Vence
Filed in France
While Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a pretty hill town perched above the Côte d’Azur, it is filled with daytrippers. Its lesser-known neighbour, Vence, is a real town where you can happily spend a week dipping into the superb collection of patisseries and restaurants and the exquisite Matisse chapel, the artist’s self-proclaimed greatest work. The stained-glass windows in this perfect white, modernist chapel on the hill opposite Vence’s Roman walls flood the interior with coloured light, and wall-height line drawings cover the white ceramic tiles.
But the chapel is just the cherry on the cake; Vence itself is reason enough to drive 20 minutes inland from Nice airport. It’s the archetypal idyllic small French town, with a garden square edged with cafes, pretty houses within Roman walls and shops that sell quality Provençal ceramics and linens, a cut above the tat you find in more touristy places.
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.
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