INTRODUCTION 
The ancient Provenal version of Genesis maintains that prior to introducing Adam, the Creator realized he had several materials left over: large expanses of celestial blue, all kinds of rocks, arable soil filled with seeds for a sumptuous flora, and a variety of as yet unused tastes and smells from the most subtle to the most powerful. "Well", He thinks, "why don't I make a beautiful resum of my world, my own special paradise?" And so Provence came into being. 
This paradise encompasses the snow-peaked lower Alps and their foothills, which in the east descend to the sea's edge, and to the west extend almost to the Rhne. In central Provence the wild high plateaux are cut by the deepest cleft in the surface of Europe - the Grand Canyon du Verdon. The coastal hinterland is made up of range after range of steep forested hills in which the warm scent of pines, eucalyptus and wild herbs intoxicates the senses. The shore is an everchanging series of geometric bays giving way to chaotic outcrops of glimmering rock and deep, narrow inlets, like miniature Norwegian fjords - the calanques. In the Camargue, the shoreline itself becomes an abstraction as land and sea merge in infinite horizons. Away from the Rhne delta there is nowhere that does not have its frame of hills, or mountains, or strange sudden eruptions of rock. 
But all these elements would be nothing without the Mediterranean light, which is at its best in spring and autumn. It is both soft and brightly theatrical, as if each landscape had lighting rigged up by an expert for maximum colour and definition with minimum glare. It is no surprise that of all the arts, painting should be the one that owes so much of its European history over the last hundred years to the beauty and escapism of this world. 
Yet Provence and its coast were far from being an earthly paradise for their early inhabitants. As with most mountainous regions, the soil is poor and cultivation difficult away from the rivers. The low-lying areas of the Camargue and Rhne Valley were marshes or rubbly plains subject to inundation. The coast had no natural defences of rough seas and high cliffs to dissuade invaders. So it was that communities clustered on easily defensible hilltops - the village perchs - with their tight labyrinths of medieval streets, passageways and winding stairs leading inexorably up to a chteau fort. 
For hundreds of years, Provence remained a prime target for foreign invaders. The ancient Greeks established bases on the coast and on the Rhne, including Massalia and Nikea - modern-day Marseille and Nice - and, later, the Romans cleared a route all along the coast to their cities on the Rhne. Settlers came from all over northern Europe and from across the Mediterranean, and if this wasn't enough, Provence's independence was also contested with France, the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, Savoy and the Popes, with internal feuding between rival fiefdoms aggravating the insecurity of daily life. After just fifty years of reunification with France, Provence was again invaded, and within a hundred years was suffering the bloodiest of French civil wars, the Guerres de Religion. Legacies of this turbulant past include some of the best Roman monuments in France, plus great reminders of the medieval age, such as the palace of the Popes in Avignon; the three great monasteries of Silvacane, Thoronet and Snanque, built by the Cistercian order in the twelfth century; the ruined city of Les Baux; the border fortresses of Tarascon and Sisteron; and the frescoes and paintings in the village churches north of Nice. 
By the 1800s, the character of coastal Provence was already beginning to change. Foreign aristocrats and royals, who had already turned Nice into Europe's most fashionable winter watering hole, began to spread their influence east and westwards. Tiny fishing villages such as Cannes, Villefranche, Le Lavandou and St-Tropez began to follow the course that Nice had taken, with avant-gardists in art and lifestyle and successions of celebrities gradually discovered how much simple and sophisticated pleasure this coast could provide. By the 1950s mass tourism on an upmarket scale began to take off in these parts, the Sixties brought the starlets and the hippies in their droves, and in the 1970s the French government began to realize the horror that their greatest tourist asset was threatening to become. Today, the Cte d'Azur is one of the most built-up, overpopulated and expensive stretches of coast anywhere in the world. 
Yet between the urban conurbations and the tourist developments there still lies the remarkable scenery that drew artists here in their droves in the decades either side of 1900. Seduced by the light and relative ease of living, they bade farewell to the gloom of northern winters and set themselvers up on the Cte d'Azur, making the region as much a part of the European art scene as Montmartre and Montparnasse. The great names of the Modern period who painted and sculpted on this coast include Matisse, Renoir, Signac, Lger, Dufy, Mir--, Bonnard, Chagall, Cocteau, Drain, Modigliani, Soutine and Picasso all of whom came in summer and shocked the natives by swimming in the sea. Many of their works are permanently exhibited in superb museums from St-Tropez to Menton; reason in itself for a visit to the Cte today. 
The one great artist native to Provence is Czanne, who was born in Aix in 1839. Many of his canvases were inspired by the landscapes around his home town but very few remain in the region. Because of his relationship with his subjects, a pilgrimage to the Mont Ste-Victoire and other favourite scenes is still compelling. The man whose works on show outnumber any other artist is Hungarian- born Vasarely, who chose Aix and Gordes as centres for his studies into an all- embracing concept of art, science, architecture and social life. In and around Arles and St-Rmy you can follow the sad passage of Van Gogh, but again there are hardly any original paintings to be seen.

The Rough Guide to Provence & the Cote d'Azur

Travel

Aeberhard, Danny

Baillie, Kate

Kaberry, Rachel

Europe

Rough Guides

INTRODUCTION 
It’s little wonder that so many wistful songs have been penned over the years about France’s capital, Paris. Few cities leave the visitor with such vivid impressions, whether it’s the drifting cherry blossoms in the tranquil gardens of Notre-Dame, the riverside quais on a summer evening, the sound of blues in atmospheric cellar bars, or the ancient alleyways and cobbled lanes of the historic Latin Quarter and villagey Montmartre. 
Paris has no problem living up to the painted images and movie myths with which we’re all familiar. Indeed, the whole city is something of a work of art. Two thousand years of shaping and reshaping have resulted in monumental buildings, sweeping avenues, grand esplanades and celebrated bridges. Many of its older buildings have survived intact, having been spared the ravages of flood and fire and saved from Hitler’s intended destruction. Moreover, they survive with a sense of continuity and homogeneity, as new sits comfortably against a backdrop of old – the glass Pyramid against the grand fortress of the Louvre, the Column of Liberty against the Opera Bastille. Time has acted as judge, as buildings once surrounded in controversy – the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre-Cœur, the Pompidou Centre – have in their turn become well-known symbols of the city. Yet for all the tremendous pomp and magnificence of its monuments, the city operates on a very human scale, with exquisite, secretive little nooks tucked away off the Grands Boulevards and very definite little communities revolving around games of boules and the local boulangerie and cafe. 
Architecturally, the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and the Palais du Louvre, in the city’s centre, provide a constant reminder of Paris’s religious and royal past. The backdrop of the streets is predominantly Neoclassical, the result of nineteenth-century development designed to reflect the power of the French state. Each period since, however, has added, more or less discreetly, novel examples of its own styles – with Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier, Mallet-Stevens and Eiffel among the early twentieth-century innovators. In recent decades, the architectural additions have been more dramatic in scale, producing new and major landmarks, and recasting down-at-heel districts into important centres of cultural and consumer life. New buildings such as La Villette, La Grande Arche de la Defense, the Opéra Bastille, the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Bibliotheque Nationale have expanded the dimensions of the city, pointing it determinedly towards the future. 
Paris’s museums and galleries, not least the mighty Louvre, number among the world’s finest. The tradition of state cultural endowment is very much alive in the city and collections are exceedingly well displayed and cared for. Many are also housed in beautiful locations, such as old mansions and palaces, others in bold conversions, most famously the Musee d’Orsay, which occupies a former train station. The Impressionists here and at the Musee Marmottan, the moderns at the Palais de Tokyo, the smaller Picasso and Rodin museums – all repay a visit. In addition, the contemporary scene is well represented in the commercial galleries that fill the Marais, St-Germain, the Bastille and the area around the Champs-Elysees, and there’s an ever-expanding range of museums devoted to other areas of human endeavour – science, history, decoration, fashion and performance art. 
Few cities can compete with the thousand-and-one cafés, bars and restaurants that line every Parisian street and boulevard. The variety of style and decor, cuisine and price is hard to beat too. Traditional French food has become increasingly innovative and the many ethnic origins represented among the city’s millions have opened eateries providing a range of gastronomic options for every palate and pocket. 
The city entertains best at night, with a deserved reputation for outstanding film and music. Paris’s cinematic prowess is marked by annual film festivals, with a refreshing emphasis on art, independent and international films. Music is equally revered, with nightly offerings of excellent jazz, top-quality classical, avant-garde experimental, international rock, West African soukous and French–Caribbean zouk, Algerian rai, and traditional chansons. 
If you’ve time, you should certainly venture out of the city to one of the worthy attractions detailed in Chapter 13 of the Guide. The region surrounding the capital – the Île de France – is dotted with cathedrals and châteaux as stunning and steeped in history as the city itself – Chartres, Versailles and Fontainebleau, for example. An equally accessible excursion from the capital is that most un-French of attractions, Disneyland Paris, covered in Chapter 21.

The Mini Rough Guide to Paris

Brown, Amy K.

INTRODUCTION 
It’s little wonder that so many wistful songs have been penned over the years about France’s capital, Paris. What city experiences could be more seductive than sitting in the gardens of Notre-Dame beneath the drifting cherry blossom, strolling along the riverside quais on a summer evening, sipping coffee and cognac in the early hours to the sound of the blues, or exploring the ancient alleyways and cobbled lanes of the Latin Quarter and Montmartre? Paris has no problem living up to the painted images and movie myths with which we’re all familiar. 
Nor does Paris falter in its reputation as a great hive of artistic and intellectual activity. World-class art collections at the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, as well as the great many smaller museums devoted to individual artists and collectors, underscore an impressive roster of talents linked to the city, including Delacroix, Ingres, Seurat, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, Braque and Gris, to name but a few. The newly reopened Pompidou Centre embodies a cultural attitude that both proclaims Parisian cleverness and invites you to share in it. And it is only one of many grand and ground-breaking modern buildings – the new Bibliothèque Nationale, the Institut du Monde Arabe, among others – that assert modern architecture and design. 
In fact, the whole city is something of a work of art. Two thousand years of shaping and reshaping have resulted in monumental buildings, sweeping avenues, grand esplanades and bridges. Many of its older buildings have survived intact, spared the ravages of flood and fire and saved from Hitler’s intended destruction. Moreover, they survive with a sense of continuity and homogeneity, as new sits comfortably against a backdrop of old – the glass Pyramid against the grand fortress of the Louvre, the Column of Liberty against the Opera Bastille. Time has acted as judge, as buildings once swathed in controversy – the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre-Cœur, the Pompidou Centre – have in their turn become symbols of the city. Yet for all the tremendous pomp and magnificence of its monuments, Paris operates on a very human scale, with exquisite, secretive little nooks tucked away from the Grands Boulevards and very definite little communities revolving around games of boules and the local boulangerie and café.

The Rough Guide to Paris

Salmon, Tim

INTRODUCTION The sheer physical diversity of France would be hard to exhaust in a lifetime of visits. The landscapes range from the fretted coasts of Brittany to the limestone hills of Provence, the canyons of the Pyrenees and the half-moon bays of Corsica, from the lushly wooded valleys of the Dordogne to the glaciated peaks of the Alps. Each region looks and feels different, has its own style of architecture, its characteristic food and often its own patois or dialect. Though the French word pays is the term for a whole country, local people frequently refer to their own immediate vicinity as mon pays – my country – and to a person from another town as a foreigner. This strong sense of regional identity, often expressed in the form of active separatist movements, as in Brittany and Corsica, has persisted over centuries in the teeth of centralized administrative control from Paris. 
Perhaps the most striking feature of the French countryside is the sense of space. There are huge tracts of woodland and undeveloped land without a house in sight. Industrialization came relatively late, and the country remains very rural. Away from the main urban centres, hundreds of towns and villages have changed only slowly and organically, their old houses and streets intact, as much a part of the natural landscape as the rivers, hills and fields. 
The nation’s legacy of history and culture is so widely dispersed across the land that even if you were to confine your travelling to one particular region you would still have a powerful sense of the past without having to seek out major sights. With its wealth of local detail, France is an ideal country for dawdling; there is always something to catch the eye and gratify the senses, whether you are meandering down a lane, picnicking by a slow, green river, or sipping Pernod in a village café. There is also endless scope for all kinds of outdoor activities, from walking, canoeing and cycling to the more expensive pleasures of skiing and sailing. 
If you need more urban stimuli to activate the pleasure buds – clubs, shops, fashion, movies, music, hanging out with the beautiful and famous – then the great cities provide them in abundance. Paris, of course, is an outstanding cultural centre, with its stunning contemporary buildings and atmospheric back streets, its art and its ethnic diversity. And the great provincial cities like Lille and Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice vie with the capital and each other, like the city-states of old, for prestige in the arts, ascendancy in sport and innovation in urban transport. 
For a thousand years and more, France has been at the cutting edge of European development, and the legacy of this wealth, energy and experience is everywhere evident in the astonishing variety of things to see: from the Gothic cathedrals of the north to the Romanesque churches of the centre and west, the chateaux of the Loire, the Roman monuments of the south, the ruined castles of the English and the Cathars and the Dordogne’s prehistoric cave-paintings. If not all the legacy is so tangible – the literature, music and ideas of the 1789 Revolution, for example – much has been recuperated and illustrated in museums and galleries across the nation, from colonial history to fishing techniques, aeroplane design to textiles, migrant shepherds to manicure, battlefields and coalmines. 
Many of the museums are models of clarity and modern design. Among those that the French do best are museums devoted to local arts, crafts and customs like the Musee National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris and the Musée Dauphinois in Grenoble. But inevitably first place must go to the fabulous collections of fine art, many of which are in Paris, for the simple reason that the city has nurtured so many of the finest creative artists of the last hundred years, both French, Monet and Matisse for example, and foreign, such as Picasso and Van Gogh. 
If you are quite untroubled by a need to improve your mind in the contemplation of old stones and works of art, France is equally well endowed to satisfy the grosser appetites. The French have made a high art of daily life: eating, drinking, dressing, moving and simply being. The pleasures of the palate run from the simplest picnic of crusty baguette, ham and cheese washed down by an inexpensive red wine through what must be the most elaborate takeaway food in the world, available from practically every charcuterie; such basic regional dishes as cassoulet; the liver-destroying riches of Perigord and Burgundy cuisine; the fruits of the sea; extravagant pastries and ice-cream cakes; to the trance-inducing refinements – and prices – of the great chefs. And there are wines to match, at all prices, and not just from the renowned vineyards of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. If you feel inadequate in the face of all this choice, never be afraid to ask advice, for most French people are true devotees, ever ready to explain the arcane mysteries to the uninitiated.

The Rough Guide to France (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Catlos, Brian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kaberry, Rachel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kaberry, Rachel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kaberry, Rachel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Rough Guide to Provence & the Cote d'Azur

The Mini Rough Guide to Paris

The Rough Guide to Paris

The Rough Guide to France (Rough Guide Travel Guides)