Provence
France
Lavender, limestone villages and a light that brought half the painters of Europe here and kept them
Photo by Antony BEC on Unsplash
Photos by Parrish Freeman, James Orr, Frédéric Barriol and Simon Spring on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
April to June, and September to October (lavender flowers late June to mid-July)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 90mm in Oct
Where it is
43.53°N, 5.45°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Buy lunch at a Saturday market and eat it in a field
- Drive the Valensole plateau in the first week of July
- Walk the ochre trail at Roussillon
- Sit in a café on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix and do nothing
- Cycle or drive the Gorges du Verdon
Provence travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
ExpensiveEuros, and cards everywhere except the smallest village markets, which still want notes. Keep twenty euros in coins for the Saturday markets and the parking meters, which are the two things that will refuse a card.
ATMs & cards
Crédit Agricole and Banque Populaire machines are in every town of any size and are free with European cards. Village machines run dry on market day.
Avoid these
- village machines on market day, which run dry by noon
Use these instead
- Crédit Agricole
- Banque Populaire
- Société Générale
Free with most European cards. Keep twenty euros in coins for the markets and the parking meters, which are the two things that refuse a card.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
Very safeRural and calm, with almost no crime against visitors. What there is happens in Marseille and at the motorway rest stops, where hire cars are broken into. The mistral wind can blow for three days and closes roads to high vehicles, and August wildfires close whole massifs — the Luberon and Sainte-Victoire are shut on red-risk days.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Aix-en-Provence
- Gordes
- Roussillon
- Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
- Avignon — inside the walls
Worth more attention
- Hire-car break-ins at motorway rest stops and at trailhead car parks — leave nothing in it, ever
- Marseille — the Quartiers Nord, and the station area at night
- Wildfire closures in August, when the Luberon and Sainte-Victoire massifs shut on red-risk days
- The mistral, which blows for three days at a time and closes roads to high vehicles
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingThe market is the meal. Every town has its day — Aix on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Apt on Saturday, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue on Sunday — and buying lunch from it costs a quarter of a restaurant and is better. Rosé is drunk cold, at lunch, and nobody thinks less of you.
Nightlife
Dinner outdoors that runs to midnight, rosé from lunch onwards, and village squares rather than bars.
- Cours Mirabeau — the café-lined avenue in Aix
- Place des Cardeurs — the terrace square behind it
- Avignon — and its festival, which fills the town every July
- Marseille Vieux-Port — the real nightlife of the region, 30 minutes away
Closing: 01:00 in Aix, later in Marseille.
A beer in a bar: €5–7
Village restaurants stop serving at 21:30 outside July and August, and many close entirely on Sunday and Monday.
Getting around
Limited- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- G7Works here
- FREE NOWWorks here
G7 the taxi fleet, by app
- Against a taxi
- Much the same. The flat airport rate is a taxi rule and the apps price against it.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of France
Why these are France's numbers and not Provence's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Provence, so these are medians for all of France. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Religion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Provence
No Holistay rentals in Provence yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Provence on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Marseille Provence MRS
30 minfrom the airport· 22 km as the crow flies
30 min to Aix, an hour to the Luberon.
Also worth pricing: Avignon AVN — small, seasonal, and closer to the northern villages.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
