Thanks to the British author Peter Mayle, whose wildly popular memoirs about the expatriate life in Provence were turned into a 2006 film, A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe, this sun-dappled pocket of southern France has become the ultimate choice for Europeans to retire and renovate old farmhouses.  Few realize they are echoing a habit laid down 2000 years ago.

The ancient Romans conquered the whole of Europe, but they too had a soft spot for Provence, which was their first acquisition outside of Italy.  (The very name Provence comes from the Latin provincia).  No sooner had it been taken in 121 BC than its delightful ports and pretty rural villages began to attract wealthy Roman citizens looking for fresh air and sunshine.

Today, the landscape of Provence is rich with relics from that ancient golden age, especially in the city of Arles.  Around 50 BC, the town had the good judgment to support Julius Caesar in Rome’s civil wars, and was showered with rewards when he won.  As a result, Arles was transformed into the hub of the Western Empire, and a miniature version of Rome itself.  Modern visitors can still stroll from the Arena (a scaled-down Colosseum, where today bullfights have taken the place of gladiators) to the Place du Forum (the site of ancient market and meeting-place), inspect the Crypto-porticus (the granaries) and the Baths of Constantine (where citizens would while away whole days swimming, exercising and flirting).

To put all this in context, visit the new Museum of Ancient Arles.  Built next to the Roman Circus, where chariot races were once held, on the edge of the city, the museum contains a wonderful set of scale models and dioramas recreating Arles in its Roman heyday.

Afterwards, the ancient ruins of the town seem to come alive: You can virtually hear the Arena packed with 20,000 citizens howling for blood, the Forum filled with food vendors, and the riverfront promenade lined with wealthy tourists from Italy, lounging on marble benches and enjoying the sun – not so different from today, after all.

Welcome to Arles, France! Be prepared to be inundated with French cuisine and wine, rich history, and an impressive artisan culture.

We have an educational program for you for the next several weeks, which will introduce you to the sights and customs of Southern France. Ever wondered what to tip, or even if to tip, when dining out at French cafes? We will make sure tipping etiquette is crystal clear, in addition to discussing the basics of French travel. More importantly, we’ll tour the Roman Amphitheatre and visit the home of Vincent van Gogh. Though the famed artist only spent a year in Arles, he produced more than 300 paintings during his time there. We will also absorb the incredible culture of the region through the many pristine museums in Arles.

Pack your bags, it’s time to lose ourselves in the romance and delight of a vacation in France! We’ll languish with French cuisine, drink lavish French wines, and experience the country’s incredible culture.

Whether it’s the food, atmosphere, or history you crave, Arles has it all. Come, learn more with us as we discover this enchanting city!

A favorite post from our 2009 Paris, France vacation series.

There may be only a few foundation stones left today, but the Place de la Bastille is still one of the most evocative sites in Paris, luring millions of visitors who want to see the fabled spot for themselves. Every year on Bastille Day (July 14), the French celebrate the attack on the medieval fortress in the Marais district as the start of the Revolution in 1789, which despite its violent excess is still remembered as a moment of glory.

At the time, the Bastille was the most notorious of royal prisons, where the king could send subjects for years without appeal. It had gained a grim reputation in the Middle Ages as a place of torture and misery, but by the 1700s a sentence there was barely an unpleasant experience – at least if you had some cash in the family. Aristocrats were allowed to bring a small personal serving staff and decorate their prison cells as they wished, with their own feather beds, wall paintings and personal libraries. They could even order delicacies from the best Parisian kitchens. The food delivery records of the Marquis de Sade, who was here for five years, reveal his specific taste for fresh roast chicken, local pate, oysters, seasonal vegetables, fine wine and cognac.

Despite this luxury, in the popular mind the Bastille remained a symbol of the injustices of the Old Regime. When the Parisian mob chose to attack the hated fortress in 1789, there was nothing heroic in the act. The governor of the prison was guaranteed safe passage along with his men, but they were instantly set upon by the crowd and massacred – a drunken chef cut off the governor’s head with his pen-knife and it was paraded around Paris on a pike.

The rioters were then surprised to find only seven inmates in the entire prison, none of whom were very worthy of liberation: two lunatics, four forgers and a young gent charged with incest. Still, it remained a symbolic moment of victory. During the Revolution, tour guides led visitors around the Bastille, showing off fake manacles with exaggerated tales of the prison’s horrors, until it was finally dismantled.

As one decade closes and a new one begins, we would like to take the time to say thank you for traveling with us through our vacation themed posts.  We are grateful to be able to share our stories and experiences with fellow travel enthusiasts.

Over the next month, join us as we take a look back at 2009’s most memorable posts, including some reader favorites.  We will travel to Germany, vacation in France, honeymoon in Hawaii and hit the must-see sights of Rome.

Pack your bags & let’s start traveling because 2010 is the time to make vacationing a priority again!

There may be only a few foundation stones left today, but the Place de la Bastille is still one of the most evocative sites in Paris, luring millions of visitors who want to see the fabled spot for themselves. Every year on Bastille Day (July 14), the French celebrate the attack on the medieval fortress in the Marais district as the start of the Revolution in 1789, which despite its violent excess is still remembered as a moment of glory.

At the time, the Bastille was the most notorious of royal prisons, where the king could send subjects for years without appeal. It had gained a grim reputation in the Middle Ages as a place of torture and misery, but by the 1700s a sentence there was barely an unpleasant experience – at least if you had some cash in the family. Aristocrats were allowed to bring a small personal serving staff and decorate their prison cells as they wished, with their own feather beds, wall paintings and personal libraries. They could even order delicacies from the best Parisian kitchens. The food delivery records of the Marquis de Sade, who was here for five years, reveal his specific taste for fresh roast chicken, local pate, oysters, seasonal vegetables, fine wine and cognac.

Despite this luxury, in the popular mind the Bastille remained a symbol of the injustices of the Old Regime. When the Parisian mob chose to attack the hated fortress in 1789, there was nothing heroic in the act. The governor of the prison was guaranteed safe passage along with his men, but they were instantly set upon by the crowd and massacred – a drunken chef cut off the governor’s head with his pen-knife and it was paraded around Paris on a pike.

The rioters were then surprised to find only seven inmates in the entire prison, none of whom were very worthy of liberation: two lunatics, four forgers and a young gent charged with incest. Still, it remained a symbolic moment of victory. During the Revolution, tour guides led visitors around the Bastille, showing off fake manacles with exaggerated tales of the prison’s horrors, until it was finally dismantled.

Celebrate the “joie de vivre,” joy of life, when you vacation in Paris. Tour the Arc de Triomphe and take in the magnificent views of Paris.

There’s more than one way to conquer the world.  The flabby, charismatic “Sun King,” Louis XIV, knew that he could impress the French people with his insanely lavish royal lifestyle, but he also wanted to make his mark on Europe.  Throughout his 55 year rule in the 17th Century, he campaigned vigorously to establish Paris as the continent’s capital of style, promoting its gourmet food and wine, haute couture, cutting-edge  perfumes, opulent furnishings and exquisite jewelry.  Every new innovation required Louis’ personal imprimatur, making him the world’s first fashion dictator.  Author Joan DeJean claimed in “The Essence of Style” that Louis’ devotion to elegance has shaped the culture of indulgence today – “Without the Sun King’s program for defining France as the land of luxury in glamour, there would never have been a Stork Club, a Bergdorf Goodman, a Chez Panisse or a Christophe of Beverly Hills.”  The 700-room Palace of Versailles, which Louis built 10 miles from Paris, became the command center for this unique fashion experiment – a prototype for the Playboy Mansion, where courtiers could exist in a netherworld of art and pleasure (all at considerable expense, of course).  While France slowly descended into bankruptcy, Louis played hide and seek with mistresses, frolicked in tree houses and held resplendent soirees in the Hall of Mirrors, lit with thousands of candles.  And his every taste became law – it was Louis’ passion for diamonds, for example, that first privileged them above all other gems.  The flip side of all this was that Louis became corrupted by flattery.  According to one disgruntled noble, crowds of admirers would gather around the king to help him bathe and dress, even vying for the honor of assisting with royal grooming tasks.  Versailles became a byword for shameless excess in the face of poverty.  For one famous ball in 1696, the boutiques of Paris were stripped bare by invitees; socialites spent 10,000 livres on gowns (roughly $500,000 today) and one couple kidnapped a famous couturiere so he could not design for other guests.  In short, Versailles represented everything that French revolutionaries would soon come to hate about the monarchy.

As you stroll down the exhilarating Boulevard Saint Germain on the Left Bank in Paris, make sure to pay your respects to the three sacred “temples” of Parisian café society near the church of Saint-German-des-Près: the Café des Deux Magots, the Café de Flor (next door) and the Brasserie Lipp (across the road).  In the 1930s, this trio of charismatic establishments became the bohemian crossroads of Europe, when successful artists like Picasso, André Breton, Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp descended on them, bringing an entourage of writers, celebrities and fashionistas in their wake.

Under German occupation, the intellectual power couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir set up shop in the Flore, having been driven out of their old haunts by Nazi officers on r-and-r.  Since the couple was living in a cheap hotel at the time, they preferred to spend all day in the café.  Sartre later recorded their rigid daily working routine – writing from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m.; lunch until 2 p.m.; chatting with friends until 4 p.m.; more writing until 8 p.m.; dinner until 10 p.m.; then late night business meetings in the cafe.  “It may seem strange, all this,” Sartre wrote, “but the Flore was like home to us…even when the air-raid alarm sounded, we would merely pretend to leave and then climb up to the first floor and go on working…”

Today, these famous cafes are still great places to do a little philosophizing as you watch the world go by.  At the Deux Magots, guests don’t sit at tables so much as antique wooden writing desks, and the menu suggests that this is the “rendez-vous of the intellectual elite.” The small square in front is now called the Place Sartres-Beauvoir, in honor of the passionate couple.

One of the prettiest spots in Paris today was also once the bloodiest.  The elegant Place de Concorde now has an uplifting view across peaceful parkland to the broad Champs Elysée and the gracefully curving River Seine.  But during the French Revolution, this was where the dreaded guillotine was erected – specifically, on a spot halfway between the Egyptian obelisk and the Tuilleries Gardens (which then contained a royal palace).

Every day, wagons filled with unlucky victims would rattle along the Rue St. Honoré from the Conciergerie Prison (which survives as a museum on the Île de la Cité) to this notorious plaza, which had been renamed the Place de la Revolution.  Bleachers were erected to allow the Parisian mob a better view of the executions, with a carnival atmosphere prevailing and food vendors working the crowd.  But while low-lifes and tourists filled the audience, many more sensitive Parisians simply turned their backs on the bloodshed.

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Continuing our post from Wednesday, here are 6 more French hot spots to make your Paris, France vacation more memorable.

Les Égouts de Paris
Deep in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower is another historic feat of engineering. The 1,304 miles of underground canals form a “city beneath the city” that handles the proper flow of everything the Parisians prefer to keep below the surface.

Sacré-Coeur
This pristine, white-stone church was proposed as a memorial to the soldiers killed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but was not completed until the end of World War I. The church features one of the world’s largest mosaics, which depicts Christ with outstretched arms, and a massive 19-ton church bell.

Paradis Latin
Le PARADIS LATIN, designed by Gustave Eiffel and one of the city’s oldest theatres, is located on the Left Bank. Enjoy dinner, wine, champagne, and a very French revue.

Moulin Rouge
An exciting evening at the world-renowned Parisian cabaret. Dinner with half a bottle of wine is served during the show. A glass of champagne completes your evening in style.

Versailles
A short journey from Paris with your local guide to the lavish 17th-century baroque palace built by Sun King Louis XIV, with its magnificent STATE APARTMENTS, Hall of Mirrors, and the Royal Chapel. Time to stroll through parts of the elegant 250-acre GARDENS. Note: This excursion is not available on Mondays and public holidays.

Claude Monet’s Giverny
Drive along the Seine Valley to the HOME OF CLAUDE MONET, leader of the Impressionist School. Admire the collection of Japanese engravings and stroll through the garden, a famous source of inspiration for many celebrated artists.

We hope that these Paris must-see sights will help you get more vacation from your vacation.  Make your trip even more unique and use our travel planning resources to help get your dream vacation underway.