We are in the hands of Australian-based couple Robbie and Patrick Arrieula, who have been leading food and walking tours of the area for the past 12 years. Patrick is a wealth of knowledge and knows the region well since he grew up in the area. His parents live in Abos where his father is deputy mayor. He makes twice-yearly  forays back to home turf, to share his passion with like minded travellers.   

I’d come to see for myself why the Swiss Riviera, and other European Rivieras in fact, dotted throughout the Mediterranean, have long been a stamping ground, not just for the well heeled, but writers, celebrities, artists, composers, musicians and nosy parkers like me.

Not only do they come but surprisingly often, as was the case with Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn, they set up permanent digs at their favourite seaside or lakeside towns. Brigette Bardot, Tina Turner, Elton John and Bono to name just a few, have holiday homes in the French Riviera while Antonia Bendaras and Melanie Griffiths prefer the Spanish Rivieria. Either way you look at it it’s a glamorous way to avoid winter altogether.

While the Swiss Riviera was the celebrity hot spot in the early to mid 1900s, smart money invested in the French Riviera in the 1950s and 1960s. In the seventies it was the Italian Riviera while Spain came into its own in the 1980s and 1990s. Today the spectacular coastline of new hotspots Croatia and Montenegro are  where the likes of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kerry Packer and Apple supremo Steve Jobs like to hang out.

Amélie, should she have ever existed, was just one of the estimated six million Parisians and visitors who use this enormous system on a daily basis. To service it, 15,000 staff are employed, and every map of Paris shows the criss-crossing network of lines and stops. With this city’s magnificent métro system if you can get to one of the 283 stations then you can reach almost everywhere else. Today fourteen lines covering 211 kilometres of track shuttle 3500 carriages on a precise schedule between stations.

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This article continues with details of the Metro, the underground rail system that efficiently links all of Paris, as well as its history and use, and the unique decor of some of the stations.

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Once only, during our many trips to Paris, our trusty tickets apparently let us down. When they were not accepted at an exit gate we were nonplussed until a friendly Parisian explained that we were trying to use métro tickets on an RER line. We didn't know there was a difference, but we had obviously strayed outside the inner section of the city. One person offered for me to squeeze through with her, but I was too hesitant, then another used her own season ticket to let us through.

Now, who says Parisians aren't friendly?

©Sally Hammond 2007

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2007

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled independently)

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Please contact Sally Hammond (shammond@iprimus.com.au) for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

• Currently the article runs to approximately 1000 words plus Factfile (fact-checked and updated free with the sale of this article).

• The length of the article may be changed according to editorial needs, and the Factfile may be expanded, however if substantial additional work is requested it will affect the final cost of the article.

• Pictures are available

• This article is currently unpublished. All rights available.

Rent a farm cottage somewhere in Normandy, Brittany or the Loire, then spend the next week exploring towns and villages harking back to William the Conqueror.

That was the plan, but it was never quite clear from the concertina-style Michelin map exactly which part of France we were supposed to be in.  Somehow it didn't seem to matter very much… un calvados with those crêpes, peut-etre?

More images

OK, Mr Mayle spent much longer – more than just the year he so famously wrote about – at Menerbes, a stony, hitherto unknown village in the Luberon, one of many once-unknown villages in the hinterland. But he concerned himself with setting up house there, doing battle with the local tradespeople, and honing his boules skills.

Not having the luxury of that much time, I jetted in to Marseilles on an airbus one afternoon and three days later sped off again on the TGV (France's very, very fast train, capable of speeds averaging over 300kmh) en route for Paris.

By then I had revised my opinion of the place, totally, for on my equally fast learning curve, I was taught several important things:

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This article continues with details of what I learned about Provence – its history, its sensuous attraction, its food …and much more. The article also includes information on accommodation provided, local food and cuisine, things to do and see.

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So that’s it. Multi-decibel seduction. And at last I start to get the idea of what had entranced Monsieur Mayle and made him want to stay and put down roots in this stony land. He too had been seduced by the buzz of this wild region.

Olives and wine, lavender, seafood and sugar. Hardly a recipe you'd want to try, but in Provence it works just fine. Warmed by the sun, mellowed out over a few centuries or so, the mix is magic.

Maybe, I should try to stay longer next time, I decide, as the train speeds away from Marseilles central station.

A year should be about right, I figured.

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled independently to Provence)

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Please contact Sally Hammond for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

“French men,” they also told me, “like champagne because it puts a sparkle in the ladies' eyes and gently flushes their cheeks.” No wonder someone once dubbed this 'the wine that makes you see double, and act single'.

Beauty and morality issues aside, most people simply go for the delicate flavour, the rush of bubbles, the extravagance of sipping real French champagne. For a sparkling wine can only be called champagne if it is produced in the Champagne region of France, less than 150 kilometres from Paris, almost due east along the motorway, and a swift hour or so if you travel with a lead-foot driver as I did recently.

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This article continues with details of champagne – the region and the drink.and includes information on accommodation provided, local food and cuisine, things to do and see.

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(finishes…)

Champagne - both a drink and destination. Something to spoil yourself with, and a place that spellbinds you; a signal for celebration as well as a romantic region of France. Whichever way you look at it, Champagne – the place or the product – has much to recommend it.

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(*Sally Hammond travelled to France courtesy of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in association with Malaysia Airlines, and stayed as a guest of the French Government Tourist Office and Champagne Ardenne Tourism)

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Please contact Sally Hammond for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

• Currently the article runs to approximately 1000 words plus Factfile (fact-checked and updated free with the sale of this article).

• The length of the article may be changed according to editorial needs, and the Factfile may be expanded, however if additional work is requested it will affect the final cost of the article.

• Pictures are available.

• This article is currently unpublished. All rights available.