Martigues was a magnet for painters in the 19th- and early 20th-century. Painters from the schools of French Romanticism, Barbizon, and even Fauvism were drawn to the charm of this picturesque port and its luminous colors. Today, the “Venice of Provence,” still lovely and luminous and now also known for its flowers and gardens, may capture your heart, too. It is off the beaten path of the typical tourist, but well worth a stop if you are in the area. Located just 21 kilometers (15 miles) from Marseilles-Provence Airport in Marignane, we were in the area one August day after dropping our daughter off for…

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Roussillon is designated as one of “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France,” and with good reason. Its brilliant array of colors–reds, oranges, greens, and blues of seemingly every shade–is enough to beckon even the most weary traveler. As one approaches this village, along D227 from the east (my favorite drive in), the verdant green landscape meets the bright orange ochre cliffs and offers contrasts striking in their beauty. The typically cloudless blue skies of this part of Provence offer the perfect backdrop and, if you look back to see the Luberon hills on the distant horizon, you will be compelled to pull to the side…

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Sacha Lichine, the man behind the wine at Château d’Esclans, was in his old stomping grounds this week. In Boston for the city’s Wine Expo, I caught up with him at the Seaport Hotel where he was hosting a seminar on—guess what—the four tiers of luscious rosé produced in his now well-known Côtes de Provence château. In ascending order of quality, our tasting at the seminar would include Whispering Angel (2013), Château d’Esclans (2012), Les Clans (2010 and 2011), and Garrus (2010 and 2011). In the 1980s, Lichine worked as a sommelier just a few blocks away at the renowned Anthony’s Pier 4. Back then,…

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I am immensely grateful to Pamela J. O’Neill for her reporting and photographs of this event. Aups, the small Provence village renowned for its weekly truffle market (every Thursday morning from mid-November through February), was the place to be last Sunday—it was the site of the 21st annual “Journée de la Truffe Noire d’Aups.” Held the fourth Sunday of January each year, this truffle festival draws hundreds of people who come to eat, drink, and “root” for their favorite dog in the truffle hunting contest. This year, attendees also had the pleasure of meeting one of the Var’s last remaining truffle-hunting pigs. Fresh truffles are,…

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Corsica is a gorgeous French island just 100 miles (170 km) off the southeast coast of Provence and a short flight (45 minutes) from Marseille. Its main draw has long been its striking beaches–some 200 of them totaling over 600 miles of the island’s coastline–but did you know that its wines are also a growing reason to visit L’Ile de Beauté? (And yes, Corsica is also known for its notorious mafia of French Connection fame and, more recently, for the mafia’s connection to the Paris apartment where French President Hollande had been conducting his romantic tryst with actress Julie Gayet…but I digress.) I was probably…

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Every Thursday morning from mid-November through February, truffle vendors file into Aups for the region’s most popular retail market for “Tuber melanosporum,” otherwise known as the “black truffle.” And following close behind are chefs from local restaurants, agents working on behalf of culinary establishments in Paris, people like me who simply love truffles, tax inspectors, and more gendarmes than a village of 2000 should ever expect to see, even at the annual peak of tourism in August. This past Thursday morning, when torrential rains periodically doused the crowd, the cast of characters was in place. The market must go on—there’s black gold wrapped in dish…

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Provence is a melting pot of immigrants and nowhere is this more apparent than in Marseille where residents hail from neighboring Italy and Spain as well as Greece, Armenia, Indochina, and West and North Africa. Given that Marseille is the Mediterranean Sea’s largest port (and Europe’s second-largest), its cosmopolitan composition is not surprising. Upwards of a quarter of the population of France’s second largest city has roots from North Africa, especially Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria (referred to as the Maghreb). Marseille is geographically close to these three countries—a two-hour flight to Tangier, for example, costs as little as €26 right now. Even more pertinent are…

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In: Food, Markets

At some point, midway through the procession of holiday dinners at our home this year, the subject of ‘bon appétit’ raised its controvertible head. (Again.) You may not even have known, until now, that it had a controvertible head. You, dear reader, are likely part of the majority of people who merely thought of the phrase—to the extent that you gave it any thought at all—as a festive salutation from the host to “enjoy the meal” and, with this pronouncement, blithely assumed it was the signal to begin the meal. Ah, but you underestimated the significance of these two little words—to some people, these seemingly…

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Part three of a three-part series about what you may find in Provence after the “big supper” (otherwise known as the “Gros Souper”) on Christmas Eve. There’s simply nothing like a cup of tea to slow down the frantic pace of the holidays, soothe the harried nerves, and warm the seasonal spirit. We have been thoroughly enjoying Palais des Thés’ No 25 limited edition collection of four blends of tea—black, green, rooibos, and white—each  flavored with orange peels, red rose petals, almonds, cloves, vanilla pods, and cardamom and a fifth tea, chai, a blend of black tea with those  No 25 spices as well as cinnamon, ginger, pink pepper…

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My advice is to find some Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and forget the confusion of what to call them! What’s in a name? That which we call a twice-baked almond-honey cookie by any other name would smell as sweet. Apologies to Shakespeare (who, by the way, would have called them biscuits!). Part two of a three-part series about what you may find in Provence after the “big supper” (otherwise known as the “Gros Souper”) on Christmas Eve. Called “the thirteen desserts of Christmas” or “Les Treize Desserts de Noël,” tradition dictates that the desserts consist of dried fruit and nuts, fresh fruit, and sweets…

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