Provence — officially called Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur — is a largely rural and mountainous area in the far south-east corner of France.

Inland we find the real Provence, an absolute delight. Where the landscape is not wild, rocky and scrubby, in a manner that may remind visiting Australians of the Flinders Ranges, it is generally covered by vineyards and olive groves.

The main entry point for most tourists is Nice Airport, and even in high summer, passengers can expect to see snow on the nearby peaks of Les Alpes de Soleil on the way in to land over the beaches of the Côte.

The Côte itself is heavily overdeveloped, and traffic and parking are unbearable all year round.

To the east and north, Provence is cut off from Italy and Switzerland by the high alpine ridges and valleys of the Mercantour National Park, while in the west, beyond the Camargue and the extensive wetlands of the Rhône delta, the land rises towards the Cévennes and the Ardèche.

The following pages present writing and images on our particular interests, including the remains of Roman Provence, villages, walking, via ferrata,  classic yachts, the Canal du Midi, and books and films.

Steve is a regular contributor to Alice and Nigel Barker’s beautiful AMB Côte d’Azur website, writing tourism and general opinion pieces — in effect, writing a Provence blog.

Our qualifications for writing about Provence are undoubtedly suspect, since we only visit occasionally, but we take an abiding interest in the area, and hopefully visitors may sometimes see more clearly than residents.