Provence, from the Alpilles to the Verdon Gorge

From Avignon to the Verdon Gorge

The loop starts in Avignon and crosses three corners of Provence in a week. First the Alpilles. Then the Luberon, its mountain and its hilltop villages on both slopes. Finally, beyond the Durance and the Valensole plateau, the Verdon Gorge. Between the three, the road runs through dry limestone massifs, olive groves and lavender fields. The mistral bends the cypresses flat. The roads are often steep. In summer, you drive early in the morning and stop during the hottest hours.

Avignon has kept its ramparts. In 1309 the papacy left Rome to settle there. Seven popes reigned there in turn until 1377. Two of them, Benedict XII and then Clement VI, had the Palace of the Popes built, one of the largest Gothic buildings in Europe. The Pont Saint-Bénézet, the bridge of the nursery song, stops in the middle of the Rhône: of its twenty-two original arches, four remain. In July the Festival d’Avignon, founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, puts on plays even in the palace’s Cour d’Honneur.

At the furthest point of the loop, past Valensole, the plateau stops dead. The Verdon has cut a canyon some twenty-five kilometres long into the limestone. In places it is seven hundred metres deep. Two roads follow it along the top: the Route des Crêtes on the north side, from La Palud-sur-Verdon, and the Corniche Sublime on the south. Édouard-Alfred Martel made the first complete exploration of the gorge in 1905. At Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a golden star hangs from a chain strung between two cliffs; legend says it was the vow of a knight home from the Crusades. To the west, the canyon opens onto the Lac de Sainte-Croix, created by a dam in the 1970s. Its water is turquoise.

At Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, the Roman ruins of Glanum almost touch the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Van Gogh went there for treatment in 1889. In the space of a year he painted nearly a hundred and fifty canvases there.

The Luberon, its villages and its ochres

Gordes, Roussillon, Ménerbes, Bonnieux and Lacoste each sit on a hill, and from one, you can often see the others. Roussillon is built on one of the largest ochre deposits in Europe. Its façades show every shade of it, from pale yellow to dark red. Further east, the old quarries of Rustrel, the Colorado provençal, show the same earth laid bare.

Below Gordes, the Abbey of Sénanque was founded in 1148 by Cistercian monks. A community still lives there. In front of the church, a lavender field flowers from mid-June to mid-July.

What not to miss

1. 1The Palace of the PopesThe papal apartments and the frescoes of Matteo Giovannetti, Clement VI’s painter.
2. 2Les Baux-de-ProvenceThe ruined citadel and, below it, the Carrières des Lumières, a former quarry turned into a venue for immersive exhibitions.
3. 3ArlesThe Roman arena, the cloister of Saint-Trophime and the banks of the Rhône that Van Gogh painted.
4. 4The Sentier des OcresAt Roussillon, a short walking loop between red cliffs and pines.
5. 5The Fontaine de VaucluseThe spring where the Sorgue rises, at the foot of a sheer cliff — spectacular in winter and spring.
6. 6The Point SublimeThe Verdon’s most famous viewpoint, a few minutes’ walk from the road.

Provence in pictures

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Roussillon, built on the ochres.

The Provençal table

The market at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, on Sunday mornings, lines its stalls along the canals, beside the antique dealers: fruit from the Durance, olives, goat’s cheeses and, in summer, Cavaillon melons.

Olive oil from the Vallée des Baux has its own appellation. Winter is the season of the black truffle, and Carpentras holds its market on Friday mornings. And at aperitif time, on every table, tapenade, anchoïade and a Luberon rosé.