AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE -- As France's most celebrated operatic diva since Régine Crespin, Natalie Dessay stands as a national treasure that even artistic missteps barely tarnish. Most singers of her stature obsess over whether roles correctly fit their voice and temperament, but Ms. Dessay has an apparent insouciance that lets her pursue roles...

WHEN you're brushing up your French, here's one word to skip in Aix-en-Provence: vitesse. It means speed, and you won't find much of it in the sun-drenched and easygoing hometown of Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola. Like a portrait of laid-back leisure, museumgoers and market shoppers amble through lanes where venerable fountains cast their lazy...

Squinting into the sun, Olivier Sumeire pointed to where his vineyard stretches across the Vallée de l'Arc in the direction of Montagne Ste.-Victoire. The gray limestone mass looms beyond his children's backyard play set, rising out of the olive trees and pines. It happens that Cézanne painted nearly the same view. In 1870, in what has sometimes...
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