This Stylish Flat in Avignon, France, Kept Me Cozy During the Offseason

Traveling during the mistral is no easy feat. The notoriously cold and relentlessly fierce northwesterly wind that blows from France’s heartland into the Mediterranean Sea can reach up to 20 miles per hour, last for several days (the record is 65 hours straight), and buffet everything in its path when it peaks in the winter and spring. Knowing that, you might wonder: Who in their right mind goes to the South of France in November? Me, that’s who. As Condé Nast Traveler’s self-appointed France correspondent, I took it upon myself last year to head to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region and report on the joys of going in the offseason. I had hoped to spend sunny, crowdless days exploring the area’s hot spots: the wine cellars of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the painter Cézanne’s old atelier in Aix-en-Provence, and the harbor restaurants of Marseilles. But then I got off the high-speed train at Avignon, my home base for the week, and the mistral knocked me off my feet and forced me back indoors. “Going out?” the mistral said, laughing. “I think not.” And so I spent most of my five nights in town staying at home in the cozy embrace of one of my new favorite Airbnbs in