The Luberon in Provence by Paolo de Paolis

The Luberon is for many the most beautiful part of Provence, the place where picture-perfect, perched villages rise up from the vineyards and cherry orchards, lavender fields and olive groves. Where the clarity of the light has always attracted artists and writers, and the food is enough to turn visitors into life-long residents.

Many of the Luberon's famous villages - like Gordes, Roussillon, Ménerbes, Bonnieux, Lourmarin, Oppède-le-Vieux, Goult and Lacoste - are members of the prestigious 'Most Beautiful Villages of France' association.

The Luberon itself is a mountain and natural park that runs east to west for 40 miles and means you are never truly lost here - just look for the Luberon mountain and you get your bearings.

The Luberon is midway between the Alps and the Pyrénées, Italy and Spain, the Riviera and the Languedoc. So it's an ideal base for discovering the whole Mediterranean region.

The Luberon looks as it does due to invasions, wars and pestilence. Not so much now, more in medieval times. The Luberon and its villages changed hands more times than history can relate. Invading armies queued up to take their turn at pillaging and ravaging. As a result, the inhabitants got a little edgy and holed themselves up in walled-in villages on high ground, often clinging spectacularly to the rock, around the centrepoint of the church and castle.

Successive waves of plague also reinforced the defensive mindset of the villages.

As history calmed down, and peace came, the villagers came down from their strongholds to live on the land they farmed below in the fertile plain. The domaines and mas that they built now dot the landscape and are the desire of many a Parisian and northern European, all following in the footsteps of Peter Mayle, who came here to Ménerbes to renovate a farmhouse and write 'A Year in Provence'.

 

What to see and do in the Luberon

Visit the hilltop, villages perchés of the Luberon: Gordes, Menerbes, Lacoste, Bonnieux, Roussillon, Oppede-le-Vieux. Cycling from one to the other would allow you to gorge yourself at each village and ride off the calories in between.

Go to the daily markets, in different villages every day of the week, and buy fresh produce that actually tastes of something.

The Luberon is splendid walking country. There is the Luberon mountain, the Monts de Vaucluse and Mont Ventoux, and the hill-top villages in between offering convenient stopping points for lunch. There are over 2500 miles of marked walking paths in the Vaucluse region. The "petite randonnée (PR)" are the shorter paths, and "grande randonnée (GR)" the longer walks.

Senanque Abbey, outside Gordes, must be one of the most spectacular and photographed in the world. It's a real, working monastery with guided tours around most of it. The monks live off what they produce: lavender oil, honey and liqueurs.

The ruins of the Marquis de Sade's castle still dominate the village of Lacoste, where his debauched behaviour cast quite a pall over the locals. Lacoste itself is so old but well preserved that it's like walking through a film set.

The disused ochre quarry at Roussillon is a surreal landscape of reds and oranges, and the start of a 15km walk to the similarly spectacular Colorado de Rustrel.

Isle-sur-Sorgue has to be visited on Sunday morning when the antiques market takes over. It's not just antiques, there are bric-à-brac stands too, selling very French things you never knew you needed. Outside of Paris, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is the antiques capital of France.

Fontaine de Vaucluse is too devoted to tourism but nevertheless a very beautiful place, built on the emerald-green Sorgue river. Walk up the river to its source, a mysterious spring from deep in the ground that at certain times of year comes gushing out in vast volumes, and you can forget the row of tourist shops in the centre.

Mont Ventoux is a mountain that always looks white at the top. Usually this is a white shale that covers the barren peak, but in the winter it's snow, and you can go skiing and toboganning at a mini-ski resort. Go all the way to the top (by bicycle if you are fit and want to emulate the Tour de France cyclists), and you catch a stunning view all the way to the Alps and the Mediterranean.

Go for a hike in the Luberon Natural Park. The park stretches over 120,000 ha and has many marked paths all along it. It is a very gentle mountain, more of a big hill, and you can walk to the top in less than 2 hours. Along the way you can chance across wild orchids, and Bonelli's eagles soaring above the cedars.

Go wine-tasting at the vineyards. Luberon wines are fast improving and there are tastings available at every producer. The Rhône wine trail starts at Avignon, and there you can find some truly great wines.

 

Sightseeing just beyond the Luberon

Aix-en-Provenceis a small city of art, fountains and boulevards, great shopping, markets and restaurants. It is busy, but worth it, one of the most pleasant French cities to live in. Just outside Aix is the mountain, Mont Sainte-Victoire, that so obsessed Cézanne that it is the subject of many of his paintings.

Arles was an important hub in Roman times, and today there are very impressive surviving Roman sites, such as the Arena and the Theatre, that are woven into the fabric of the city, rather than standing apart on their own. Arles is also where van Gogh had one of his most productive periods.

Avignon is packed with history and narrow streets winding away inside the medieval city walls. It is small and walkable, full of life and activity, especially in the summer when it hosts the Avignon arts festival.

Les Baux de Provence is an extraordinary, impregnable fortification built on a steep outcrop, with ravines on two sides. However, it is also on every tourist itinerary and the village below the castle is a succession of tourist shops. Best visited out of season.

The calanques are a series of inlets cutting into the coastline between Cassis and Marseille. The colour of the water in the calanques is so spectacular you'd think you were in the Caribbean. Some of them have a tiny harbour and snack bars. You can't drive to the calanques but you can take a boat from Cassis or Marseille, or hike along the cliffs.

Glanum is a very interesting Roman site just south of St Rémy, a former settlement with many buildings sufficiently intact to get a feel for what life would have been like here in Roman times.

The Gorges du Verdon is Provence's answer to the Grand Canyon. It is up to half a mile deep and 14 miles long - it's wildly beautiful, and ideal for outdoor pursuits like hiking, climbing and watersports. The Verdon river runs from Castellane to Rougons.

St. Remy is a town of boulevards and majestic plane trees, cafes and bistros, elegant enough to persuade Princess Caroline to settle here, following in the footsteps of Nostradamus and van Gogh.

 

Newspaper and magazine articles on the Luberon and Provence:

The heart of Peter Mayle country, and there's not a soul to be seen
Isle-sur-Sorgue antiques market
Isle-sur-Sorgue antiques part 2
How Aix captured Cézanne's heart
Aix-en-Provence: my kind of town
The best of Avignon
Avignon visitor's guide
A weekend in Arles
The Provence of Jean de Florette
The Luberon
A tour of the Luberon
The Luberon by bicycle

 

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