Destination: France

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION

Itinerary: Artist Palette

Provence and the Côte d’Azur are an art paradise:



Matisse lapped up the extraordinary sunlight and Mediterranean vivacity in Nice, designing an exceptional chapel in Vence. Picasso set up studio in Antibes; Signac and other Fauvists found inspiration in St-Tropez; while Cézanne spent his artistic career in Aix-en-Provence. West along the coast, Van Gogh painted some of his most famous canvases in Arles and St-Rémy de Provence.

The Fauvist-favoured port of Collioure on the Côte Vermeille in Roussillon is an essential stop on any art lover’s itinerary; as is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s hometown of Albi, near Toulouse. Moulin Rouge cancan girls and prostitutes the bohemian artist painted in Paris hang in the town’s Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.

A day trip to Monet’s garden-clad home and studio in Giverny is irresistible for anyone painting an artist’s palette from Paris – where, incidentally, Monet’s famous painting of Rouen cathedral hangs in the Musée d’Orsay . Renoir hung out with his impressionist buddies in and around Le Havre on the serene Normandy coast, and is buried in Essoyes in Champagne.

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