HISTORYA tour through the history of Provence: petroglyphs, popes, world wars and the bikini. (p315)

THE ARTSDesigner chapels, exciting architecture, avant-garde art museums and cutting-edge dance – Provence and the Côte d’Azur is a living art museum with a matchless portfolio. (p329)

LYRICAL LANDSCAPES: CORK, LAVENDER & SWEET JASMINEThere’s more to Provence than pea-green vineyards, sky-blue seas and blush-red cherry orchards. Its unique riot of colours and scents is electrifying. (p342)

PROVENCE LIVINGPastis, pétanque, celebrity-strewn coastal capes and tall tales about sardines: so just how do people in Provence really spend a Saturday afternoon? (p347)

OUTDOOR INSPIRATIONFly with the birds, swim with fi sh, watch for a whale or walk a trail a day. (p352)

PROVENÇAL WINEL’art de vivre (the art of living) is what those in-the-know Provençal call it. (p359)

A SEASONAL CUISINEA simple fi let mignon sprinkled with olive oil and rosemary fresh from the garden makes the same magnifi cent Sunday lunch it did a generation ago. (p364)

FOOD GLOSSARYRead this fi rst to know socca is not football and alouettes sans têtes has nothing to do with headless larks. (p374)

BACKGROUND

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HISTORY PREHISTORIC MAN Provence was inhabited from an exceptionally early age and has a bounty of prehis-toric sights to prove it. In Monaco the Grottes de l’Observatoire ( p224 ) showcase brilliant prehistoric rock scratchings, carved one million years ago and among the world’s oldest. Around 400,000 BC, prehistoric man settled in Terra Amata (present-day Nice).

Neanderthal hunters occupied the Mediterranean coast during the Middle Palaeo-lithic period (about 90,000 BC to 40,000 BC), living in caves. Provence’s leading pre-history museum, the Musée de la Préhistoire des Gorges du Verdon ( p179 ) in Quin-son, runs visits to one such cave, the Grotte de la Baume Bonne.

Modern man arrived with creative fl air in 30,000 BC. The ornate wall paintings of bison, seals, ibex and other animals inside the decorated Grotte Cosquer in the Calanque de Sormiou ( p63 ), near Marseille, date from 20,000 BC.

The Neolithic period (about 6000 to 4500 years ago) witnessed the earliest domestication of sheep and the cul-tivation of lands. The fi rst dwellings to be built (around 3500 BC) were bories: visit these beehive-shaped huts at the Village des Bories ( p153 ) near Gordes.

But the star of Provence’s prehistoric show is the collection of 30,000 Bronze Age petroglyphs decorating Mont Bégo in the Vallée des Merveilles ( p188 ). Marked walking trails lead to these fascinating rock drawings, which date to between 1800 BC and 1500 BC.

GREEKS TO ROMANS Massalia (Marseille) was colonised around 600 BC by Greeks from Phocaea in Asia Minor; from the 4th century BC they established more trading posts along the coast at Antipolis (Antibes), Olbia (Hyères), Athenopolis (St-Tropez), Nikaia (Nice), Monoïkos (Monaco) and Glanum (near St-Rémy de Provence). They brought olives and grapevines to the region.

600 BC» 125–126 BC»C90,000 BC »

Neanderthal hunters occupy the Mediterranean coast and starting around 30,000 BC Cro-Magnons start decorat-ing their caves.

The Greeks colonise Massalia and establish trading posts along the coast, bringing olive trees and grapevines to the region.

Romans create Provincia Gal-lia Transalpina, from which Provence gets its name, and Provence joins the Roman Empire.

‘Massalia (Marseille) was colonised around 600 BC by Greeks from Phocaea’

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