BonjourParis

Deep in the heart of the Languedoc an old Amsterdam grain barge christened Anjodi glides through a UNESCO world heritage site, the Canal du Midi. On deck are 7 extremely zenned-out, well-fed passengers and one hilarious skipper, down below is a Michelin starred chef in the making and our lovely, effective and quiet hostess. Our sweet, gregarious, can-do-it-all tour guide is off riding a mountain bike 5 kilometers back to the previous dock to get the gobarging van and pick up fresh baguettes and local cheeses. Onlookers are making “ohhhh” and “ahhhh” sounds while regarding the ship’s shiny new coat of blue and white paint, her well-oiled teak deck, and her sleek lines. My father told me when I moved to France, you should take a barge trip down the Canal du Midi. Though practically in my own backyard, I didn’t quite understand until I was onboard what he meant for me to experience—truly the slow, good life of the south of France. It was a world of it’s own, we had our own rhythm that bowed into the flow of life, into the ebb of the 400 year old canal.

Flash! The Picasso chateau, studio and burial site in Vauvenargues, just outside of Aix-en-Provence, will be opened to small groups of visitors in May. Applications for admission will be long with good reason; it’s the first chance that the public will have to visit the Chateau Vauvenargues.

Cognac has been a tourist town for centuries not for its eponymous distilled spirits, but for its location. It’s on one of the ancient pilgrimage routes to Santiago (St. James) de Compostella in northwest Spain, and, for centuries, religious travelers stopped to rest at Cognac’s churches on their way to Galicia. The Tours Saint-Jacques – St. James Towers – along the Charente River date from this time.

The village of Mouriès near Saint-Rémy de Provence is justly famous for its celebration in mid-September of the Olive Verte or Olive Cassée.  These are the crisp bright-green early olives, so named because their skin is slightly cracked to release any bitterness before they are immersed in fennel-flavored brine.

Cultural places, fashion boutiques, nightclubs and trendy restaurants; discover some of the most “in” places this summer in Nantes, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Saint Tropez, Strasbourg and Paris.

Vaux le Vicomte is a lavish 17^th century chateau located roughly an hour southeast of Paris. It is a breathtaking place, one well worth visiting whether you are in Paris for a few days or have lived there for years. It recently generated buzz in the foreign press when it hosted the wedding of French basketball player Tony Parker and actress Eva Longoria. (For those of you currently looking for a site for a wedding, may your wallets run deep: renting the site for a single day costs upward of $40,000.) Additionally, it served as the site of director Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette. 

If you want to hang with the A-List this summer head for St. Tropez, like Paris Hilton (now she’s free!) Ivana Trump, Massimo Gargia, Bono and Penelope Cruz, Naomi Campbell, Johnny and Vanessa, The Elton Johns. Don’t know if Justin Timberlake will make it, what with his just open NYC eatery “Southern Hospitality”, a classy barby joint serving Memphis style cuisine, spare ribs and desserts from Grandma Timberlake’s rolodex. (1460 Second Avenue) So, if JT does come to ST where to eat?

Normally, you wouldn’t expect to encounter two life-sized military fighter planes mounted on pedestals zooming at you on a quiet street in a small French Normandy town. But normally, you also wouldn’t expect to encounter them virtually in the shadow of an enormous medieval fortress built by England’s King Richard the Lion-Hearted in the 12^th century. However, that is just what you will happen to you in the small town of Les Andelys, roughly 65 miles northwest of Paris on the banks of the Seine River as it flows toward the sea.