My journey through the French region most famous for its artists

Times

13 hours ago

The first art gallery I ever fell in love with was in St Paul de Vence, just inland from a Mediterranean coast as popular with artists as with tourists. The Fondation Maeght is an artwork in itself, built to show off the Maeghts' superb collection of modern art but also luring visitors through the pine-scented gardens with a wacky fountain by Joan Miró or a glimpse of those instantly recognisable elongated Alberto Giacometti figures (£16; fondation-maeght.com). I was 18, and I already knew art could be fascinating. But I hadn't realised it could also be fun.
Years later, I still love the Maeght — and I consider Provence itself to be the ideal art gallery. There are the startling blues and yellows of the chapel Henri Matisse decorated in Vence (£6; chapellematisse.fr) and the mystical paintings of Marc Chagall in Nice (£9; musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr). On my last visit this July, I even found a woman's vision embedded in the landscape, but I'll get to that. First, I went to Aix-en-Provence for the long-awaited opening of the country house and studio of the artist that Picasso — another Provence resident — called 'the father of us all': Paul Cézanne.
Cézanne (1839-1906) was born and died here, but he didn't stay entirely put. As a young man he followed his childhood friend the writer Émile Zola to Paris where the action was — and where his banker father wasn't. Louis-Auguste Cézanne wasn't an art lover, and the stipend Paul received made the argument a delicate one. One of the most interesting elements of Cézanne 2025, the multi-part celebration of his life which has taken over the city of his birth this year, is this father-son relationship, played out in paint. But it is echoed by another troubled pairing with similar dynamics: Paris and Provence. The reason that this celebration is not Cézanne 2026, which will be the 120th anniversary of his death, is because the capital has pulled rank. But seeing the superb exhibition Cézanne at Jas de Bouffan in Paris defeats the point (until October 12 at Aix's Musée Granet). Here, beneath the Montagne Sainte-Victoire that was his favourite subject, there's the opportunity to experience his entire city as an art gallery.
I started where the artist finished: at his last studio, Les Lauves, which has been closed for two years to be spruced up. The space has been left as simple as it would have been, with a wood-burning stove, an easel in the centre and a wall of items — paint-covered tables, pots, skulls — that reappear on his canvases. There is a long, thin vertical slice out of one wall, so that he could get giant canvases out of the building once finished. Light pours in from the north wall, which is almost entirely window, framing the vegetation beyond (tour £8; cezanne2025.com).
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It was 45 minutes downhill on foot to Jas de Bouffan, the summer home that Papa Cézanne bought when Paul was 20, now open to the public for the first time. So I walked, which was a mistake: what was once the property's olive groves and vineyards is now the industrialised outskirts of the city, but the contrast, once through the gates, of the shady chestnut-lined avenue, ornamental pond and golden, graciously proportioned house was like a drink of cool water after a hot dusty hike.
Here, the refurbishment is a work in progress, and there's no furniture. But in the main salon, the tour guide works an iPad and images bloom across the walls. Louis-Auguste Cézanne had permitted his artistic son to decorate, and there are depictions of landscapes and figures, with pride of place, as if on an altar, given to a painting of a man reading a newspaper: Louis-Auguste.
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The next day, I had lunch — plump, bright yellow courgette flowers and succulent lamb with local tomatoes — at the Hôtel le Pigonnet, a converted 18th-century villa with a view of Montagne Sainte-Victoire painted by Cézanne (mains from £22; esprit-de-france.com). Then I took a much nicer walk past the shops, market stalls and occasional fountain on the main boulevard, Cours Mirabeau, to the Musée Granet. Here are the paintings of those pots and tables; here is Louis-Auguste, reading the paper once again (from £16; cezanne2025.com).
I followed the artist through his golden city, via small bronze pavement plaques stamped with a C that took me past the hat shop Louis-Auguste owned before he bought his bank and the school where Cézanne and Zola met. For lunch, I stepped into the peaceful courtyard of Gallifet, a modern art gallery with a summer restaurant in a majestic old mansion run by an Anglo-French couple, Nicolas Mazet and Kate Davis (mains from £22; hoteldegallifet.com). After green beans with peaches and squid with courgettes and fig leaf oil — the delicious ingredients are all local — I toured their exhibition, Echoes of Cézanne, featuring artists influenced by the master, from Nan Goldin to Edmund de Waal (until September 28, £9).
Then I drove east, via my beloved Maeght, to an artwork different from Cézanne's in every way except one. E-1027 is an extraordinary villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, less than three miles from the Italian border. It was built in 1926 by the designer Eileen Gray and resembles a moored sailboat. Beyond its airy rooms and startlingly clever furniture (corner drawers that slide open outwards, a stool made from a dentist's chair, a corridor that doubles as a bar), the sea unfolds like another artwork (tour £17; capmoderne.monuments-nationaux.fr). And that sense of the surroundings as inspiration is what this modern (and modernist) Irishwoman has in common with Cézanne. If Provence is full of art, no wonder: the region itself is a masterpiece.Nina Caplan was a guest of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (provence-alpes-cotedazur.com) and Relais & Châteaux which has room-only doubles at Villa Gallici from £390 (villagallici.com)
In an era of smart but neutrally chic accommodation, this 24-bedroom private villa turned Relais & Châteaux hotel is a revelation, as multicoloured as a parrot — in part, because china birds appear to have alighted on every surface. Outside, there are Greek-style statues and a gently heated pool; inside, anything available to be wallpapered, tasselled or draped in bright fabric has been. It could have been garish, but instead it is delightful, as unforced and charming as the lovely staff. It is also less than 15 minutes' walk from Les Lauves as well as being a ten-minute walk from the centre of town, and if this hillside location is no longer the countryside spot it must once have been, once you're inside the grand gates the city feels very far away.Details B&B doubles from £390 (villagallici.com)
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Just down the road from the Fondation Maeght, one of the world's greatest galleries, this charming all-suite boutique hotel is in three low buildings on a hillside and run by the three Leroy brothers, who are all artists, so there is plenty of art here too. There is subtle good taste everywhere, from the quietly luxurious two-level suites in poured concrete and wood to the breakfast terrace overlooking the pool and the excellent restaurant, lit by bulbs on artfully draped ropes, with its superb wine list. Details B&B doubles from £180 (toileblanche.com)
This 200-hectare wine estate is about as upmarket as an art hotel can get: buildings by Jean Nouvel, Oscar Niemeyer and Richard Rogers, a Michelin-starred restaurant from Hélène Darroze and grounds dotted with works by the likes of Richard Serra and Louise Bourgeois. The hilltop all-suite hotel, Villa la Coste, has a reception area with spectacular views and more A-list art, but the property also has an auberge offering more affordable accommodation, and there's a pizzeria, a café and a casual terrace café too.Details B&B doubles from £780 (villalacoste.com); room-only doubles from £180 (aubergelacoste.com)
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Today, Menton on the Italian border is famous for its lemons, so sweet you can eat the peel, but in the 1890s it was a thriving resort, much of it designed by the Danish architect Hans-Georg Tersling, including this cream and white hotel. With its high ceilings and curved bar, this is accommodation from another era; it's just across the road from the Mediterranean and a ten-minute drive from Villa E-1027.Details Room-only doubles from £195 (villagenesis.com)
Fly or take the train to Marseille, then take the SNCF to Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin or Menton