The Nearest Thing to Paradise: A Literary Tour of Southern France     

8 - 25 September 2013

Tour Highlights

* Image Above: Alphonse Daudet's Windmill, Fontvieille, Provence 

• • Lectures and site visits by Susannah Fullerton, President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia.
• • Live out the experiences of one of the world's great travel books as you follow the path of Robert Louis Stevenson, accompanied by Modestine the donkey, through the stunning landscapes of the Cévennes.
• • Stay in the elegant 5-star Hotel Belles Rives at Cap d'Antibes, immortalised by F. Scott Fitzgerald in Tender is the Night.
• • Descend into the dungeons of the Chateau d'If, where Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo languished for so many years.
• • Enjoy the opportunity to see great art, the homes and gardens of artists, and the landscapes that inspired many famous paintings.
• • Lunch at 'La Colombe d'Or', superbly decorated by Chagall, Miro, Cocteau and other artists, and favourite cafe of poet Jacques Prévert, Scott Fitzgerald and other writers.
• • Take an exceptional guided walk through the "enchanted" hills of Marcel Pagnol's Jean de Florette.
• • Stroll through some of the most beautiful villages of France, such as those in the Lubéron ranges (Lourmarin, Ménerbes, Lacoste)
• • Fall in love with Hyères, the Riviera's oldest resort town, and home to Edith Wharton and R.L. Stevenson.
• • Travel through French history, from the Roman occupation to the Resistance of World War II.
• • The cuisine of France is intimately linked to the genius of her greatest men, such as Auguste Escoffier – learn about French food, and dine on bouillabaisse, local cheeses and wines, and other delicacies.

About the Tour

"One has the most exquisite things that nature can offer", Friedrich Nietzsche said of the French Riviera. True, one has panoramas, stunning coastlines and beaches, impressive hills, and trees and gardens that are absolutely glorious, but one also has writers, scores of them, who were drawn like magnets to this sunny, and beautiful part of France. For 700 years writers have visited or resided, have been inspired by the landscapes, have desperately tried to improve their health and have died and been buried in the south of France.

This literary tour takes you to what Scott Fitzgerald called 'the nearest thing to paradise". You will encounter French writers, past and present – see Daudet's windmill which inspired his wonderful Letters from my Windmill, enter the prison where Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo was incarcerated, walk the paths that so enchanted Marcel Pagnol, stroll through the cobbled town which shaped Jean Cocteau, and visit places connected with Proust, Colette, Sartre and De Beauvoir, cookbook writer Escoffier, Camus, poets Paul Valéry and Jacques Prévert, Henri Bosco and René Char. There will also be delightful encounters with visiting writers, such as Scott Fitzgerald, Dickens, Somerset Maugham, Ian Fleming, Lawrence Durrell, Dorothy Parker, Graham Greene, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edith Wharton, Chekhov, Peter Mayle and many more. You will enjoy some very special literary experiences – following the path of Robert Louis Stevenson in the stunning Cévennes National Park accompanied, just as he was, by a donkey! You will stay 2 nights in the sumptuous hotel where Scott Fitzgerald stayed while he worked on Tender is the Night; and you will learn from expert guides about the local novelists and poets who were so inspired by the stunning landscapes.

This tour is not purely literary. Artistic people tend to mingle and many of the famous writers made friends with painters and sculptors. Jean Cocteau was both artist and writer, Cézanne's best friend was Émile Zola, while Van Gogh's reading of French novelists inspired the landscapes he painted. We will visit galleries and museums connected with Matisse, Chagall, Cocteau, Renoir, Modigliani, Van Gogh and others.

The tour also includes libraries, a boat trip along a spectacular gorge, châteaux, forts, windmills, fishing villages, cathedrals, bridges, lovely gardens, a museum about the Resistance, grand villas, and even a game of pétanque. It also includes French food, a subject on which so many writers have waxed lyrical. We will dine at restaurants famed for their literary patrons, will sample local delicacies and learn more about them, and we will shop at produce markets in quaint French villages. "Oh for a beaker full of the warm south", begged John Keats. We will have just such beakers of local wines, to accompany our cheeses, tartes au citrons, and other delicious foods.

There is a magic about the very words 'the south of France'. Come and experience that magic for yourself. This is a tour for anyone who loves literature, natural beauty and sunshine. You do not need a great familiarity with the authors encountered - Susannah will tell you about their fascinating lives, and introduce you to their works. You will travel with like-minded literary enthusiasts. However, the tour must come with a warning – You will not want to leave!!!

"All the beauty of this Provençal countryside is born of the sun; it lives by light." (Daudet)

18 DAYS Menton (3 nights) • Juan-les-Pins (2 nights) • Hyéres (2 nights) • Aix-en-Provence (2 nights) • Avignon (5 nights) • Florac (3 nights)

Sites visited: Menton (Wedding Room, Musée Jean Cocteau) • Cimiez/Nice (Musée Matisse, Musée National Marc Chagall) • Cap Ferrat (Villa Ephrussi) • Villefranche-sur-Mer (Chapelle Saint-Pierre) • Monaco (Princess Grace Irish Library) • Musée Renoir - Domaine des Collettes, Cagnes-sur-Mer • Saint-Paul-de-Vence • Matisse Chapel, Vence • Fondation Auguste Escoffier, Villeneuve-Loubet • Cap d'Antibes • Antibes (Provençal food market, Musée Picasso • Château de la Napoule, Mandelieu-la-Napoule • Hyères • Château d'If, Marseille • Atelier Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence • Maison Natale de Marcel Pagnol, Aubagne • Nature walk in the steps of Marcel Pagnol, La Treille • Lubéron villages (Lourmarin, Lacoste, Ménerbes) • Avignon (Papal Palace, Pont Saint-Benezet) • L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue • Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (Musée-Bibliothèque François Pétrarque, Musée d'Histoire Jean Garcin: 1939-1945 - 'L'appel de la Liberté' • Saumane-de-Vaucluse • Musée Frédéric Mistral, Maillane • Espace Tartarin, Cloître des Cordeliers, Tarascon • Fontvieille • Arles (incl. Museon Arlaten) • Pont du Gard • Scénovision Molière, Pézenas • La Couvertoirade, Templar and Hospitaller village • Nature walk with a donkey in the Cévennes NP, in the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson • Boat excursion through the Gorges du Tarn.