traveldk.com

This small museum has a world-class array of modern art, including paintings by Léger, Bonnard and Chagall, sculpture by Miró and a mosaic pool by Braque (see Fondation Maeght, St-Paul-de-Vence).

The “fontaine ” is actually Europe’s most powerful natural spring – it pumps out 2.5 million cubic m (55 million gallons) of water a day, giving birth to the River Sorgue. It’s a spectacular setting for a lovely village, made even more romantic by its association with the Italian love poet, Petrarch, who lived here in the 14th century (see Fontaine-de-Vaucluse).

From the base of grandiose, 230-m (750-ft) high cliffs, Europe’s most powerful spring pumps out the water which creates the River Sorgue. The romance and mystery of the setting (no one has yet found the exact source of the water) attracts millions of visitors every year, as it once attracted 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch (see Fontaine-de-Vaucluse). Downstream of the source, the charming little village celebrates its most famous inhabitant with a museum in one of the houses claimed to have been his. It also boasts an excellent museum dedicated to the history, art and literature of World War II and another equally good one devoted to speleology (caves and caving).

In dried or fresh form, herbs are vital ingredients of Provençal cooking (see Top 10 Regional Specialities).

Forcalquier is a beguiling old town, evocative of past glories, when it was the seat of powerful local lords and capital of the region. One gate of the old walled town, the Porte des Cordeliers, still survives, along with the restored cloisters and stark library of the 13th-century Couvent des Cordeliers, with its tombs of the town’s medieval seigneurs.

A moist micro-climate, created by warm sea air rising over the cooler mountains, waters this mountain forest, where thick beech, maple and chestnut woods cloak the lower slopes in semi-tropical luxuriance and huge pines rise on the higher mountainsides. From Pointe des Trois Communes, on the fringe of the forest at an altitude of 2,082 m (6,830 ft), there is a quite breathtaking panorama of the Alpine foothills and the Parc National de Mercantour (see Parc National du Mercantour).

Try the one-day course, open to all drivers at the Le Luc circuit. Expensive but undeniably thrilling.

Exhibits on sea life.

This 17th-century fortress has a grim, businesslike look when compared with the fairytale medieval castles found elsewhere in Provence. It was built to withstand cannon fire, not just arrows and siege towers. The work of the master military engineer Vauban, it is a remarkable testimony to his skill. The Fort de France, the second of this former frontier garrison’s strongholds, has fared less well and lies in ruins.

On the south side of the Vieux Port is Marseille’s fort, built in 1680 by Louis XIV to impose authority on the truculent city – its cannons pointed inland. Star-shaped and built on two levels in pink-tinged limestone, it stares across at the much older St Jean fort. Now split in two by the 19th-century port-side boulevard, St Nicholas remains one of the city’s most imposing buildings.