Museum / Gallery Sights in Provence

The Petit Palais museum owes its name to the familiar name of the Archbishops Palace in which it is installed, name that it was given by reference to the great neighbouring palace: the Palais des Papes.

The building itself has been protected as a historic monument since 1979 and is worth the journey just for that, let alone the art works inside.

This a popular museum to visit for anyone following the Lavender routes around Provence, attracting around 50,000 visitors per year. 

At the beginning of World War II, France interned all Austrian and German nationals who were living in France at the time, and Les Milles was the prison for the south eastern region.

Vincent Van Gogh moved to Arles in 1888, as so in hommage to the great master, the Fondation Van Gogh has collected works by contemporary artists that are in the style of Van Gogh.

A private collection of ornate, unusual and ancient corkscrews in the vineyards of the Domaine de La Citadelle.

This is Aix's fine art gallery, housed in the 17th century Palais de Malte. The collections includes works by a variety of European painters, including two by Rubens and a small selection of Paul Cezanne.

Georges Mazoyer was an accomplished diver and a talented artists. In 1975 he was inspired to create a museum full of his most treasured souvenirs from the sea and as a gallery for his own art.

The Collection Lambert is a wonderful gallery featuring modern art from the 1960's.

Located in the heart of Arles the Museon Arlaten is really the 'Museum of Arles' itself. The museum was the initiative of the great local poet Frederic Mistral (1830-1914), it presents a all encompassing view of Provence from the end of the 18th Century up to today.

See the universe projected onto the roof of a large room filled with 65 comfortable seats, and wonder at the scale of it all.

Not only is this modern building home to the museum of contemporary art, but it also houses Nimes central library.

This remnant of the second world war is a huge engineering feat made from lots of concrete and once housed machine guns and barracks.

This museum owes its growth to the naturalist Esprit Requien (1758-1851), who was the most famous of Avignon scientists of his time. From an old middle class family, he devoted himself early to botany. By age 18, he is active in the Botanical Garden of the city of Avignon and is a herbarium that quickly acquired great importance.

Just outside the village of Gordes lies the archaeological remains of a Bronze age village. The Village des Bories dates back to around 2000BC. You can still see ancient sheep pens, stone beehive houses (bories) and bread ovens.

Building of this old mansion began back in 1715 when the first stone was laid. It was not fully complete until 1748, after all three stages of the building were finished.

The Calvet Museum today houses works of art from the 16th to 20th century, and holds innumerable collections donated or bequeathed by patrons, art lovers and collectors, such as Baron de Montfaucon, Esprit Requien, Noël Biret, the Montlaur family, and recently Marcel Puech.

Originally founded in 1882, this family run business making traditional Scourtins survives to this day.