Provence
Provence is a mix between France and Tuscany for the most part. It's hot, dry and has lots of vines and olives. It originally was the Roman Province after they conquered the Gauls who lived there. Provence is littered with Roman ruins and old medieval hill towns. We used Avignon as our base per Rick Steves suggestion (he says Avignon or Arles, both of which I disagree).
Our flight from The Netherlands however, came into Marseille on the coast which has more in common with north Africa than France. I think I'd have to spend more time there to make a judgement on if it's worth the time but the Arab markets were nice and the African food was too. The rest was meh.
We focused on 4 cities in Provence - Avignon the home of the papal palace for 100 years, Nimes which is a very pretty old Roman city with an amphitheater, Arles which is a very grungy old city with an amphitheater and Orange which is a slightly less grungy old Roman city with a theater. Ill sur la Sorge is a small village 20 minutes outside of Avignon which we day tripped for the Sunday market.
On a previous trip I spent time in Aix en Provence and my feeling is that if I had to choose between Aix, Marseille, Avignon, Arles, Orange or Nimes as my Provencal base in the future I'd choose Nimes without hesitation.