France · 1 tour
Quenelles and praline tart in the bouchons of Lyon, then south down the Rhône to Avignon, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Luberon market towns and a last night in Marseille. One eight-day tour with a host who cooked in Lyon.
Market day in Provence
Overview
France has many food capitals, but Lyon has the strongest claim. It sits between the cattle and poultry of Burgundy and Bresse, the lakes and pastures of the Alps and the vineyards of Beaujolais and the Rhône, and its cooking is generous: pork, cream, butter, offal and long lunches. Provence, a few hours south, is the opposite: olive oil, garlic, wild herbs, vegetables and fish.
Our tour follows the Rhône from one to the other, three nights in Lyon, three in Avignon and one in Marseille, with markets nearly every day and wine all the way down. Camille Rey, who trained as a cook in Lyon and whose family comes from near Apt, hosts.
Jump to: tours and prices · places · food seasons · questions
1 tour · prices per person
Lyon · Avignon · Châteauneuf-du-Pape · Luberon · Marseille
WineMarketsCooking
From$4,490per person, double room, most meals
View tour4 places
01
Lyon’s signature restaurant is the bouchon, a small room with checked tablecloths where the silk workers once ate. The menu barely changes: saucisson brioché, salade lyonnaise with lardons and a poached egg, quenelles of pike in crayfish sauce, andouillette, and cervelle de canut, a dip of fromage blanc with herbs and shallot whose name means silk worker’s brain. Wine comes in the pot lyonnais, a heavy 46 cl bottle. Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, the covered market near Part-Dieu, has the city’s best cheese, oysters and charcuterie, and the market on the Croix-Rousse boulevard runs every morning but Monday. Pink praline tart, made with sugared almonds, is the local dessert.
Best monthsMay, June, September and October
Tours that visit Lyon
02
Avignon, the city of the popes in the fourteenth century, is the gateway to the southern Rhône. Its covered market, Les Halles d’Avignon on Place Pie, hides behind a wall of living plants and sells tapenade, fougasse, goat cheese, olives and the season’s vegetables every morning except Monday. Twenty-five minutes north is Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where the popes kept a summer castle and where French wine law began in the 1930s. The vineyards are covered in galets roulés, rounded river stones that store the day’s heat. Thirteen grape varieties are allowed, led by Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, and the reds are among the most powerful in France.
Best monthsMay, June and September
Tours that visit Avignon and Châteauneuf-du-Pape
03
East of Avignon, the Luberon hills are lined with stone villages that take turns holding market day. L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, where the river splits into canals around the old town, has one of the largest Provençal markets on Sunday and a smaller one on Thursday, with antiques along the water. Apt has made candied fruit for centuries, preserving apricots, melons and cherries in sugar syrup. Gordes rises in tiers above the valley, and Cavaillon, on the western edge, gives its name to the region’s melons in summer. Olive oil mills in the area press from November and sell oil under the Provence designation all year, with tastings in the mill shop.
Best monthsMay, June and September
Tours that visit The Luberon market towns
04
Marseille is France’s oldest city and its most Mediterranean. Every morning fishermen sell their catch from trestle tables on the Quai des Belges at the Vieux-Port, and the rockfish they land are what make a real bouillabaisse: rascasse, weever and John Dory cooked in a saffron broth, served first as soup with rouille and croutons, then as fish. In L’Estaque, the old fishing district to the west, panisse, fried sticks of chickpea flour, are sold in paper cones. Navettes, hard boat-shaped biscuits scented with orange blossom, have been baked near the Abbaye Saint-Victor since 1781. A pastis on a terrace finishes the day.
Best monthsMay, June, September and October
Tours that visit Marseille
Ways to go
01
Lyon and Provence: Bouchons, Markets and Rhône Wine spends three nights in Lyon, three in Avignon and one in Marseille. Camille hosts throughout, with a cooking class, two covered markets, a vineyard walk, a Luberon market day and bouillabaisse to finish.
02
Lyon deserves more than three days. Arrive early for the Fourvière hill, the museums and the Saturday markets along the Saône. Lena can book an extra night at the tour hotel so you start day 1 settled.
03
Groups of six or more can run the tour on their own dates, swap the Luberon for the Alpilles or add a night in Marseille. Write to Lena Ortiz in reservations and she plans it with Camille.
What’s included
The tour includes hotels in Lyon, Avignon and Marseille with breakfast, every tasting and the meals listed day by day, a hands-on cooking class, the high-speed train to Avignon, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyard tasting, an olive oil mill, wine for guests 18 and over, airport transfers at group times and Camille or another host.
Not included: flights to the start city, travel insurance, the meals not listed, tips. Alcohol only for guests 18 and over, the legal drinking age in France. Full list
When to go
Our departures run in April, May, June, September and October. Spring brings asparagus, the first strawberries from Carpentras and fresh goat cheese; late June brings the first lavender in the Luberon. July and August are hot, crowded and expensive, and growers are busy in the vines, so we skip them. September is harvest month along the Rhône and the markets are at their fullest, with figs, grapes and melons. October is quieter, with game and mushrooms in Lyon and the first new olive oil at the end of the season.
Before you book
Ask Lena directly
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day, Monday to Friday.
In Lyon, yes: bouchon cooking is pork, offal, cream and butter. Plates are shared on our tour, and the Provence days are much lighter, built on vegetables, olive oil and fish.
By TGV from Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon, about an hour. In Provence we travel by van with a driver, so nobody has to drive after a tasting.
Yes. On day 3 of Lyon and Provence you make pike quenelles, a gratin dauphinois and a pink praline tart in a Lyon cooking school, and eat it for lunch.
Only on the June departure, and only just: the Luberon lavender starts to flower in late June and peaks in July, when we do not run the tour.
Yes, with notice. Lyon is the hardest stop, but every bouchon serves cervelle de canut, gratin and cheese, and Provence is easy.
Yes. Emilia-Romagna: Parmigiano, Prosciutto and Balsamic runs in the same months, and Bologna is a connecting flight of a few hours from Marseille.
More destinations
2 tours · from $165
2 tours · from $175
1 tour · from $4,190
Dates and seats
Tell us which tour, roughly when and how many of you. Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day with dates, seats, the price and how we can handle any dietary needs.
Lena, Grant and Priya, Charleston
SubjectLyon and Provence: Bouchons, Markets and Rhône Wine: dates and seats
Please include
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day. No payment now. A $300 deposit per person holds seats on a multi-day tour; day tours are paid when you book.
Search · 16 food tours in 12 destinations
Or browse all 16 tours, all 12 destinations or current deals.