For many years the wines of Provence have languished somewhat from the snobbish attitudes and reputations of other more pre-eminent wine regions of France - and in the thrall of even more snobbish wine critics who cannot believe a wine that is not destined to be laid down to improve, can have any substance.    But in the last few years, the wines of Provence have been making their mark, not just in their home territory but worldwide.

Now to publicize their wonderful wines, the Côtes de Provence appellation represented by their Syndicat at the Maison des Vins, Les Arcs, in collaboration with the English-language monthly magazine VAR VILLAGE VOICE is launching a unique 'DISCOVERY RALLY' from the 15th to the 30th of November, with special promotions on their wines from the many domaines that make up the appellation.  In fact, the Syndicat at the Maison des Vins represents over 600 producers throughout the region, so the choice is huge.

To find out all the details of this very special promotion, just look it up on the VAR VILLAGE VOICE web site at www.varvillagevoice.com, which will list the promotions to be found where, in what district, plus loads of helpful information about chambres d'hôtes in the region, golf courses, which domaines offer wedding facilities, and other information for tourists wanting to try the discovery route.  In addition, the web site will list distributors and retailers abroad for these wines. 

November is a delightful time to explore Provence; the weather is cool, clear and sharp, perfect for walking and playing golf, plus going around to a few wine domaines to try a degustation or two.  What could be nicer?

A number of wine domaines offer accommodation, like Château de Berne with its luxury Auberge, just outside Lorgues, or Château Mentone in St. Antonin with some very charming chambres d'hôtes rooms.  The region also abounds in quality villa rental accommodation, plus at least fourteen golf courses, the best known of them being St. Endreol at La Motte, Barbaroux at Brignoles, and La Dolce Fregate at St. Cyr overlooking the Mediterranean with outstanding views.  Then there is the wonderful golf course and luxury hotel at Nans les Pins, near the wine Château Triennes, whose wines, a favorite of Var Village Voice's wine writer Ian Parkin, are available in many locations in the USA.

And, if one were planning a summer wedding, the Discovery Rally would provide the perfect opportunity to explore the many wine domaines of the region offering superb wedding facilities such as Sainte Roseline – dating back to Medieval times, in les Arcs; their Cloisters provide a perfect setting for a cocktail reception.  There is also Saint Julien d'Aille, named after a Roman Christian martyr, at Vidauban, that has its wine boutique and cocktail reception area in a newly converted chapel adjoining their newly built wedding reception facility.

Provence is the only region in France that showed an increase in wine sales in 2009, and, more notably, an 8% increase in exports over 2008 – this at a time when the market for French wine is generally stagnant, and Alsace, Champagne and Bordeaux have seen a quite sharp decline.  With the growth in popularity of rosé, the Provence appellations have concentrated their promotional activities on this color, with a single-minded advertising approach. 

The success of the "Le Rosé, c'est en Provence qu' il est né” campaign, along with massive improvements in product quality, has seen the proportion of rosé sales in this region, and worldwide, rise from around 75% in 2000 to today's whopping 88%. 
While rosé represents 8% of world wine production, France has been thrusting ahead and is now easily the biggest player on the world stage with a 28% global share.  Domestically, rosé now represents 25% of total French consumption. The latter phenomenon is a result of the doubling of rosé sales in the last 20 years.

Provence rosé is at the forefront of this dynamic growth with 38% of national production, which means that one in every twelve bottles of rosé sold in the world today is from Provence: Côtes de Provence, Côteaux d’Aix, Côteaux Varois.  Recently,
tourism figures for 2009 showed that the Var département attracted more visitors than any other region in France – heavily biased towards the summer vacation time.  Following their hedonistic summer glugging, most tourists then also absorb Provence rosé into their at-home repertoire and extend their seasonal consumption into Spring and Autumn. 

In fact, the rosé wines of Provence have been so successful that in the past few years many of the other regions of France have tried very hard to leap on the Rosé Bandwagon, claiming the right to 'manufacture' rosé wine by combining their red with white wines!  The howls of outrage could be heard far and wide. The Côtes de Provence appellation over the past few years spent many millions on research, development and investment into their wines.  Fortunately the EU Commission struck the parvenus down, defending the rights of the producers of rosé wines of this region. 

However, the wonderful rosé wines of Provence are not overly featured in the wine lists of distributors, retailers, and wine clubs worldwide.  Perhaps one reason is that in the main the domaines tend to be small to slightly larger, beautiful domaines nestling in the rolling hills, valleys and forests of the Var and unable to supply wine buyers in vast quantities.  So, to really get a feel for these wines, one needs to visit the region and the superb vineyards spread all over the south of France from St. Raphael to the Luberon. 

And this is precisely what you can do this month.  Get tempted! 
 
 

Me, Myself and Moi
                                                                                                                        by Marcia Mitchell

There I was, a 50ish American woman sitting on the beach in Cannes all by myself.  I looked around at all the bronze bodies, all ages and conditions, wearing next to nothing.  Behind me was the restaurant terrace set for lunch under a smartly striped canopy. In front of me was the Mediterranean, the ancient birthing pool of humanity.  It was now or never.

I dropped my top.  And that's when my French vacation took off.

Had I been with a husband, a couple of girlfriends or (shudder) a tour group, I would never have dared. But with nobody to consult, I followed my own instincts – if that plump granny over there can do it, so can I.

Nobody paid any attention, of course, but that gesture punctured my American bubble and released me into the stream of French life. I was no longer on the sidelines with a camera.  As we used to say in the Sixties, I was going with the flow.

Of course, you can have lots of fun in France while fully clothed - I give you this scenario because it was my own personal breakthrough as a woman traveling solo for the first time. That was me in a foreign country stripped of all my props and open to what the place had to teach me.

Now that I'm a veteran traveler living in France, I' d like to share all that with you - whether you're single, divorced, separated or just dreaming of stepping out on your own for a change.  I'm organizing a new Personal Provence Workshop to take cozy groups of neophytes through the steps of traveling solo in France. You'll start out from my home base in Saignon, a perched village in the Luberon region of  Provence, and you'll be sent out on adventures, staying overnight at personally selected hotels, inns, B&Bs, dining in charming restaurants and cafés, and exploring my favorite towns and villages. After each foray, you'll come back to home base, and well share experiences. Then well shuffle your destinations and you'll go off to your next adventure. It's a safe and fun way to go solo - and you'll be in good company!

Discover Select Paris  Suburb Treasures

Eastward Ho!

Let's go first to Vincennes, eastern end-station of Métro line N° 1; the trip from central Paris will cost you a single Métro ticket and about a 20-minute ride. 

Fourteenth century: for almost a millennium-and-a-half, and although often itinerant, France’s Kings had headquartered on Paris’ Ile de La Cité in the royal palace whose vestiges you can still visit at the Conciergerie. Then, the irreparable happened: in 1358, during the Hundred Years’ Franco-English War, King Jean Le Bon (John the Good) was captured by the English and imprisoned in London. His 20-year-old son, Charles, became régent (acting king) and found himself in a face-off with the Parisian townspeople, who slaughtered – before the young man – certain of John the Good's supporters.

Horrified, the new king-to-be, Charles V, fled the Conciergerie and went east, where he created at the city's  boundary – protected by moats from both external and city enemies – La Bastille. Even there, he didn't feel safe and decided to move still further eastward, to the royal fortress-cum-hunting lodge at Vincennes where he had been born in 1338.

He decided to reside there and also make it the seat of his government and administration – a kind of second French capital! This required a complete architectural revamping whose extraordinary monumental result you can visit still today.  Check out, for instance, the castle keep,  some 50 meters high!  Charles V died at Vincennes in 1380, but the castle's story didn't end then.

To make sure that everyone realized that the royal residence and administration had  moved to the east, Charles V transferred the relics of Christ's passion – for which Louis IX (Saint Louis) had built the Sainte Chapelle at the Paris Conciergerie in the mid-1200s – to a brand new Sainte Chapelle at Vincennes, begun in 1379, but whose flamboyant Gothic façade wasn't finished until about 1480. It was converted into a prison where Voltaire, the Marquis de Sade and other renegades were kept in the 18th century, not to forget a number of republican insurgents after the uprising of 1848.

If not too tired after your Medieval incursion, feel free to move (nearby, to the south of the Château) to the Bois de Vincennes woods.  There, you can find a zoo, an aquarium, a sculpture park (with works by, among others, Giacometti and Calder) and a Parc Floral, inspired, following the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, by the Japanese garden style and including no less than 650 species of iris.  Given this oriental influence, don't be surprised if, just by the Bois de Vincennes’ Daumesnil Lake, you come upon a Buddhist temple!
 
 

What? You find that the building doesn't look very Oriental?  Well, you're right!  The temple was installed in the Camerounian Pavilion for the 1931 Colonial Exhibition!  But a glance inside will convince you of its Buddhist function.

Have Pen, Will Travel . . .

Sign up for this creative writing tour to France, and get the best of both worlds:  a tailor-made itinerary designed to inspire and a chance to flex your creative muscles and learn something new.

The 10-day program takes you from the buzz of Paris coffee shops to the magical stillness of King Arthur's forest.  You will stretch your imagination, sharpen your vision and get the chance to hone your writing skills along the way.  You'll get individual feedback on your short assignments - beginner writers are welcome - and, of course, there will be time to see the sights, shop and relax.

Your travel companions:  Yvette Wilsenach has co-owned and run a boutique hotel in the French countryside.  She's an avid reader and writer, and now leads specialized tours for creative people.

Catherine Eden teaches creative writing and journal writing for self awareness.  She has more than twenty years of experience as a magazine journalist and travel writer.

For information and costs, contact Kitty Snyman at Rufaro Destinations at kitty@rufaro.co.za or Yvette Wilsenach at yvette@w2.co.za.  Please mention FRANCE On Your Own in your email.  Merci!