Provence: The Land of Lavender

Provence reveals a side of France where the connection between land, table, and tradition remains unusually intact. This journey explores that connection across two of the region's most distinctive cities and the landscapes that surround them, from medieval hill towns and lavender valleys to Roman ruins and wild coastal wetlands.

Avignon sets the tone, once the seat of the medieval papacy and still one of the most historically layered cities in France. The Palais des Papes, the ramparts, and the quiet squares of the old town establish the character of the region before the journey ventures outward each day into the surrounding countryside. The Luberon's farm markets and hilltop villages, the lavender estates of the Vaucluse, and the vineyards and olive groves of the Alpilles each offer a different expression of a landscape shaped by centuries of careful, purposeful cultivation.

The journey's Evolved Experience brings guests into the working life of the Chaudière family at Château Pesquié, a multi-generational estate at the foot of Mont Ventoux where environmental stewardship and winemaking are inseparable. Nearby, the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, a twelfth-century Cistercian monastery still inhabited by monks, offers one of the region's most quietly affecting encounters with a way of life that has changed little in centuries.

The journey concludes in Arles, a city that carries its history differently than Avignon. A Roman amphitheater still anchors the city center. The Camargue begins at its edge. And the cooking here ranks among the finest in the south of France. Three nights allow the city to reveal itself slowly, with time for the surrounding wetlands and a closing Evolved Experience rooted in the communities that define this part of Provence.

Together these landscapes reveal a Provence that goes well beyond its reputation, one defined not by postcard images alone, but by living traditions, working estates, and the enduring relationship between people and place.