensive, in-depth guide to Provence and the Côte d’Azur, with
area highlights and full-colour maps throughout
CONTEXTS History, recommended books and a useful language section
We’ve fl agged up our favourite places – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a special
restaurant – throughout the Guide with the symbol TRUSTED TRAVEL GUIDES Since 1982, our books have helped over 35 million
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travellers explore the world with accurate, honest and informed travel writing.
Provence & the Côte d’Azur chapters
N ITALY
Vaison-la-Romaine
Oran3ge Carpentras St-Auban CArhnâoteuaxu-Digne-les-Bains Tende
POCKET ROUGH GUIDES “Best of” section, essential itineraries and a unique
Pont Avignon
du Gard pull-out map featuring every sight and listing in the guide. Hip, handy and
Apt
Tarascon 2 4 Manosque 5 8 MOMNeAntConO perfect for short trips and weekend breaks.
Arles Salon-de-Provence Grasse 7 Nice
Antibes
1 PArioxv-eennc-e LoDrgruaegsuignan Cannes
St-Raphaël
Martigues Brignoles
6
Marseille St-Tropez
Toulon
MEDITERRANEAN
0 25 SEA
kilometres
1 Marseille and around 4 Aix-en-Provence, the Durance 6 Toulon and the southern Var
2 Arles and the Camargue and the Luberon 7 Cannes and the western Riviera DIGITAL Choose from our easy-
3 Avignon and the Vaucluse 5 The Haut Var and Haute Provence 8 Nice and the eastern Riviera to-use ebooks and great-value
Snapshots to read on your tablet,
phone or e-reader.
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This ninth edition published July 2016
_Provence_InsideCover.indd 4 18/02/16 3:24 pm
The RouGh Guide To
Provence
& the Côte d’Azur
This ninth edition written and researched by
Neville Walker and Greg Ward
roughguides.com
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 1 12/02/16 12:28 pm
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 2 12/02/16 12:28 pm
introduction 3
Contents
introduction 4
Where to go 5 Things not to miss 12
When to go 10 Itineraries 20
Author picks 11
BaSicS 22
Getting there 23 The media 33
Getting around 26 Festivals 34
Accommodation 29 Sports and outdoor activities 35
Food and drink 31 Travel essentials 36
The guide 42
1 Marseille and around 42 5 The Haut Var and Haute Provence 198
2 Arles and the Camargue 82 6 Toulon and the southern Var 248
3 Avignon and the Vaucluse 112 7 Cannes and the western Riviera 300
4 Aix-en-Provence, the Durance 8 Nice and the eastern Riviera 342
and the Luberon 152
contextS 390
History 391 French 409
Books 407
Small print & index 421
opposite Old tOwn, Aix-en-PrOvence previous page OPPède-le-vieux
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 3 12/02/16 12:28 pm
4 introduction
Introduction to
Provence
& the côte d’Azur
Seductive, sweet-scented and steeped in history, the neighbouring regions
of Provence and the Côte d’Azur epitomize all that’s irresistible about
southern France. Each makes a fabulous destination in its own right; take a
trip to both, and you can enjoy the very best France has to offer. Provence,
stretching east from the River Rhône as it flows south towards the Camargue
and the sea, was one of Rome’s wealthiest provinces, and still abounds in
extraordinary ancient relics, as well as vibrant and romantic cities like
Avignon and Arles and countless alluring towns and hill villages. Named for
its dazzling azure waters, the Côte d’Azur – also colloquially known as the
French Riviera – consists of the fabled coast that runs from Marseille to the
frontier with Italy, studded with glamorous and glitzy resorts.
France’s eastern Mediterranean shoreline consists of an ever-changing series of geometric
bays that give way to chaotic outcrops of glimmering rock and deep, narrow inlets, like
miniature fjords – the calanques. Immediately behind it, the coastal hinterland is made
up of range after range of steep, forested hills, while the wild, high plateaux of central
Provence are cut by the deepest gorge in all Europe – the Grand Canyon du Verdon.
Higher still climb the snow-peaked lower Alps and their foothills, which in the east
descend right to the sea, and to the west extend almost to the Rhône. All these would
count for nothing, however, were it not for the magical Mediterranean light. At its best
in spring and autumn, it is both soft and brightly theatrical, as if some expert had rigged
the lighting for each landscape for maximum colour and definition with minimum glare.
Food and wine are the other great pleasures of Provence. Local-grown produce – olives and
garlic, asparagus and courgettes, grapes and strawberries, cèpe and morille mushrooms,
almonds and sweet chestnuts – forms an integral part of the region’s simple, healthy cuisine,
while Provençal wines range from the dry, light rosés of the Côtes de Provence and Bandol
to the deep and delicate reds of the Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Above Roussillon opposite lavendeR field in Haute PRovence
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 4 12/02/16 12:28 pm
introduction 5
Where to go
This is a large region, and a diverse one, where contrasting landscapes encompass the rural
fields and villages of inland Provence, the remote mountainous regions of the Alpes-
Maritimes in the east and north, and the high-rise developments and autoroutes of the
Riviera in the south. The epicentre of the Riviera, Nice – a vibrant and intriguing blend of
Italianate influence, faded belle époque splendour and first-class art – makes a perfect base,
with delicious food, affordable accommodation and lively nightlife. North of the city,
densely wooded Alpine foothills are home to a series of exquisite villages perchés (medieval
hilltop villages, such as Saorge), while to the east, the lower Corniche links the picturesque
seafront towns of Villefranche, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Beaulieu; the higher roads offer
some of the most spectacular coastal driving in Europe, en route to the perched village of
Èze and the tiny principality of Monaco. The Riviera’s western half claims its best beaches
– at jazzy Juan-les-Pins and at Cannes, a swanky centre of designer shopping and film.
The Riviera also boasts heavyweight cultural attractions, with highlights including the
Picasso museum in Antibes, Renoir’s house at Cagnes-sur-Mer and the superb Fondation
Maeght and Fernand Léger museums in the gorgeous perched villages of St-Paul-de-Vence
and Biot respectively. The world’s perfume capital, Grasse, and the ancient town of Vence,
home to a wonderful chapel that stands as Matisse’s final masterpiece, both shelter in the
hills behind the busy coastal resorts, while for a real escape from the bustle of the coast, the
tranquil Îles de Lérins lie just a few kilometres offshore from Cannes.
West of the ancient Massif of the Esterel, beyond the Roman towns of Fréjus and
St-Raphaël, loom the dark wooded hills of the Massif des Maures. Here, the coast is home
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 5 12/02/16 12:28 pm
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001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 7 12/02/16 12:28 pm
8 introduction
to the fabled hot spots of Ste-Maxime and St-Tropez,
The arT of Provence
still a byword for glamour and excess more than sixty
Since the late nineteenth
years after Brigitte Bardot put it on the jetsetters’
century, Provence and the Côte
d’Azur have been home and map. In dramatic contrast, the Corniche des Maures
inspiration to some of the stretches to the west, its low-key resorts interspersed
greatest names of modern
art – Van Gogh, Cézanne, with blissfully unspoiled strips of Mediterranean
Renoir, Matisse and Picasso coastline. Beyond lies the original Côte d’Azur resort
among them. The brilliant
of Hyères with its elegant villas, fascinating old town,
southern light was one of the
most influential factors in their and offshore Îles d’Hyères, popular with nature
work here; Matisse remarked lovers, naturists and divers.
that, had he carried on painting
Further west, past the great natural harbour of
in the north, “there would have
been cloudiness, greys, colours Toulon and the superb wine country of the Bandol
shading off into the distance…” AOP, lies the buzzing metropolis of Marseille. The
Instead, during his time in Nice
region’s largest city, this tough port has shucked off
he produced some of his most
famous, colourful works, such its once sleazy reputation to become a lively,
as Le Rideau égyptien (Interior cosmopolitan and likeable destination. On its eastern
with Egyptian Curtains) and
edge lie the calanques, a series of beautiful rocky
Icare (Icarus). It was in Provence
too, in Arles and St-Rémy, that coves protected as a national park. In their midst you
Van Gogh fully developed his
will find the picture-postcard village of Cassis, linked
trademark style of bright,
contrasting colours. His to the working port of La Ciotat to the east by the
landscapes of olive trees, spectacular Corniche des Crêtes. North of Marseille
cypresses and harvest scenes,
the elegant city of Aix boasts handsome stone houses,
such as La Sieste (The Siesta) and
Champ de Blé et Cyprès (Wheat café-lined boulevards and some of the finest markets
Field with Cypresses), all pay in Provence. Cézanne lived and painted here, taking
tribute to the intensity of the
his inspiration from the countryside around the
Provençal sun. The painters in
turn had a major impact on the nearby Montagne Ste-Victoire.
region. Hand-in-hand with the Beyond Aix, the Lower Rhône Valley is home
writers and socialites who
to some of the most ancient cities in Provence.
flocked to the Côte d’Azur
during the interwar years, their Both romantic Arles and tiny Orange still boast
artistic, and touristic, legacy
spectacular Roman structures, while Avignon, city
helped to shape the Provence
that exists today. of the popes and for centuries one of the great
artistic centres of France, remains focused around
its immaculately preserved medieval core. A short
way west, officially outside Provence but an integral
part of its Roman heritage, the extraordinary
aqueduct known as the Pont du Gard stands proud
after two thousand years. The stately Rhône itself
runs past the vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape
and the impressive fortifications of Villeneuve-lès-
Avignon, before meeting the sea at the lagoon-
studded marshlands of the Camargue, with its rich
wildlife including bulls, horses and flamingos.
opposite From top Plage de la Croisette, Cannes; Camargue horses; aix-en-ProvenCe
001-021_Provence_Intro.indd 8 12/02/16 12:28 pm