347 miles: one week

Fly into 1 Nice (easyjet.com, from £70 return) and hire a car (easycar.com). The city has art galleries galore, but be sure not to miss the free Musée Matisse on Cimiez hill. Dine at the rooftop Terrasse restaurant ) for views over the bay.

A couple of hours' along the coast, 2 Marseille is France's edgiest art city, and the 2013 European Capital of Culture. The Musée des Beaux Arts reopens in June. The refurbished Vieux Port area has lively bars and restaurants. Download a walking tour app from GPSmyCity.com.

The spirit of Paul Cézanne is everywhere in laid-back 3 Aix-en-Provence, 20 miles to the north. Highlights here are his studio and house and the Musée Granet . If you're staying longer, do the Cézanne trail from the tourist office or try climbing his beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire (allow two hours).

Just an hour to the west, the city of 4 Arles is all about Vincent van Gogh. Pick up a map of places to visit at the tourist office. To soak up his Cafe Terrace at Night scene (c1888), try the Grand Hotel Nord-Pinus on the Place du Forum. Nearby is the Saint Paul Asylum at Mausole, where he painted 150 works before he died. L'Hotel de L'Amphitheatre (, from £79) is a central, good value place to stay. 5 Albi, the birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (born 1864), is a further three or so hours west, with a brick cathedral founded 1282. Next door is the newly reopened Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in the 13th-century Palais de la Berbie, which was once a bishop's palace.

Then head for 6 Toulouse, a pleasant hour's drive south-west through the fertile Tarn region. The centre point of Toulouse is the Romanesque Basilique St-Sernin, dating from 1215. The ceiling of the church, in the heart of France's "pink city", inspired Salvador Dali's Santiago el Grande painting.

Fly home from Toulouse.