France welcomes more visitors each year than anywhere else in the world. Mediterranean beaches and alpine ski resorts ensure year-round popularity, whilst beautiful scenery and exquisite cuisine repeatedly draw people back. Red Savannah’s French villas expert explores the popularity of the South of France and, in particular, the area of Vence in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Located between Nice and Antibes, Medieval Vence is one of the oldest French towns on the Riviera (much of its architecture dates from the 13th century). Artists have long been drawn to paint under its cobalt blue light – Picasso, Ernst and Chagall all came here – but it is Matisse that the town of Vence is most closely associated with. For an ailing Henri Matisse moved here in 1943 with his nurse and model, who had since become a nun. For her community he designed the Chapelle De Rosaire; from the outside a small white and blue affair, but within a restful house of serenity, its stark white walls aglow with soothing blues, greens and yellows cast from its stained glass windows; while the minimalist murals and even the priests’ robes were designed by the artist in a span of four intensely busy years.
On arrival head for the old town with its labyrinth of cobbled streets Romanesque arches, galleries, aromatic boulangeries and electric-pink bougainvillea. Several times each week a fruit and veg market adorns the Place Du Jardin, with an antiques market each Wednesday. Half the fun is getting lost in the maze of streets. For food on the hop buy a baguette and some flavoursome paté or stop for déjeuner at earthy Restaurant Le Pigeonnier, which serves French food typical of the region.
Aesthetes can get their art fix at the Fondation Émile Hugues (a contemporary art museum housed in Vence’s imposing Château de Villeneuve), while at nearby village, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Fondation Maeght has one of Europe’s largest collections of 20th-century works and is scattered with Miró sculptures and mosaics by Chagall. While you’re here take lunch or dinner at La Colombe d’Or, celebrated for its walls hung with Picassos and Modigliani sketches (these impoverished maestros used to paint for free dinner), its sunny terrace and a menu of traditional fare that has become a Provençal institution.
WHERE TO STAY IN ST PAUL DE VENCE
