News

Van Gogh Self PortraitVan Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a smash-hit virtual reality show that has been touring all over the world.

And this spring it's coming to Marseille - only the second French city to host it! Advance booking opens this week and the installation itself starts up on 18 April.

The 90 minute spectacle brings together over 300 paintings and drawings by the great artist - not the artworks themselves, of course, but moving, wall-sized digital projections that entirely surround you.

And you can take an even deeper dive through eight of Van Gogh's best-loved works - or even create your own painting, Vincent style. 

Immersive experiences are everywhere these days (one of the first, and still the most popular, can be seen elsewhere in Provence at the Quarries of Lights). But this installation has been ranked among the twelve best in the world by the likes of CNN.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is at the Dock des Suds (12, rue Urbain V, Marseille 13002) and entry costs from 8.90€ to 13.90€. This is a whole lot cheaper than London, by the way, where an adult ticket starts from £22, or the US, where some cities have been charging north of $40!

 

red wine smallFinally! The first of Provence's spring wine festivals is on the horizon.

From 22-24 March, Toulon will be celebrating the noble grape, with tastings, music, processions and general merriment at its Bacchus Fête des Vins.

The mighty Bandol wines, produced locally, are present, of course, but other French regions are in town too, and even some from further afield, with dozens of vineyards presenting their latest vintages. There will be speciality food producers as well.

Also on the programme: lots of street music, games, competitions, special menus at the local restaurants, a wine cruise around Toulon's beautiful bay and trips on the petit train (little tourist train) to take you round town to try all the goodies.

In 2023 over 30,000 visitors came to Bacchus and this year's event should be equally lively. Click here to read more about it.

 

Musique dans la rue smallStand by for a firey hit of Southern Spain at Avignon’s annual Andalusian Festival.

Now in its 23rd year, it runs from 13-24 March with a full programme of events in Avignon and all across the surrounding region.

Expect paella, art, dance classes, music, movies, activities for kids, flamenco and muchas fiestas. Click here for the full progremme.

lacoste03Damien Hirst, the enfant terrible of British art, has a major exhibition at the fabulous Château La Coste, near Aix en Provence.

This is a winery and 500 acre estate which the Irish property magnate Paddy McKillen has turned into a spectacular natural backdrop for contemporary art.

Since it opened in 2011, La Coste has hosted a series of shows by the likes of Ai Weiwei while other major artists have pieces on permanent display dotted around the grounds. Pictured: Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois.

Titled The Light That Shines, the Hirst show is an enormous event which sprawls all over the estate and its five exhibition pavilions, which are all given over to a single artist for the first time.

It features sculptures and paintings from all across Hirst's career, from his early work to brand-new pieces and runs from 2 March-23 June.

 

bd festival 2018The BD (bande dessinée, or graphic novel) is a much revered art-form in France. And since it was created in 2004, the Festival de Bande Dessinée - aka Rencontres du 9ème art - in Aix en Provence has become easily the largest in the region.

In 2024 it runs from 6 April-25 May. After the long grey winter, this is always a welcome arrival. Colourful, witty images pop up on posters and in shop windows all over Aix and the surrounding towns and vlllages to lift the spirits and announce that spring is finally on its way.

Booking.com

Curated by the artists themselves, the programme sprawls over several months. It includes exhibitions, performances, workshops, book and signings and, importantly, informal drinks and networking parties. A "pop-up" weekend on 13-14 April is the highlight.

These events are held at museums, the Aix Tourist Office and other venues across the region. Entrance to many of them is free.

This year spotlights the emerging BD arts scene in Lebanon. Apart from that, there will be 13 major exhibitions. Among the guest artists are Frédéric Coché, Jérôme Puigros-Puigener and the popular Haircut Football Club, images exploring the strange and comical connection between coiffure and soccer!

aix bd festival kids 2017We'd always assumed that this festival was mainly for fanboys and geeks but, when we went along to one of the pop-up weekends, pictured, we found this was far from the case.

It attracts people of all generations, from pensioners to toddlers. In fact the whole thing is highly family friendly. Any displays devoted to films and comics with adult, erotic and/or violent content are discretely screened off in separate areas.

Click here to visit the festival website and read the full programme.

family tourOnce a month, the beautiful coast road out of Marseille is closed to traffic.

Marseille is notoriously clogged with cars under normal circumstances – it's one of the worst cities for traffic jams in France.

But the current mayor plans to change all that with a monthly festival of activities to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

It is called La Voie est libre, which translates loosely - but in this case very appropriately – as The Coast is Clear.

On the agenda: sporting activities on the beaches, music, dance, food trucks and more. Restaurant terraces are extended too, in order to welcome more diners.

The scheme was launched in 2021 and has proved hugely popular, attracting up to 20,000 people. The next fixtures of 2024 are on 24 March and 21 April.

The event takes place all day along a strip of 3.2 km / two miles on the Corniche Kennedy, which leads south out of Marseille.

During this time cars are banned on the Corniche - though you can still glide around on a bike, electric scooter or (for people with restricted mobility) electric wheelchair.

Determined motorists should watch out on this day for traffic restrictions all around this area of the city.

 

starry night over the rhoneVincent van Gogh lived in Arles for just 15 months, from 1888-1889. But during this brief time he produced many of his greatest paintings in an incredible burst of inspiration.

One of the best-known of these works is La Nuit étoilée (in English it's known as Starry Night Over the Rhône to distinguish it from another Starry Night, which Vincent painted a little later in Saint Rémy de Provence).

The painting normally lives in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. But this summer it returns to Arles, as part of a show at the Fondation van Gogh, just a few metres from where the artist set up his easel on the banks of the river.

The exhibition also includes work by other artists fascinated by the stars, from Edvard Munch to Anselm Kiefer.

Here's what the Fondation has to say about it: "Through a variety of scientific, historical, and poetic approaches, the work of past and present artists will shed new light on Van Gogh’s work, highlighting its legacy and unshakeable strength...

"...The exhibition Van Gogh and the Stars will highlight the erudite work and research carried out by Vincent van Gogh throughout his life, driven by his inner vision, his torments, his acute sense of observation, but also by his environment.

"The unique literary and scientific climate that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century will also be presented to the public, through an exhibition of the research that fascinated the public at the time."

It sounds like a must-see for art-lovers in Provence this summer. 1 June-8 October. (NB, Starry Night itself is only in Arles until 25 August. Don't miss!)

 

king tutThe Quarries of Lights, just outside Les Baux de Provence, is one of the region's most popular tourist attractions, and its immersive shows change yearly.

This year the changeover is slightly different from usual: the 2023 spectacle (Dutch Masters from Vermeer to Van Gogh) has been extended from 17 February until 14 April.

There was some delay in announcing the next programme, due to a long-running legal dispute between the current operators of the Quarries and the previous ones.

This dispute has now been resolved (for the time being, at least!) and finally we know the subject of the 2024 show. It is The Egypt of the Pharaohs and opens on 19 April.

This grandiose, spectacularly imaginative art should be ideally suited to the monumental setting of the Quarries. Pictured above: the famous funerary mask of Tutankhamun.

The accompanying short film picks up the theme: Les Orientalistes explores the influence of North Africa on a generation of French artists, including Ingres, Delacroix and Gérôme.

The Quarries belong to a portfolio of sites, in Paris, Bordeaux, Seoul, Amsterdam, Dubai and other international locations. The immersive shows tend to tour around these locations, and the Egyptian one is also playing in Paris this year.

 

reverie alphonse muchaArt-lovers have a fabulous range of new shows to enjoy in Provence this winter.

In Aix, the star attraction is the Belle Epoque graphic artist Alphonse Mucha, whose fabulously sensuous poster designs are instantly recognisable.

Pictured: Reverie by Mucha. At the Caumont Centre d’Art, until 24 March 2024.

Arles is best known for its close association with Vincent van Gogh, who lived there only briefly but produced some of his most unforgettable art.

Van Gogh famously dreamed of founding an "Atelier du Sud", a sort of artists' collective, in Arles, but his stormy relationship with his housemate Paul Gauguin ultimately made it impossible.

But today the Fondation Vincent van Gogh had the terrific idea of recreating a modern version of Vincent's dream.

The resulting work, produced during a residency with 24 young artists - plus two pieces by van Gogh himself - is on display in a private house.

At 3, rue du Cloître, Arles, until 21 April 2024.

A number of lesser-known, but still interesting French artists have new shows too. The 20th century artist René Perrot is celebrated at the MuCEM in Marseille.

Paul Rousteau is at the Villa Noailles in Hyères. Both these exhibitions run until 10 March 2024.

les cabines jean pierre blancheBack in Marseille, the luminous Mediterranean landscapes of Jean-Pierre Blanche are a real treat. At the Musée Regards de Provence until 21 April 2024. Pictured: Les Cabines de Bains.

And, last but not least, the brilliant Children’s Museum, also in Marseille, spotlights female artists in a show called Elles!

The perfect introduction to art for budding connoisseurs. Until 27 July 2024.

 

unloading the catch marseille1Marseille has a new weekly farmers' market, right in the heart of the city centre!

It takes place every Sunday morning from 8am-1pm on the Old Port, where around 30 local producers will be selling their wares.

Expect fruit, vegetables, cheeses, meats, seafood and bakery items in addition to Marseille's regular daily fresh fish market, pictured. Also promised: food trucks and cookery workshops.

Truffles in hand smallWinter in the South of France can be cold, cold, cold. But there are compensations. In particular, the black truffle season in Provence: four full months of delicious gastronomic treats.

In 2023 it unofficially begins on 2 December, with the Ban des Truffes in the little village of Richerenches north of Avignon.

This is a colourful ceremony and procession, pictured below, which announces the opening of the truffle season. And then the real party begins.

A market, truffle feasts, cookery demonstrations and truffle hunts are just some of the events on the winter programme.

 

There's a market each Saturday morning in Richerenches until the middle or the end of March. And the village hosts another big ceremony, a truffle mass, on the third Sunday in January: this season it's on 21 January 2024.

It's followed by a truffle auction in aid of charity, an apéritif and a truffle feast. So there's plenty going on!

You'll find lots of weekly markets and occasional festivals all across Provence throughout the winter, as well as fun activities such as truffle hunts.

Watch out in particular for the Friday morning market in Carpentras, the truffle fair in Ménerbes in the week between Christmas and New Year, the truffle market in Rognes just before Christmas and the truffle festival in Avignon in the early New Year.

ban des truffes richerenches processionThe area around and north of Avignon is the region's "truffle capital". But you can find the black diamonds, as they're often called, further south too.

Some towns and villages launch their truffle markets in mid-November. But the truffles are not at their best then.

Late January - early February is the optimum time to buy them, as their quality is at its peak and prices are more affordable after the Christmas and New Year holiday rush. Click here for our full guide.

 

tintinandsnowyThe Quarries of Lights just outside Les Baux de Provence are famed for their innovative, immersive shows, first devised many decades before the idea became virtually ubiquitous.

The uniquely atmospheric setting here still sets this pioneer apart from its more recent competitors.

Its shows, which change each year, generally focus on masterpieces of modern art, from the Renaissance to Picasso. Now, though there’s a new kid in town.

That would be Tintin, pictured, the boy journalist who is the hero of a series of 24 bestselling bandes dessinées (comic books, or graphic novels as fans prefer to call them). Now he's also the star of a new spectacle at the Quarries.

Tintin, l'aventure immersive plays "in repertory" with the Quarries' more conventional main 2023-2024 show, which focusses on the Dutch Masters from Vermeer to Van Gogh.

You are advised to check with the box-office when booking your visit to make absolutely sure that you are getting the show you want!

This programme runs until 14 January 2024, then takes a short break, returning from 17 February to 14 April 2024. A new show (see above) will open at the Quarries shortly afterwards.

By the way, Tintin and Rembrandt aren’t as odd a combination as they first seem – Tintin's creator is the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, which makes them close neighbours.

 

AM Mazzia at work smallGreat news for Marseille gourmets preparing to tighten their belts after all those holiday expenses: the triple Michelin-starred chef Alexandre Mazzia, pictured, is reopening his legendary food truck for budget (but absolutely yummy) snacks.

First conceived during the pandemic, and later revived while Mazzia’s main restaurant, AM, was closed for renovation, the truck sells soup, sandwiches and sweet treats at bargain prices.

Booking.com

There’s even a house cocktail. Prices for individual items start from seven €uros and there's a three course set menu for 23 €uros.

Named Michel in honour of Mazzia's grandfather, a fisherman, the truck is stationed at 17 rue François Rocca, just down the road from the original AM.

And, if you’re not in town right now, watch out for Michel in 2024, when it will be feeding the hungry at Marseille’s Olympic Village.

 

 

Provence News Archive

 

Main Menu