BEAUTY IN THE BACK OF BEYOND ; In his first feature in a two-part special on France, Jonathan Gregson heads to a corner of Provence where life is traditional, with few second-homers, yet still with those vivid colours that inspired Peter Mayle

Summary

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EVER stared at those iconic images of lavender fields in Provence - geometrically curving lines of vivid colour interspersed by sunbaked earth under a piercingly blue sky - and just wanted to be transported there? Well, now is the best time to go. Peak lavender season normally runs from July through to mid-August. But this year a damp spring was followed by an early hot spell (what the French call a canicule or the "dog days"), so the lavender should be at its most resplendent sooner rather than later.

While lavender is grown across a broad swathe of upland Provence, my favourite region is the Pays de Forcalquier, in the department of Alpes de Haute-Provence. Not just because the stripy fields undulate so enticingly across the hilly landscape, making this glorious walking country. Nor because this is home to some stunning hilltop villages. But rather because this subAlpine corner of Provence remains what urbanised Frenchmen refer to disparagingly as L'arriere Pays - the back-of-beyond.

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BEAUTY IN THE BACK OF BEYOND ; In his first feature in a two-part special on France, Jonathan Gregson heads to a corner of Provence where life is traditional, with few second-homers, yet still with those vivid colours that inspired Peter Mayle

What this means in practice is that all the villages have not been gentrified to the hilt, every mas or farmhouse turned into an occasionally-occupied second home, and that on entering the village cafe you're more likely to bump into a farmer (possibly even a lavender grower) than an...

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