Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, “Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?” And you’ll see how everything changes. And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince   If you are a regular reader of The Modern Trobadors, I suspect that you know “the little prince.” It’s likely that you know him well. People who travel, like the little prince, open their eyes, their ears, and their hearts to the adventures the world has to offer and to the lessons introspection provides. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Alghero, Sardinia, May 1944 Collection…

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What does a town do with a vast web of stone quarries with a “Closed” sign on every door? The folks in Les Baux-de-Provence turned theirs into the largest permanent multimedia show in France. Carrières de Lumières (formerly called Cathédral d’Images) is a smashing success. Close to 400,000 visitors attended last year’s show. For over 2000 years, the quarries in Les Baux-de-Provence were a primary source of limestone for this area. The Romans exploited the quarries for material to rebuild the nearby Celto-Liguirian town of Glanum back in 200 BC and later the Municipal Arch and the Mausoleum that still stand across from Glanum. The…

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My dear friend and fellow blogger, David of Cocoa & Lavender, is a self-proclaimed salt-addict. When discussing his current post—in which he makes public his intimate relationship with salt—I recommended a trip to Aigues-Mortes. There is salt for him—literally everywhere but especially at Salin d’Aigues-Mortes—and history and architecture—a fortified city considered “the purest example of 13th-century military architecture”—for his partner, affectionately known as “Markipedia.” And, when they’ve had their fill of historic Aigues-Mortes and its neighboring salins (salt marshes), there is the whole Camargue at their disposal—a Parc Naturel Regional of over 140,000 hectares (500 sq mi) filled with pink flamingos, white horses, and black…

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When you’ve tired of charming hilltop villages in the Luberon and swanky restaurants along the French Riviera, don your jeans and cowboy boots and head to the Camargue. (Forgot your boots? Pas de problème. You can pick up a pair in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.) Although I quickly grow bored with swank, I have to confess I am rarely tired of charm, especially in the Luberon—I just wanted to grab your attention to promote the Camargue, an area so radically different from the rest of Provence that you’d think you’d crossed the border into another country. If there are children in your group, they will love you for…

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Provence—today, the very word conjures up images of sipping rosé: on the beaches of the Côte d’Azur, by the pool of a handsome mas nestled into the garrigue-covered hills in the Luberon, in outdoor cafés along Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence, with bouillabaisse in Marseille’s vieux port, and, for some folks, in yachts docked at St. Tropez. Mon dieu, rosé was born in Provence and, well, bred there, too. The Greeks introduced rosé when they arrived in Marseille, some 2500 years ago. They planted grape vines throughout the South of France and produced red wine so pale—the grape skins and juice were not together long enough…

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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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