If you have not seen the movie or read the book A year in Provence by Peter Mayle, Please Do! And then come to Provence! This region of France is utterly Astounding and Amazing. I stayed with my friend Marianne who lived above a bakery and the scent alone would make me start off the day salivating and stumbling from our appartment and down to the cafe for a crisp hot croissant and ripe esspresso that would shake me out of my slumber. Mornings are filled with Southern French style markets with fresh spices, olive oils, cheeses, thick round raisin breads rubbed with encrusted cinnamon and every color of fruit and vegetable imaginable sliced and diced open for you to savor and "goute" as we would say in french.

Apart from the city style living of Provence is the breathtaking country side, where I was blessed with days of wine tastings, bike rides and froliking in the Lavandar Fileds that only Van Gogh himself can capture in the most precise manner of the feelings you experience when in the midst of the beauty and splendor of this amazing and heart warming region. Miss you Provence, and now off to Italy!