Marseille is heaven for seafood fans. As well as the many fresh fish dishes you can choose between various versions of the traditional fish soup, bouillabaisse. Bouillabaisse du Ravi and Bouillabaisse du Pecheur are variations commonly served in the city’s restaurants. Ravi (‘delighted’) features six different fish while the Bouillabaisse du Pecher (‘fisherman’) has three.
‘Moules marinier’, another staple seafood dish of Provence, combines mussels with Provencal herbs and finely diced onion. Eat in the Vieux Port (the old port) looking out over the Mediterranean and you’ll see the bustling harbour at work. Alternatively, go into the quieter streets of the Quai de Rive Neuve. The dry local white wines suit fish and seafood very well but many people choose a rose wine – ‘pink’ somehow seems right in the heat of the Provencal summer.

Many holiday makers combine a visit to Marseille with visits to other towns on the Mediterranean coast. St-Tropez, Cannes, Cassis, Sainte-Maxime, Frejus, Antibes, Nice, Cap Ferrat and Monte Carlo all have distinct characters and charm. With their beaches and glamour they will definitely appeal to the committed hedonist.

Inland, the towns of Aix-en-Provence, Arles and Avignon will appeal to culture vultures. In particular you may want to visit the summer theatre festival in Avignon and the exhibition in Arles of Roman antiquities. The latter is on until mid-September 2010 and features a bust of Caesar and many artefacts excavated from the river bed of the Rhone.

In Marseille, some major sights to see are the 5th century Abbaye de St-Victor, the Old Port, the Romanesque Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, the former prison of the Chateau d’If, the famous street known as La Canebiere, the historical ruins in the Jardin des Vestiges, the old town square Estienne d’Orves and the 17th century building La Vieille Charite, now an exhibition centre. Museums not to miss are the Musee d’Histoire de Marseille, Musee de la Marine, Musee des Docks Romains (a Roman warehouse), the art Museum (Musee Grobet-Labadie) and the Musee d’Histoire Naturelle.

High-speed trains (TGVs) run frequently between Paris and Marseille and take just three hours. The local airport, Marignane, serves destinations around Europe and in Africa.
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Vence’s forte is daily life: sipping rosé in dappled sunlight under the plane trees in the square, buying freshly baked bread from the boulangerie and punnets of Carros strawberries at the daily market. Feast on dishes such as wood-fired roast lamb and rosemary potatoes at La Terrasse du Clemenceau or escalope à la gorgonzola at Luigi’s. Serious gastronomes dine magnificently on modern Provençal haute cuisine at Auberge les Templiers (set menus €39-€59).

Fine dining demands repose, and while Mick Jagger stayed at uber-swanky Château du Domaine Saint-Martin (10 minutes’ drive out of town), I prefer the town centre’s Hôtel le Provence, a sweet two-star with Provençal décor, a flower-filled breakfast garden and rooms from €35.

In summer, musicians liven up Friday and Saturday nights (mid-July to mid-August) at the Nuits du Sud franco-latino music festival, but Vence is fabulous at any time of the year.

However, I have since learnt that if you go in spring or autumn, and avoid the snobbish tourist traps, the same coast can be sublimely peaceful. The food will be superb and reasonably-priced and the sea so clean that the fish need sunglasses.
One of these havens is just minutes outside my least-favourite resort in France – St Tropez. The harbour was probably cute in 1960 when it was discovered by the jetset. These days it’s a place where the mega-rich park boats the size of Kosovo and a drink in one of the quayside cafés costs almost as much as the yachts.

I once had lunch at a trendy St Tropez restaurant and the waitress spent all her time fawning over a bunch of people decorated with more gold than the chateau at Versailles. That’s fine in theory, but when she’s cooing at their family photos while holding your meal in her hands, you’re entitled to get impatient.
If you dare ask if she would like to ease the strain on her biceps by delivering the rapidly cooling food, she will look at you as if you’ve just ordered a chip buttie. You don’t belong. Which is obvious anyway, because all of your party still possess their original noses.

However, just 15km south of here is a resort that can make you forget that ‘Saint Trop’ even exists. Visit outside July and August and Gigaro is one of the most peaceful hideaways on this stretch of coast. At first sight, it might not seem particularly promising. A narrow strip of sandy beach flanked by villas and nondescript hotels, it’s not particularly pretty. But the sea looks so pure that you’d love to drink it.
And in one corner of the bay is the start of a coastal path that winds for 10km through fragrant pine forests. If you don’t fancy a long hike, you can stop at one of the rocky coves that might just turn out to be your private beach. I love to snorkel here and regularly stalk octopuses and squid among the islets offshore. Underwater, there’s not a sound. St Trop’s jet skis are an ocean away.

Best of all, the hotels and restaurants are as lovely as the scenery. At the end of Gigaro beach is a little sign for a chambre d’hôte called Le Refuge (00 33 4 9454 2897). You bump up a worn-out driveway to an anonymous modern villa. Inside, the rooms look almost monkishly basic and I once saw a young couple turn their noses up and leave because ‘the bathtub was too small’. But put me on one of Le Refuge’s balconies overlooking tree-tops and the Med and I could stay there sipping rosé for a month. Doubles with breakfast cost from €70.

The two beachside restaurants in Gigaro specialise in welcoming strangers rather than scaring them away. Unlike in St Tropez, where you eat out to show off your bling and your plastic surgery, here people chat and relish the fresh seafood.

Architecturally, these chateaux mingle the outlines of the traditional Gothic castle – often with spire-topped turrets – with the Renaissance style that French artists had learned from Italy.
Blois castle was begun in the thirteenth century, but the entire building was transformed first by Louis XII, who moved the court here in 1498, and then by François I. It’s interesting to see the way French Renaissance style developed – while Louis’ wing is exuberant and asymmetrical, François preferred a distinctly more formal and balanced effect. But the magnificent spiral staircase – possibly designed by Leonardo da Vinci – adds a touch of the fantastic.

Amboise was rebuilt by Charles VIII, who began the flamboyant Gothic chapel of Saint Hubert in 1491, together with the Logis du Roi. But only a couple of years later, he hired two Italian architects to give it a Renaissance feel. Leonardo da Vinci lived here as a guest of François I; and the chateau has the earliest Italian-style garden ever laid out in France. It’s the epitome of gracious living.

Louis XIV thought Chambord was too small for a king – but it has 50 staircases and over 400 rooms. Yet François I only intended it as a hunting lodge, set in a deer park. The corner towers still suggest a feudal castle, yet it’s in fine Renaissance style. Perhaps its finest feature is the open staircase which has two spirals passing each other. Even though you can see someone coming down the other staircase, you will pass them without ever meeting them.

Chenonceau, though a ‘Loire chateau’, is actually built across the river Cher on a bridge, known as the ‘Pont de Diane’ after Diane de Poitiers who lived here for many years. Diane was mistress of Henri II, who eventually gave her ownership of the castle – but she was stripped of it after Henri’s death by his vengeful widow, Catherine de Medicis. While most of the castle is graceful Renaissance work by Diane’s favourite architect, Philibert Delorme, the original fifteenth century donjon has been kept.

Chaumont is the chateau that Diane de Poitiers moved to after she was evicted from Chenonceau. She must have been heart-broken; instead of her elegant gallery, she inherited what is still clearly a medieval fortress, with its huge squat round towers. Yet it was built not long before the other chateaux of the region, in the 1460s, and not completed till 1510 – when the Renaissance style was already in fashion.

Among all these fine buildings, though, Azay-le-Rideau is everyone’s idea of what a Loire chateau should look like. It’s surrounded by water – in fact the river Indre, not the Loire – which reflects the dainty Renaissance turreted building. Alas, Gilles Berthelot who built the castle was forced to run for cover when the king accused him of embezzlement – and took over the castle.

You’ll need your own transport to visit most of these sites – only Amboise stands in the middle of its town. But the countryside along the Loire is a delight in itself – with charming villages and even the chance to stay in some of the smaller chateaux.