Experience the best of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence lies at the foot of the Alpilles, a low range of white limestone in the heart of Provence, and plane-tree boulevards circle its old centre. Vincent van Gogh spent a year at the asylum of the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole monastery in 1889 and 1890, painting wheat fields, cypresses, olive trees and The Starry Night, and its cloister can still be visited. Nostradamus was born in the town in 1503.

Just south of town, Glanum preserves the ruins of a Gallo-Roman town, and beside the road stand a triumphal arch and a mausoleum, nearly two thousand years old, known together as Les Antiques. The village of Les Baux-de-Provence, with its ruined hilltop fortress and view across the plain, is a short drive. Arles and Avignon are each within easy reach.

Olive oil from the Alpilles, tapenade, goat's cheese and honey fill the weekly market, and local vineyards produce the red wines of Les Baux and Provence rosé. Wild thyme and rosemary scent the Alpilles in spring, and autumn brings cooler, clearer days.