More on Provence

St Rémy is a lovely old town at the northern base of the Alpilles, the knobbly limestone range that run east/west south of Avignon. Although hilly for biking, the area has a number of walking tracks, including some of the major across-France routes. This spot has been settled since the second century BC and the Greek and Roman remains of the ancient city of Glanum area worth exploring.

The twice-a-week St Rémy market is one of the major ones in the area, but on the other days there are enough beautiful shops selling beautiful products to keep even the most shopaholic of tourists happy. You can visit the olive oil shop and see the truffle oil, pretty soaps and calissons (small almond-shaped and flavoured biscuits), the chocolate shop with its fountain of flowing chocolate in the window and sweet tasters on offer, the biscuit shop, the cheese shop, or any of the many shops selling lovely household linen: tea-towels, cushion-covers, throws, table-runners and bedspreads. What’s the weight restriction on NZ domestic flights again?

The town has long been a haven for artists, the most famous being  van Gogh who painted more than 150 paintings during the year he lived here in 1889 after moving from Arles to seek refuge in the psychiatric hospital, now a museum dedicated to him. Many of his most famous paintings were inspired by the local scenery: gnarled olive trees, fields of golden corn, hay-making, the setting sun. A pleasant way to admire some of his works is to stroll along the van Gogh trail which runs through the village from the museum to the town centre. Along the way are panels of his paintings at or near the spots where he painted them.

Just south of St Rémy is Les Baux-de-Provence, a dramatic fortified village perched high atop the ridge of the Alpilles with an eleventh century castle built into the rock-face itself. It has precipices aplenty and many beautiful old buildings. Although it has more than a million visitors a year, you only have to walk past the tourist tick-tack and climb to the top of the castle ruins and you’ll be almost alone to admire the 360 degree view in peace.

I don’t think we’ve been to one place yet on this family trip where we haven’t wished we were staying longer. We barely touched the surface of the area around St Rémy. A quick look at Avignon with its fabulous Palais des Papes, a glimpse at Gordes tumbling down the hillside into the Luberon Valley, an admiring glance towards the summit of Mont Ventoux where the Tour de France had passed only the previous day, and then we were off to my sister’s for dinner and a welcome swim in her gorgeous pool.

 And then suddenly our time in the south of France was over and we were catching a train to Paris (after a three hour delay due to someone jumping onto the track at Avignon) through more lovely countryside of burnt orange fields, small lanes, green forests and rocky escarpments in the distance. None of us wanted to leave.