Argilla Aubagne potteryThe Capital of Culture programme takes a quick breather this month at the peak of the French school holidays. But many major shows launched continue well into the autumn, and the cultural tourist to Provence in August is really spoiled for choice.

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Extra events will be announced in the course of the summer, so keep a close eye on this space for new additions. And click here to read our July diary for Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture.

For the full programme (many, though by no means all, pages are now finally translated into English), see the website for Marseille-Provence 2013: European Capital of Culture.

Visitors to Marseille should also head for the new temporary Pavillon M on the place Villeneuve-Bargemon just off the Old Port, which is a primary source of information (the main Tourist Office at 11 la Canebière will be open as usual too).

Le Routard guide to MP2013If you read French, you might be interested in Le Routard Marseille, Provence 2013, capitale européenne de la culture, a very comprehensive book-length guide to what's going on.

8-10 August On the coast between the oil refineries of Fos sur Mer and the wild landscapes of the Camargue, Port Saint Louis du Rhône comes alight for three nights with an open-air spectacle by Groupe F, the acclaimed street theatre and pyrotechnics group based near Arles.

Billed as a "saga of light and fire", it involves fireworks, video projections, son et lumière and pyrotechnics and aims to explore and transform the town's industrial past. The show starts at around 10.00pm on the Plage Napoléon. Admission free.

17-18 August Every second year in August, Aubagne hosts Argilla, the largest ceramics fair in France, at which over 180 craft workers from across Europe present their creations from stoneware to fine porcelain. In 2011 over 70,000 visitors attended. Pictured top left: pottery from the 2011 Argilla fair.

The 2013 event derives added prestige from its inclusion in the MP2013 official programme and perfectly complements Aubagne's major show of Picasso's ceramics, which continues until 13 October.

24-31 August Août en Danse (An August of Dance) is a new festival of contemporary dance at locations all over the Marseille area, including the Old Port, the Parc Borély and nearby Allauch. Performers include Taoufiq Izeddiou, dancers from the Ballet d'Europe and the Malandain Ballet of Biarritz and shows are either free or with low ticket prices.

September by the Sea logo 201325 August-6 October Septembre en Mer (September by the Sea) offers a hugely popular and eclectic programme of over 300 marine-themed events in Marseille and the surrounding coastal area.

It encompasses everything from seafood feasts and scuba diving lessons to shipyard visits and excursions to the Riou or Frioul Islands in traditional boats. If previous years are anything to go by, it's advisable to book well in advance for some of these activities.

A highlight will be a Marine Parade on 7 September when a thousand boats of all shapes and sizes take to the sea, including the beautiful 19th century three-masted cargo ship, the Belem.

Arelate Roman Festival in Arles25 August-1 September Arelate was the (short) Roman name for Arles, which was colonised by the ancients for many centuries.

Today the city celebrates its ancient heritage with a fun, educational and highly family-friendly festival called... Arelate, set in and around Arles' famous amphitheatre.

Learn how to tie a toga, take a class in how to be a gladiator, eat Roman food, play Roman board games, see demonstrations of ancient war machines, watch Quo Vadis or another sword and sandal epic - or take in the city's blockbuster exhibition exploring how Auguste Rodin was influenced by antique art before it closes on 1 September. Programme for Arelate

31 August Port de Bouc, to the west of Marseille, hosts a Nuit Industrielle (Industrial Night), an offbeat homage to its industrial landscapes. Concerts, video projections, factory visits, a screening of the classic Charlie Chaplin comedy Modern Times and apéritifs aboard boats on the Caronte canal encourage visitors to see the oil refineries of this area and the world of work in a different light. 7pm-2am. Programme for La Nuit Industrielle

Ongoing events

Until 20 August La Roque d'Anthéron stages its important International Piano Festival.

Until 24 August The famous Roman amphitheatre of Arles is hosting Les Nuits de l'art équestre (Nights of Equestrian Art), four evenings of horse-themed shows by some of the most prestigious riding schools in Europe from Saumur, Lisbon, Jerez and - the oldest and most famous of them all - Vienna. Programme details for Les Nuits de l'art équestre

Until 25 August a-part is a festival of cutting-edge modern art which takes each year throughout the summer in some of the loveliest countryside, towns and villages in the Alpilles. In 2013 a-part is curated by the writer Ariel Kyrou and the presiding theme is "reinventing nature through all our senses". Click here to read our guide to the a-part Festival of Contemporary Art.

Until 1 September L'Ombre de l'Antique (The Shadow of Antiquity) explores the connections between the sculptor Auguste Rodin and classical Greek art. Rodin never actually went to Greece, but collected some 2,500 original works or replicas from classical antiquity, and was profoundly influenced by them.

The exhibition gathers over 250 pieces by Greek sculptors and by Rodin himself in order to highlight these links and will travel on to the Musée Rodin in Paris in November. Website for the Musée Départementale Arles Antique.

Artwork at the Fondation Vasarely Aix en ProvenceUntil 18 September At the Fondation Vasarely in Aix en Provence, a new exhibition, Vasarely, de l’œuvre peint à l’œuvre architecturé, assembles the op artist's work in a wide range of media throughout his life to trace the evolution of his vision. Around 100 works are on display, including paintings, sculptures, films, drawings and even the artist's writings.

Many are loaned from such museums as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum in Pécs, Hungary, in addition to the mighty frescos from Aix's own permanent collection, one of which is pictured.

Until 22 September The Rencontres d'Arles, Arles' prestigious annual photography festival, has a black-and-white theme this year.

Until 26 September Les Baux de Provence is hosting a slightly unusual spin on MP2013's ubiquitous theme of painters in the Mediterranean. Instead of a show exploring their fascination with the landscapes, its exhibition, Les Capitales Méditerranéennes "de Signac à Buffet", looks at how painters have portrayed southern cities from Toulon to Arles. At the Musée Yves Brayer.

Until 28 September Designed by the Italian architect Stefano Boeri, the futuristic and spectacular Villa Méditerranée (formerly - and more prosaically - known as the CeReM) hosts a show called 2031 en Méditerranée, nos futurs! (2031 in the Mediterranean, Our Futures!), which explores how we want the region to look in 20 years' time.

Also at the Villa Méditerranée is a permanent exhibition, Plus Loin que l'Horizon (Further than the Horizon), about movements of trade and tourism. Read our full guide to the Villa Méditerranée

La Digue du Large MarseilleUntil 29 September The Digue du Large, a 7 km / 4.5 mile breakwater between Marseille's Old Port and L'Estaque, has long been inaccessible. Now it's open to the public again, allowing you to walk "over" the sea for the first time since 2001 and offering fresh views of the city from a surprising perspective.

As a bonus, the Franco-Algerian sculptor Kader Attia has created an installation, Les Terrasses (The Terraces), all along the breakwater: a series of bright white cubes and geometric shapes which you can climb on for yet more viewing points.

The Digue du Large, pictured, is open at weekends and accessed by a free boat shuttle from the J4 Esplanade, near the MuCEM. Note that boats may be cancelled on days of high winds.

Until 29 September Aubagne hosts a pioneering  "travelling museum", the Centre Pompidou Mobile. Around 15 major works from the permanent collection of the Pompidou Centre in Paris are on display in a structure inspired by circus tents.

The show, entitled Cercles et Carrés (Circles and Squares), invites viewers to discover geometric shapes in 20th and 21st century art by painters including Duchamp, Kandinsky and Vasarely.

Until 30 September The Musée de la Légion étrangère (Museum of the Foreign Legion) in Aubagne hosts La Légion dans la peau (The Legion Under Their Skin), an intriguing-sounding display of photographs of legionnaires revealing their tattoos.

Until 6 October The Musée Regards de Provence is the new home of the Fondation Regards de Provence, an organisation which stages excellent shows celebrating provençal art from all eras.

Its second show, Cassis, port de la peinture au tournant de la modernité (Cassis, Port of Art on the Cusp of Modernity), explores modernist art in the town of Cassis, which will also stage its own sister-exhibition at its Musée d'Arts and Traditions Populaires.

Concurrently the Musée Regards de Provence has an exhibition dedicated to the provençal sculptor Bernar Venet, who also has a giant installation on show in the gardens of the Palais du Pharo. The Venet show continues until 13 Oct.

Until 13 October: Le Grand Atelier du Midi is a huge and ambitious exhibition in two venues in Marseille and Aix en Provence.

The title comes from a quote by Vincent van Gogh, who dreamed of creating a community artists working together in the light and colour of the South when he briefly shared a house in Arles with Paul Gauguin.

While other shows in the region throughout 2013 are touching on the same theme, this is the big one, with nearly 200 works by major artists including Renoir, van Gogh, Gauguin, Bonnard, Cézanne, Dufy, Matisse, Picasso, Dali and many more. They were created mainly between 1880 and 1960, though there is the odd later piece too.

The works are on loan from major museums around the world (the Musée d'Orsay, in particular, will have quite a few gaps on its walls this summer) and the main signage is in English and Spanish as well as French.

The Palais Longchamp MarseilleThe aim is to explore how the South, mainly the South of France, but also Spain, Italy and North Africa, inspired these artists to develop Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other revolutionary languages of modern art.

The show at the newly reopened Musée des Beaux Arts at Marseille's Palais Longchamp, pictured, is themed around colour and the central figure of Vincent van Gogh, whose intense visions inspired the Expressionist, Pointillist and Fauvist movements, among others.

Meanwhile, over at the Musée Granet in Aix en Provence, Cézanne's exploration of form is shown to lead to Cubism and Surrealism.

A smaller ancilliary show at the Musée Ziem in Martigues looks at works by Raoul Dufy painted at locations on the Blue Coast between Martigues and L'Estaque.

Until 13 October The conceptual artist Bernar Venet, who was born in Château Arnoux in Haute Provence, was invited to install a very large-scale work in the Jardin du Pharo, a park overlooking the Old Port of Marseille and surrounding the Palais du Pharo, itself recently the subject of renovation. Venet's piece, called Désordre (Disorder) consists of a huge interlocking cluster of his trademark monumental arches.

 

Until 13 October Aubagne, a centre of terracotta in its own right, is hosting a major show celebrating Pablo Picasso's Mediterranean-themed ceramics.

After the Second World War until the end of his life, the artist experimented with this medium, employing themes with a Southern flavour: ancient myths, the sun, bullfighting, doves and olive trees and, as always, women.

Some 150 pieces are featured, many of them from private collections, principally the Picasso estate, and have never seen before on public display. Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne.

Until 15 October All around the spectacular landscapes of the Camargue, Arles and the Rhône delta, Les Grands Chemins d'Envies Rhônements are a series of contemporary art installations and hiking trails with - as the punning title of the event hints - an environmental theme.

Until 20 October A show of the artist Raoul Dufy's work at the Musée Ziem in Martigues is a complement to Le Grand Atelier du Midi in Marseille and Aix.

Until 20 October At Marseille's Museum of Contemporary Art, or [MAC], Le Pont (The Bridge) is an exhibition of work by artists from the Mediterranean region.

Promenoir à nuage (Walk with a Cloud) by Françoise Coutant, 2003Until 31 October An unusual concept is at the centre of a major show at the Musée Réattu in Arles, Nuage, or Cloud. The exhibition showcases exactly that: clouds in Eastern and Western art, both classic and contemporary.

It features Chinese pottery pillows in the shape of clouds, over 150 works by René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Anselm Kiefer, Cornelia Parker, and more.

Pictured: Promenoir à nuage (Walk with a Cloud) by Françoise Coutant, 2003. Website for the Musée Réattu, Arles

Until 5 January 2014 A new version of the hugely popular son et lumière show at the Quarries of Lights (formerly known as the Cathedral of Images) links into the overall Mediterranean theme of Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture.

Called Monet, Renoir... Chagall. Voyages en Méditerranée (Voyages to the Mediterranean), it explores how the luminous colours of the Mediterranean, from the Spanish border to the Italian Riviera, have attracted painters throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Until January 2014 The MuCEM (Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée, or the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations), Marseille's showpiece new museum, is now open with a permanent exhibition of artefacts from around the Mediterranean.

The MuCEM Marseille by nightThere are temporary shows too. The first two of these are Le Noir et le Bleu, un Rêve Méditérranean (The Black and the Blue, a Mediterranean Dream), which looks at artists' visions of the future across countries and centuries and the curiously named Le Bazar du Genre (The Gender Bazaar), which investigates traditional concepts of gender and sexuality in different Mediterranean cultures.

Pictured, the building itself, designed by Rudy Ricciotti, is well worth a visit, as are the landscaped gardens in the adjacent Fort Saint Jean.

Click here to read our September diary for Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture

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