Vaucluse: The Beating Heart of Provence

“The Vaucluse encompasses all that travellers have come to love about this enchanting land. The moment the train doors open in Avignon to the breezy, balmy, luminous Provençal air you know you’ve landed in a gentler world. From

Avignon, a mere three hours on the TGV from Paris, travellers can grab a car from one of the half-dozen rental companies fronting the station and choose from an embarrassment of riches less than 90 minutes away: Arles, 45 minutes due south; Aix-en-Provence, an hour southeast; Marseille, 30 minutes south of Aix; and the lazy pastel fishing villages lining the Mediterranean coastline east of Marseille.