Provence is famous for its summer heat. But more than once, I’ve arrived in season to a cool wind blowing through the olive trees—the mysterious tramontane breeze from the North—or been nearly knocked over by the notorious Provençal mistral, a cold, often violent Mediterranean air current.

This mountainous corner of southern France is renowned not only for its moody gusts, but also for fields of olive trees, lavender bushes and grapevines, along with the Post-Impressionist artists who made these landscapes famous. Lately, the area has also become known for celebrities like George Clooney and Brad Pitt, both of whom reportedly own vineyards here. And this summer, the coastal city of Marseille will play host to several Olympic events as well as the Tour de France.

But in the late Middle Ages, Provence was known as the center of French Jewish life, thanks largely to the Catholic authorities who moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon from 1309 to 1377. The Avignon popes protected Provençal Jews, allowing a community to flourish in that city and the surrounding villages, even as Jews suffered expulsions and persecution in the neighboring Kingdom of France.

I came to Provence to explore that heritage in its medieval core, an area roughly bordered by the rivers Rhône to the west and Var to the east, stretching south to the Mediterranean Sea. (Following an administrative reorganization, the historic territory of Provence now lies at the heart of the modern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, which stretches all the way to the Italian border.)   

Punctuated by limestone massifs, including Mont Sainte-Victoire, the peak immortalized in the paintings of native son Paul Cézanne, the Rhône Valley is the heart of historic Provence. I found a vibrant Jewish community of a few thousand in the university town of Aix-en-Provence and some of France’s oldest (and prettiest) synagogues in Avignon, Arles, Cavaillon and Carpentras.

Les juifs du pape, as local Jews were known in the 14th century, spoke a Judeo-Provençal dialect and traced their origins in the region to the first centuries of the Common Era. They were lucky that Provence was not yet a part of France in 1394, when French King Charles VI expelled the Jews. His order was only the latest in the swirl of harsh and restrictive anti-Jewish measures that emanated from the Medieval Inquisition and its Catholicizing mandate.

The Popes’ Jews were permitted to settle in four towns—Avignon and its satellites Cavaillon, Carpentras and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue—that became known as the Arba Kehilot, or four holy communities. At its peak in the mid-1300s, the Provençal Jewish population numbered about 15,000.

But while generations enjoyed relative peace and integration, anti-Jewish sentiment rose after Provence became part of France in 1481. A wave of exiled Spanish Jews sought refuge in the region in 1492, only to be caught up in King Louis XII’s expulsion of the Jews from Provence around 1500.

Jewish life essentially went on pause for centuries, not only in Provence, but throughout France. Jews began trickling back into the country in the 17th and 18th centuries, benefiting from Enlightenment ideas that led to their full legal incorporation into French life in 1831.

By then, Jewish communities had been re-established in Marseille and Avignon—but opportunity beckoned in the more prosperous North, and Paris, not Provence, became the dominant center of French Jewish cultural life.

After World War II, immigration to Israel was offset somewhat by an influx of Jews to France from former French colonies across the Mediterranean, namely Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, the North African region known as the Maghreb.

Marseille, the region’s major city, is a bustling, multiethnic port and has France’s second-largest Jewish community after Paris. The roughly 80,000 individuals, or 10 percent of the city’s population, support dozens of synagogues. With another 30 percent of locals having Arab origins—largely, like the Jews, hailing from the Maghreb—the metropolis features distinct North African flavors that overlap between Jewish and Muslim communities.

Some of those flavors are found in the egg and tomato dish shakshuka, which, before it defined Israeli cooking, originated among North Africans. Its aromatic profile—thanks to spices like harissa and cumin—is typical of the cuisine shared by Arab and Jewish residents and is found on many local menus.

But Jewish history is more evocative inland. Driving along the Rhône from Carpentras to Avignon, the fabled bridge of the French children’s song, “Sur le Pont d’Avignon,” comes into view across the river. Fortress walls encircle Avignon, where, inside, the transformative imprint of 14th-century papal wealth remains evident in boulevards of monumental scale, myriad churches and the magnificent Palais des Papes.

Rue de la Vieille Juiverie—“Street of the Old Jewish Quarter”—runs alongside the papal palace complex, revealing the literal as well as figurative proximity of medieval Jews to Catholic power. French popes relied on Jewish tailors, bookbinders and other trusted professionals, who in turn worshiped at the neighboring synagogue.

If nearby Aix-en-Provence looks familiar, it might be because the city and its surrounding mountains were a favorite subject of the Post-Impressionist painter Cézanne, whose house museum opens to the public this summer. Across Provence this year, art venues are celebrating the 150th anniversary of France’s Impressionist movement.

Aix-en-Provence’s other artistic giant was the influential 20th-century composer Darius Milhaud, whose family laid the cornerstone for the city’s modern synagogue. Before he became an important figure at the Paris Conservatory and a mentor to experimental Jewish composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, the Marseille-born Milhaud was the scion of a family whose Jewish Provençal roots date to Roman times.

In the surrounding countryside, I discovered the oldest functioning synagogue in France. Tucked into the Roman-era enclave of Carpentras, this sanctuary was authorized by a papal nephew in 1343 and still has a small congregation of fewer than 200.

That such tiny communities continue to exist amid the fields and vineyards of southern France, far from the urban scrum of Paris or Marseille, is testament to how—despite increasing antisemitism that is driving a growing number of French Jews to immigrate to Israel—Jewish life is as enduring a feature of Provence as the sunshine, the lavender and those gusty winds. 

Provence is a sunny, laid-back slice of France. But because of the Olympics, the region expects record crowds this year, both on the roads—the area is best visited by car—and in the museums. The coastline is jammed with Hamptons-style traffic in summer, while festivals create logjams in cultural centers like Aix-en-Provence and Avignon.

Aix, as locals call it, and pronounced “X,” is the lively gateway to this region. Art fans will enjoy walking in Paul Cézanne’s footsteps on a trail that links his studio to his family home, Bastide du Jas de Bouffan. The Darius Milhaud Cultural Center, on Rue Jérusalem, anchors a complex that includes the Synagogue of Aix-en-Provence, which is popular with tourists for its quintessentially Provençal pink-and-gold interior, and with locals for its daily minyan and kosher restaurant, Chez Johanna.

Arles, along the southern Rhône, is a charming town that inspired 19th-century painters like Vincent van Gogh, who painted his second Sunflowers series here. Alas, its historic synagogue has closed, but there’s still much to encounter here. Pop into the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles to see a few of the master’s paintings, excellent rotating exhibits and a view over Arles from the museum’s roof deck.

It’s thrilling to walk through the entrance arches of Avignon—and that’s your only option in the city, which is walled off from car traffic. The few nearby garages fill up early, leaving latecomers to park across the Rhône and shuttle into town. Avignon’s lively scene is best observed from the brasseries of tree-lined Place de l’Horloge. The nearby Avignon synagogue, tucked into a side street off Place Jérusalem, was rebuilt after an 1840s fire. Its nondescript façade makes it hard to find, but inside is a distinctive circular sanctuary featuring walnut accents and a spiral staircase.

Avignon’s satellite communities of Carpentras, Cavaillon and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue are each worth a visit for their papal-era synagogues, small-town French feel and weekly outdoor markets (Cavaillon’s is famous for its melons).

The 18th-century Cavaillon synagogue, on Rue Hébraïque, is more baroque than the one in Carpentras, with its Barbie-pink walls and blue-and-gold filigree. While there is no longer a congregation, visitors can enjoy its historical museum, with vintage photos of Provençal Jewish life and a bygone matzah bakery.

On a pleasant square, the nondescript exterior of Carpentras’ circa-1367 synagogue belies a turquoise jewel-box of a sanctuary built in the style of Louis XV. After 21st-century restorations funded by the World Monuments Fund and the local municipality, the grand interior features a sky-blue domed ceiling, cut-glass chandeliers and rose marble accents. Its small congregation maintains a nearby cemetery from the same era.

Along with Carpentras and Cavaillon, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue completes metropolitan Avignon’s Arba Kehilot, the four holy communities to which Jews were restricted in the post-papal period. Crisscrossed by canals and footbridges, L’Isle is the most charming of these three villages and is seeking UNESCO World Heritage status to enable ongoing restoration of its historic Jewish quarter, which includes a defunct synagogue and several residences. A well-preserved Jewish cemetery is just outside town.

---

Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.