I am thinking of taking my mom on a culinary tour of Provence for her birthday. We will be traveling there from Milan, Italy. Is anyone familiar with the best locations, travel methods, where to base ourselves, etc.?

If you are very well financed you could treat your mother to 4 days of culinary education at Patricia Wells' home in Vaison La Romaine. She's the highly regarded food writer and restaurant critic of the International Herald Tribune. This involves cooking, but isn't limited to that, I'm quite sure, as Patricia is regarded even by the French as an expert in all that's French food.

A friend of mine who is a food writer has always told me I should attend a week with Georgeanne Brennan at her home in Provence. She does a week called "culinary vacation", and her website is www.georgeannebrennan.com It looks like a good time!

I imagine her prices are a bit less than Patricia Wells'.

Is it cooking that you're interested in or just sampling some of the best regional restaurants?

And our PBProvence Patricia does a culinary week.

Well, I wasn't going to post, but at the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion, here's the link for PBProvence's (and my) culinary week:

www.amoveablefeast.net

PB will also arrange cooking lessons and tours on her own.

I really wish I could do it--looks terrific.
I am taking a bistro cooking class at Johnson&Wales in November however.

Well...I'm not THAT well-financed. Having looked at these sites, let me restate my question. Is there a good location within Provence to base ourselves to 1)enjoy some of the local fare, 2) take a few independent cooking classes (if so, where), 3) visit markets, etc.? What else is there to do in that region if you're not involved in one of these week-long cooking schools? I was planning on something more like 4 days long and moderately priced. But thanks for the great sites- one day!

We would like to do a 1 day cooking school in April. Our ship arrives in Marseilles, and we would like to do this for the day. Please advise if there are 1 day schools, and then get us back to the ship. [email protected]

Google can be YOUR friend also.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...+cooking+class