Breath-takingly beautiful, the Vaucluse department, one of five districts in Provence, is a perfect place to enjoy the culture, cuisine and countryside of Provencal southern France…
Picturesque villages perched atop green hills with winding little streets filled with mellow stone villas and pastel coloured shutters are plentiful. Any place that is awash with artists’ studios, quirky and quaint little shops and delicious patisseries, fromageries (cheese shops) and boulangeries is alright with me. Sunlit luxury, spectacular scenery with vineyards and orchards, fields of lavender and sunflowers plus a fascinating landscape that is punctuated by mountains, lakes and pastures of vibrant colour and forests. This is Vaucluse in Provence.
It isn’t just a holiday dream destination though, it’s a real place where people live and work. It has a wild side too, dramatic cliffs and the Luberon mountains, a varied wildlife and vast areas where you can drive for miles without encountering another human being.
It’s the contrast between the cultured, the colourful and the authentic that makes this place so very special.
Author Peter Mayle helped to make the area famous with his books “A year in Provence” and “A Good Year”. The latter was made into a film directed by Ridley Scott who incidentally had a house here, and visitors won’t fail to recognise the lovely villages from Mayle’s stories. Filming took place in towns such as Gordes and Bonnieux in Vaucluse and I promise you, they are just as you imagine, and it’s such a thrill to discover that for once, the hype lives up to the reality.