The southeastern region of Provence has some of France's most dramatic terrain, as wooded hills and green valleys alternate with fertile, sun-scorched Mediterranean terrain and steep white cliffs dipping to eggshell-blue sea. The human history of the area is equally rich: stone tools found here date to a million years BC, and Provence has been, at various points across history, a Roman stronghold, a redoubt of early-Christian Gnostic heresy and the seat of a breakaway papacy. Today, fruit orchards, red-roofed towns, chirping cicadas and lavender-scented breezes send one clear message: welcome to the South.