My first day in the South of France, I spent the June afternoon on a borrowed bike, coursing through olive trees around hilltop villages...

Although Provence is just a few hours' train-ride south of Paris, when you step off the TGV, you encounter the unmistakable sensation of arriving in a different world. The luminous air, dry and fragrant with herbs, ringing with the surround-sound of cicadas--you can't help but agree with the cliché--it really IS like being inside a Van Gogh painting...

After pedaling uphill to the cluster of honey-colored-stone buildings, ahh, the promise of a cold bière-pression in the shade of a café-terrasse...