Provencal - Settlements

Roughly 65 percent of the population of Provence is concentrated in the urban areas surrounding Avignon in the Vaucluse, in Marseille, and on the Côte d'Azur. The remaining 35 percent of the population lives in villages scattered throughout the region. In the middle of the nineteenth Century, the population of the hinterland of Provence began to decline as people migrated to the coastal areas in search of employment in a developing industrial and commercial Economy. The inhabitants of rural Provence live together in nucleated villages that are surrounded by fields worked by local farmers and agricultural laborers. Older houses in Provence are constructed of stone and covered by red roof tiles, while more recent dwellings are made of brick and stucco and are also covered by red roof tiles.