Val and I live part of the year in St-Rémy-de-Provence, and we’ve explored lots of the town’s nooks and crannies. I was asked to write about my ten favorite things to see and do here, which is hard because there are a lot more than ten! But I did my best and came up with ten favorites. If you ever have the chance to visit St-Rémy, they might become yours as well!
Read all about it in Frenchly!
Way back around 50 B.C., Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (now France), and the area remained part of the Roman Empire for centuries. As a result, Roman ruins are all over France, but the best ones are in and around Provence. In fact, ‘Provence’ comes from the Latin ‘Provincia Romana,’ the name of the large Roman province along the Mediterranean coast.
For history buffs or anyone who would like to see some amazing sights, Provence is a wonderland. It has Roman arenas and amphitheatres, aqueducts and bridges, and ruins galore.
With all this to visit, where do you start?
If you have a limited appetite for Roman history, you might want to visit just Nîmes or Arles, as they each have plenty of Roman highlights. But don’t visit both, as their major sights are similar. I’ve written a comparison of the two cities, so you can decide with one is best for you.
Read all about it in Perfectly Provence!
Cheese is one of the glories of French cuisine, but choosing among hundreds of French cheeses can be intimidating. If you have ever been to a French restaurant where they wheel out a big “chariot” covered with dozens of cheeses, and ask you to pick what you’d like, you know what I mean.
To learn more about French cheese and cheese etiquette, I spoke to expert Emily Monaco, an American who has lived in Paris since 2007. Her obsession with all things delicious – but especially cheese – has led her to build a career giving food tours of Paris’s Marais district with Paris by Mouth. She also writes about food and drink for publications including The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and EatingWell.
Learn more about cheese in this fascinating interview in France Today!
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest in the world after Israel and the United States. Half of French Jews live in and around Paris, in neighborhoods like the Marais, Belleville and Le Sentier. The city is home to more than a dozen synagogues, including the magnificent Grand Synagogue.
While Paris is the center of Jewish life in France today, this wasn’t always the case. For centuries, that center was Provence. And the Jews there had a surprising and powerful protector: the Pope.
Read all about the history of Jewish Provence in France Today!
France has a long history of innovation, in fields ranging from science to consumer goods to fashion. You might already know, for example, that the French invented photography, motion pictures, hot air balloons, and the hair dryer. But that’s not all!
How about the Etch a Sketch? Or margarine? Or the bicycle? Yes, they are French inventions all.
Read all about 10 surprising French Inventions in France Today!
Have you ever dreamed of chucking it all, leaving the big city behind, and moving to a charming little village in France? That’s exactly what Janine Marsh and her husband Mark have done, but the path they took was anything but straightforward.
One day some years ago, while on a booze-buying trip from London, they somehow bought an old wreck of a house in France’s Seven Valleys region. It’s a hilarious story, and Janine tells it brilliantly in her book My Good Life in France. Over the years, she and Mark have fixed up the house, adopted a shocking number of animals (including 72 chickens at last count), and settled into their village in “middle-of-nowhere France.”
Janine continued their story in My Four Seasons in France and now she’s back with more heartwarming tales in her latest terrific book, the soon-to-be-published Toujours la France!
If you’d like to know what life is really like in a rural French village, this is the book for you. There’s not a lot of entertainment, unless you count the snail races, but there is a strong sense of community, with neighbors always willing to lend a hand to one other. And there are, of course, endless cups of coffee to share the latest gossip.
The book is full of funny stories, like the dinner party where a neighbor tries to get Janine and Mark to taste his special holiday rum. Another neighbor warns them off. “For heaven’s sake don’t drink it,” she says. “You will miss Christmas if you do and most likely have to go to the doctor.” Mark foolishly takes the tiniest of sips and is rendered mute, his mouth so numb he can’t taste his food.
Janine and Mark are often a source of amusement for the village, as on the bitterly cold day when their water stopped running. They determined that an uninsulated pipe in the roof had frozen, so Mark got up on a ladder and removed a few tiles, while Janine plugged in a hair dryer so he could heat up the frozen section. One villager after another came by to see what was happening, and soon the whole village was abuzz about les anglais “who are blow drying their house.”
The book is packed with fun facts about France, like the reason why people clink their glasses before drinking (it has to do with fear of poisoning back in medieval times.) And that it is considered unlucky to have a dinner with 13 people—if you do, the waiter might put an egg on the table to represent a 14th. And that France invented the online sex chat!
As the book ends, Janine reflects on how she and Mark have become perhaps not natives, but awfully darned close. And how lucky they are to have settled in the part of France “where people have sunshine in their hearts.”
Highly recommended.
I still remember walking into that cave. There wasn’t much light and I could barely make out the stalactites, one of them twisting its way all the way down to the floor. As I walked further in, I could see bones scattered about—not human, I hoped. Then I saw bear skulls, arranged in a semi-circle. Spooky!
I kept going, stepping carefully, and suddenly there they were, straight ahead of me: paintings, beautiful paintings. I could see horses and buffalo and rhinos that almost seemed alive. It was mesmerizing.
I was in the Grotte Chauvet 2, a nearly-perfect recreation of a nearby cave. It’s like the famous cave at Lascaux, only the paintings are older–the oldest ever found. How old? Let’s just say Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals were still duking out for control of Europe (spoiler alert: we win.)
A trip to the Grotte is a must-do if you are in the area. Read more about this fascinating place in Frenchly!
With spring comes the sound of birds singing, daffodils in bloom, and trees beginning to leaf. These are all lovely, but for me the real start of spring is when asparagus arrives in our local French market.
In France, fruits and vegetables are mostly seasonal, so winter is not my favorite time of year. Potatoes and parsnips, anyone? Sure, you might find blueberries in Paris, but only if you frequent the specialty shops. For most people, like where I live in Provence, what you eat is what’s in season.
That’s what makes the arrival of the first asparagus so exciting. It’s finally springtime! Asparagus not only heralds the start of spring, but also the beginning of a long series of new arrivals in the market. Next come strawberries, then a whole flood of goodies – cherries, melons, stone fruits, and on and on.
Read more about asparagus season, including a great recipe, in The Good Life France!
Val and I live part of the year in the charming village of St-Rémy-de-Provence. It’s in a delightful spot at the foot of the Alpilles Mountains, between Avignon and Arles. There are lots of great things to see and do in the area.
I’ve just had a new guidebook published, An Insider’s Guide to St-Rémy-de-Provence and the Surrounding Area. It’s the first guidebook dedicated just to this part of Provence, so I think it fills a need.
If you have friends who will be coming this way, please let them know about my book! It’s available on Amazon.
France will elect its president next month, with a dozen candidates running, and incumbent Emmanuel Macron is the big favorite to win. He has surged in the polls, and his lead is now bigger than anyone since Charles de Gaulle in 1965!
How did this happen and who are his main challengers? For a taste of French politics, I’ve put together a short overview of the race.
Read all about it in Frenchly!