"Living and working in Provence is all about simplicity in the things that should be simple. First, it’s simply beautiful here. The bleached calanques cliffs plunge into pure azure sea. Towns large and small that look forgotten by time, if not by tourists. And you’ve doubtless seen pictures of those famous fields of lavender. But wait until you smell them. This little hidden gem of the world has quietly inspired great art from Cezanne to Picasso, literature from Alexander Dumas to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and films from Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief to Luc Besson’s Taxi. But it’s far less known that today, certain corners of Provence are also burgeoning little oases of tech innovation. Componize is a leading company among a new handful of tech startups doing some exciting things. I sometimes think it’s like a mini-Silicon Valley, (but with French-wine happy hours). We work hard and are accomplishing real things in the real world with real impact: we’re serving the makers of some of the world’s best computer chips and world’s largest learning and training company, among many others.

(And for those of you unfamiliar with (or fearful of) the French language – you should know that in the last decade, there’s been a significant expansion of the English language here. So while not all the French are happy about that trend, it certainly makes living and working in France far easier for English speakers. And at Componize, we speak English in the office).

Every aspect of life here – from the personal to the professional – is an adventure. I’m enjoying bit of it, bite by sun-soaked bite."