Several years ago, as a family we spent two enjoyable consecutive summer holidays in a house at the foot of the hill below St Paul, a walled village in the Alpes-Maritime region of Provence. We have fond memories of those holidays, so we looked forward visiting again for old time's sake.

Outside of the village walls, is a hotel and restaurant known as Colombe' d'Or. The restaurant was opened in 1920 at around the time that many artist congregated at St Paul for inspiration. The owner, Paul Roux was an art lover and would often take a painting in lieu of payment. Artists such as Marc Chagall, Picasso, Braque, and Miró were all patrons and today the Colombe d'Or has one of the greatest collections of 20th century art. Bill Wyman of the Rolling stones, an artist of a different kind, still has a house there. Today, the village is choc full of art galleries selling serious modern art. If you have a wall space to fill, there are few better places to shop.

The village itself has one main street from one end to the other, which takes about 5 minutes to cover, one street that passes around the inside of the ramparts, and lots of small streets, all cobbled and car free. Apparently, while the village is much older, the ramparts were only built on the orders of François I in 1537, which led to the destruction of 100 houses, which bearing in mind how small the village is, must have evicted a very large percentage of the population.