LGBTQ+ Cultural Tour of France: Paris, the Riviera and Provence

Days 1-3: Paris

Your base is the Marais, the historic heart of LGBTQ+ Paris. The bars and restaurants are the obvious draw, but the area rewards slower exploration: the Archives Nationales, the Picasso Museum, the medieval streets that survived Haussmann’s transformation of the city.

The most important address on this itinerary is 20 Rue Jacob, home of Natalie Barney, an American writer who ran the most influential literary salon in Paris from 1909 until the 1960s. The figures who passed through her garden read like a roll call of early 20th century culture: Gertrude Stein, Colette, Oscar Wilde’s circle, Romaine Brooks, and dozens of others.

Barney was openly lesbian at a time when that required real courage, and her salon was one of the few places in the world where queer artists could gather without pretense. The building still stands.

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived at 27 Rue de Fleurus for decades, their walls covered with work by Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne, many of whom Stein supported before they were famous. Père Lachaise is worth a morning: Oscar Wilde’s tomb, designed by Jacob Epstein, is one of the most visited graves in the world. Wilde died in Paris in 1900, broken financially but still writing.

Day 4: Arles

A morning train south brings you to Arles, a compact Roman city where Van Gogh produced some of his most recognisable work. He arrived in 1888 and painted obsessively: sunflowers, café terraces, the night sky over the Rhone. The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles holds a serious permanent collection and the Roman amphitheater is still in use for performances in summer.

Days 5-8: The French Riviera

Your base is Nice, well-positioned for day trips along the coast and into the hills. The Chapelle Saint-Pierre in Villefranche-sur-Mer, decorated by Jean Cocteau in 1957, is the first stop: walls and ceiling covered in his distinctive line drawings, threaded with queer symbolism that rewards attention.

James Baldwin lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence for the last seventeen years of his life, writing and receiving visitors in a village that accepted him without fuss. France gave him a freedom he couldn’t find in America. The café where he spent his mornings still operates.

The Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, designed by Matisse between 1948 and 1951 and considered the masterpiece of his life, is worth an afternoon. The interior is white, lit by stained glass in yellow, green, and blue, and the effect on a sunny morning is unlike anything else in France.

On your final morning your driver transfers you to Nice airport for your return flight.