The Rhône valley | South of France
The Rhône valley | South of France
The Rhône valley is a wonderful but often overlooked part of France that most travellers neglect as they rush to the Alps or the Mediterranean. Yet this region of beautiful rolling countryside is home to world-renowned vineyards, charming villages, and the UNESCO world heritage city of Lyon.
The area is steeped in history and has long been the gateway between northern and southern France as well as a crossroads of European trade. Above all, the region is synonymous with good living – it is the gastronomic heartland of France, and the vineyards of Beaujolais and the Côtes du Rhône produce some of the country’s finest wines.
Follow the Rhône downstream and you come to one of the most evocative regions in the world: Provence. From the landscapes of the interior that inspired Van Gogh and Cézanne, to the beach resorts of the Côte d’Azur, Provence has a special allure that has been drawing people from far and wide for centuries. If all you want to do is relax, there can be few better places than southern France, with its warm climate, simple, delicious cuisine and fine wines.
With some of the most evocative place names in travel, the French Riviera has long been the most fashionable place to stay in the Mediterranean, and a favourite for jet setters, playboys (and girls) and the European elite.
For the British aristocracy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century this was the place to escape from the cold and damp English winter. The impressionists rented cottages and huts in tiny fishing villages for the light and colour, but it was in the 1950’s that the area became more generally well known, when Brigitte Bardot wore the first bikini, Princess Grace held court, and the fashion cognoscenti spent their summers in St Tropez and Cannes.
The area suffered a brief dip in popularity in the 1990s, when the phenomenal expense of some of the larger hotels put people off. Now the Cote D’Azur is evolving again, with some immaculate boutique hotels perched on the hills overlooking the golden swathes of beach.
