5 days in provence: where we went, what we loved & what i’d do differently
i think i had this idea of provence in my head.
which is probably what happens when you spend months looking at photos of somewhere on pinterest and instagram. you can only take in so much through a screen. you can see the stone buildings and the little cafés and the winding streets and the bright blue water, but until you actually feel it and smell it and experience it, it’s just not the same.
and provence really did feel different.
i loved it.
the funny thing is, before we went, i heard a lot of mixed opinions about taking kids to europe.
“good luck.”
“oh wow, you’re brave.”
“just wait for the jet lag.”
and listen, maybe elijah and i are delulu as hell, but i am also a huge mindset person. i really believe the way you approach an experience changes the experience itself. call it manifesting your reality, call it choosing to look on the bright side, whatever you want.
but honestly?
the jet lag really wasn't that bad for us.
the boys woke up around 3 a.m. the first night after we got back home, but they went right back to sleep and have been completely fine since. when we landed in utah on monday around 1 p.m., we basically forced ourselves to stay awake until bedtime because we wanted our bodies to get back onto our normal circadian rhythm as quickly as possible.
the next morning, we were outside around 7 a.m. getting sunlight in our eyes on our morning walk like the little wellness psychopaths we are.
maybe it helped. maybe we got lucky.
either way, i will take it.
traveling through provence with two kids definitely wasn't always effortless, though.
there were long travel days, a baby who would not stop moving on the plane, figuring out french roads, trying to maneuver a giant rental car through streets that felt approximately four inches wider than the car itself, and multiple moments where i genuinely thought, we are going to scrape the entire side of this thing.
but god, i loved it.
i loved the winding roads. i loved driving through tiny villages. i loved watching the landscape change around us.
and more than anything, i loved the slower way people seemed to live.
sitting.
being.
actually enjoying dinner instead of immediately thinking about where you need to be next.
i loved that when you walk into a shop, café or pretty much anywhere, you immediately say bonjour. there's this tiny acknowledgment of another person existing in the room with you.
that rarely happens where we live in utah. half the time people here seem like they can't fathom making eye contact with another human being.
which is incredibly painful for me because i love eye contact.
apparently this can make me seem intense sometimes.
oops.
there was something about the rhythm of life there that made me wish we had more of it at home. i came back with this immediate feeling of, wait...why do i live here again?
but that is probably a completely different post.
for now, here is what our five days in provence actually looked like.
where we stayed
we based ourselves in tarascon in a cute little two-bedroom airbnb.
i originally chose tarascon because it was fairly central to everything we knew we wanted to do: arles, saint-rémy-de-provence, cassis and mouriès, where our friends were getting married.
and honestly, location-wise, it worked.
most places were around 30 minutes away, give or take.
the driving wasn't really the problem.
the parking was.
if i could give one extremely unglamorous piece of provence advice, it would be this:
park outside the center and walk.
seriously.
i would 10/10 rather park ten or fifteen minutes away than attempt to find a spot right in the center of saint-rémy or arles again.
the towns are old. the streets are tiny. parking is limited. and when you are driving a large vehicle because you have multiple adults, two kids, car seats, bags and approximately your entire life stuffed into it, suddenly those adorable narrow european streets feel slightly less adorable.
still beautiful.
just mildly terrifying.
and the drives themselves were honestly part of the experience. some of my favorite moments were simply driving those winding roads through provence and looking out the window.
looking back, though, elijah and i have talked a few times about where we would stay if we did southern france again.
i think next time we would spend much more of the trip along the coast near cassis.
more on that later because cassis absolutely ruined us.
day one: marseille to tarascon, or possibly the longest day of my life
h.o.l.y. shit.
this day felt approximately 700 hours long.
looking back, the flight to france really wasn't that terrible.
but in the moment?
i almost cried.
i was beyond exhausted. i hadn't really slept on the red-eye, and lucius was not having the concept of sitting still.
he wasn't screaming the entire flight or anything dramatic like that. he was just restless, occasionally whiny and would. not. stop. moving.
and once you're already sleep deprived, even the smallest thing starts feeling enormous.
i was overwhelmed, tired, touched-out and basically every other adjective you could use to describe a person who desperately wants to lie horizontally on the floor.
bless eli's sweet heart because i genuinely don't think i could have done that travel day with anyone else.
he's my rock.
and hendrix?
absolute champ.
he handled the whole thing so much better than i expected.
we finally landed in marseille around 4:30 p.m. and then immediately ran into issues with our rental car reservation, which meant having to make another reservation on the spot.
exactly what you want after traveling internationally with children and no sleep.
we eventually got the car and had about an hour drive to our airbnb.
there was only one problem.
we desperately needed groceries.
specifically: whole milk for lucius and diapers.
and here is something i was absolutely not prepared for:
the grocery stores close so early.
we drove to three different stores that night trying to find somewhere still open.
apparently expecting to casually buy diapers and milk after 8 p.m. was my first very american mistake.
we had also imagined ourselves getting into town, finding some adorable little café, eating a beautiful french dinner and feeling very european.
instead...
and i hate admitting this because it feels almost criminal...
we ordered mcdonald's.
hahahahahaha.
it was one of the only things open.
i will say their menu slapped considerably harder than ours does in the states, so i'm choosing to count that as cultural research.
then we basically collapsed.
bienvenue en france.
day two: saint-rémy-de-provence
saint-rémy ended up being one of my favorite places of the entire trip.
it's exactly the kind of town you picture when you imagine provence: beautiful old buildings, boutiques everywhere, cafés, little streets you want to wander down just because they look pretty.
we visited the van gogh site and spent a good part of the day walking through town and popping into shops.
i genuinely wish we could have spent more time there.
hendrix loved walking through the stores with us, which was so fun. he's at such a good age for travel because he actually notices things and gets excited about exploring somewhere new.
the only stressful part of saint-rémy was entirely self-inflicted because apparently i am a bloody idiot.
let's talk about my outfit.
i decided it would be a great idea to wear one of my favorite free people sweaters with these cute little satin lace free people shorts.
in utah?
fine.
even when it's hot, i can usually get away with something like that.
in provence in august?
absolutely not.
holy shit, man.
the heat. the humidity.
i was dying.
or at least behaving like i was.
poor eli would be talking to me while we were walking around and i couldn't even process what he was saying because all i could think about was how hot and miserable i was.
luckily, saint-rémy has approximately one billion cute shops, so this tragedy ended with me finding a cute olive green top to change into.
praise be.
crisis averted.
after that, the rest of the day was amazing.
saint-rémy just felt charming. it's somewhere i could easily imagine spending an entire slow day with no real agenda — shopping, eating, wandering and sitting at a café for much longer than necessary.
if we go back to provence, i would absolutely return.
preferably wearing weather-appropriate clothing.
day three: arles
arles felt completely different from saint-rémy.
a little grittier. a little bigger. and there is history absolutely everywhere.
our favorite part was easily the arles amphitheatre.
we are huge gladiator fans, so walking around an actual roman arena was extremely our shit.
hendrix loved it too.
watching him explore places like that was one of my favorite parts of bringing the boys with us. he's old enough now that you can see him actually absorbing where he is and asking questions about it.
we also had our photo taken by one of the street photographers using an old-fashioned large-format camera.
it was such a cool little souvenir because it actually feels connected to the place instead of something we just bought in a shop.
we did a lot of walking in arles.
and one thing we learned traveling with a larger group is that getting into restaurants can sometimes be a little difficult.
do europeans not have large families?
hahahaha.
there were several times where we'd walk up as this whole herd of people and immediately realize finding a table was going to be a situation.
that night, though, we ended up eating at crêperie chez mam goz, and it was amazing.
i had a crêpe with cider, which i learned is actually a classic pairing, particularly with breton-style crêpes.
excuse me?
two of my favorite things belong together?
i support this tradition wholeheartedly.
the meal was so good and ended up being one of those simple travel memories i keep thinking about.
nothing extravagant.
just sitting in france, eating a crêpe, drinking cider and thinking, oh my god, i'm actually here.
day four: a wedding in mouriès
day four was completely different from the rest of our trip because we were there to celebrate two of our friends getting married in mouriès.
that morning, we got the kiddos situated with nana.
my mom came to france with us and was an absolute lifesaver because she helped with the boys during the wedding festivities.
bless her heart forever.
the wedding wasn't really set up for kids, but elijah and i still really wanted to bring the boys on the trip itself.
traveling with them is genuinely important to us.
we love spending time together as a family, and we want to give them experiences like this while they are growing up.
yes, traveling without kids is easier.
but seeing hendrix experience another country? watching lucius play in the mediterranean? having those memories together?
that matters more to me.
before heading to mouriès, we picked up our friends' traditional french wedding cake in arles: a croquembouche.
and oh my god.
it was stunning.
it had this iridescent gold glaze that almost flickered in the sunlight. it was one of those things that looked too pretty to eat.
then we headed toward mouriès to get ready for the wedding.
the château where everyone was staying was insane in the best way.
the interiors were so beautiful and interesting, and outside you barely needed to decorate anything because the building and the landscape were enough.
the ceremony itself was intimate and gorgeous.
and one of my favorite moments of the entire day was watching elijah get emotional seeing his best friend get married.
eli is my person. <3
my home.
my love. my life. my best friend.
and i have such a protectiveness over his heart that seeing him experience something that meaningful with someone he loves made me emotional too.
it was just a really beautiful day, and we felt incredibly lucky to be there for it.
**check my style page for the most beautiful lavendar wedding guest dress. (melting)
day five: cassis, aka we should have stayed here longer
and then there was cassis.
our favorite day.
no hesitation.
if we go back to southern france, this is where i want to spend more time.
the town. the shops. the beach. the water. the boats. the restaurants lining the harbor.
all of it.
it was absolutely stunning.
parking?
unhinged.
we ended up parking about fifteen minutes away and walking into town, which once again reinforced my provence parking philosophy:
just park farther away.
save yourself.
once we got into cassis, though, i didn't care.
there were cute shops everywhere and all these beautiful restaurants surrounding the port. it felt exactly like what i had imagined a little coastal french town would feel like.
we had booked beach chairs at le grand large, and thank god we did.
we hadn't brought beach towels and the beach was absolutely packed.
because we reserved ahead, we had chairs, umbrellas, towels, shade and access to food and drinks.
which, traveling with two kids and nana, felt luxurious as hell.
we spent hours there.
the boys played in the water, the weather was perfect and the mediterranean was this ridiculous shade of blue that somehow looks fake even when you're staring directly at it.
that afternoon was easily one of my favorite memories from france.
after the beach, we walked along the harbor and tried to catch a boat tour out to see the calanques, but we had missed the last one.
which is absolutely something i would change next time.
then we went to dinner and had some of the best pizza.
like...
why was the pizza so good?
obviously i paired it with an aperol spritz because when in the south of france.
we walked around a little longer before eventually heading back to tarascon because we still had to pack.
our alarm was set for 2 a.m.
our flight left around 6:30.
woof.
nothing humbles you faster after a beautiful mediterranean beach day than realizing you're about to wake up in approximately three hours and drag multiple suitcases and two children through an airport.
traveling through provence with kids
i think this deserves an entire separate post because i have a lot of thoughts about traveling internationally with kids now.
but the short version?
i would absolutely do it again.
was every moment easy?
no.
there were tired kids, disrupted routines, long walks, hot weather and a baby who occasionally decided he'd had enough of being a tiny international traveler.
but there were also moments i wouldn't trade for anything.
watching hendrix walk around a roman amphitheater.
taking the boys into little shops.
watching them play in the mediterranean.
eating together.
driving through tiny french villages with everyone in the car.
those are memories we get to keep.
i completely understand why some people prefer to wait until their kids are older to travel internationally.
but for us, i don't think that's what we want.
i want our kids to grow up seeing the world.
even if they don't remember every trip.
because we're not only creating memories for them.
we're creating memories with them.
what surprised me about provence
i went into the trip knowing provence would be beautiful.
i wasn't expecting how much i would love the rhythm of it.
how normal it felt to sit.
how meals weren't something you rushed through.
how people acknowledged one another when they entered a room.
how much life seemed to happen outside.
i also wasn't prepared for:
how tiny some of the roads are
how difficult parking can be near the center of the older towns
grocery stores closing much earlier than i was used to
how brutally hot and humid provence can be in august
how different every town felt even though they weren't very far apart
how badly i would want to immediately plan another european trip
and maybe the biggest surprise was how quickly i adjusted to being there.
coming home actually felt stranger.
but again...
that's another post.
what i would do differently
if i planned this trip again, i would:
spend more time near cassis and the coast
give ourselves more than five days
book the calanques boat tour ahead of time
park outside the center of the towns instead of attempting to find the perfect spot
plan around the august heat a little better
perhaps not wear a sweater while walking around provence in summer like an absolute psychopath
leave more room in the itinerary to do nothing
learn more about french culture && the language
i think that's probably my biggest takeaway.
i don't want to see more next time.
i want to experience more.
i used to think traveling meant squeezing as much as humanly possible into every day because who knows when you'll be back.
now i think i would rather see fewer places and actually have time to wander around, sit somewhere too long, order another drink, walk into a shop because it looks interesting and come home knowing what a place felt like, not just what it looked like.
my completely biased provence ranking
if i had to rank the places we visited based purely on our experience:
1. cassis
no contest. the ocean, the town, the shops, the food, the harbor. i wanted more time here immediately.
2. saint-rémy-de-provence
so charming. beautiful shops, beautiful streets and somewhere i wish we'd had another full day to wander.
3. arles
the roman history was incredible and the amphitheater was absolutely worth seeing. it had a completely different feeling from saint-rémy, which i loved.
4. tarascon
it worked really well as our home base and made getting everywhere fairly easy, but if we did the trip again, i would personally choose somewhere with a little more happening around us.
would i go back to provence?
one hundred percent.
but i would do it differently.
i'd stay longer.
i'd spend more time along the coast.
i'd stop trying to squeeze every beautiful village into one trip.
i'd sit at cafés longer.
i'd order another aperol spritz.
i'd take another boat out into the mediterranean.
and i'd probably spend an unreasonable amount of time walking through little french shops.
provence somehow managed to look like all of the photos i'd saved while feeling completely different than i imagined.
because you can't really save the feeling of a place to pinterest.
you can't save the smell of the air.
or the sound of cicadas.
or how it feels driving down a winding road with your family beside you.
or sitting at a table while nobody seems particularly concerned about what time dinner is going to end.
you have to be there.
and i think that's the part of provence i keep missing the most.
xoxo,
s
