During our recent trip we stayed in Aix en Provence as our home base and drove to other villages in the area mostly in the Luberon region.  A forty five minute drive south form Aix is the lovely village of Cassis, which is absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine in the high summer season how crowed it must get there!  We spent time sketching, walking around and then took a boat tour of les calanques, which are the limestone cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea that connect Marsailles to Cassis.  The water is the most gorgeous turquoise, which photos never do justice to illustrate.