Provence Provence Provence (, ; ; "Prouvènço" , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône River to the west to the Italian border to the east, and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative "région" of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and includes the "départements" of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The largest city of the region is Marseille. The Romans made the region the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it "Provincia Romana", which
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence of Basses-Alpes was renamed Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Here is an unflattering excerpt from an article called "Basse Alpes" from the Atlas Larousse published at the beginning of the 20th century: ""Scattered whitish rocks stand out like bones, a thin topsoil where bushes languish, some mountain flowers and stunted trees ... these mountains form almost everywhere a dreadful desert which will not have more inhabitants: this is the Sahara without the sun of Africa, with the snows of Siberia."" (P. Joanne). ""On these steep slopes deforestation and flooding have resulted in a lack of fertile soil and agriculture has been the most miserable.