It's Not Just Sunshine and Lavender: A Brilliant Day Trip in the Luberon

“Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

The day we visited the Luberon the weather was perfect, as was the company. In the days that have passed since our Luberon day trip my mind has returned again and again to the memories of delightful day. Lovely Michelle picked us up and gave us the run down of what we would be seeing, which was brilliant as it covered all of our wish list plus plenty more that we would not have known to look for.



The only change in plans that we requested was to skip the tour of the Lavender Museum. I have always reacted badly to lavender and thought it best to avoid a room packed with lavender bags and essential oils.

Getting our of Avignon was a driving effort that we were glad to have avoided as we sat back and enjoyed the ride. The first stop was Fontaine de Vaucluse, a lovely village where the river Sorgue emerges from a spring to flow idyllically through the town. It was very quite at 11am as everyone else was visiting the market at Roussillon, being a Thursday morning, and we have seen a few markets and expect to see a few more over our weeks in France. 

After we left Fontaine de Vaucluse we visited a vantage point near Gault to take in the million dollar views. We called it that as every celebrity and their friends apparently lives in Gault. Michelle told us the view of Gault far outstrips Gault itself and as we drove through we quite agreed with her.

We also were able to see a number of Bories, little dry stone cottages that people have lived in the area going back to prehistoric times that have been rebuilt and reused by successive generations. Emma has been studying early housing at school this year, her class even built a thatched, wattle and daub hut this term, so it was great to be able to show Emma how people built their dwellings from what was easily available to them. There were stones everywhere in the Luberon, used in housing and dry stone walls along many roads so they certainly have been put to good use.

Our next stop was Gordes and if you have seen the movie A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe the main square of the town will be familiar to you. In fact if you are unfamiliar with the Luberon this is the movie to see, but take care the travel bug will certainly bite hard if you become acquainted with the area, as I hope our photos do justice to.

We particularly enjoyed our visit to the church, which was painted throughout and had a number of saints statues that the children really enjoyed looking at and of course there was the usual request to light a candle, a good way of making church visits more interesting.

Michelle recommended that we have lunch at a café called Marianna, and it was a delight. We enjoyed trying each other’s delicious salads, pastas and desserts. You can certainly eat some beautiful food in France. We have really taken to having our main meal at lunch time and something light in the evening.

Our next stop was the Abbaye de Senanque to see the lavender. We were aware that visiting during the last week of June we would have to cross our fingers in hope of seeing the lavender in all its glory. The first place we saw lavender fields was here at the Abbaye, but the fields were not at their best. We didn't visit the Abbaye, just stopping for a quick photo opportunity.

We were much luckier no long after when we found glorious fields of lavender on the route from Senanque to Roussillon. Here the kids ran around and played up for the camera. Rob stepped on one of the multitudes of bees and was stung and I had to jump back in the car when the itching from the lavender got to be too much.

While saying that, it was just glorious, all things considered, to be standing in a field of perfect blue purple lavender, exactly as you imagine it would be.

Roussillon was a town completely different from the others we have seen. While still perched atop a hill, this time the hills are ochre and the ochre has been used to wonderful effect in the village.

Roussillon was not crowded as the market was long finished and so we could wander the streets and the kids could enjoy glacés in peace. We found it to be a town where everywhere  you look you find a stunning view, set off perfectly by the colour of the town itself.

While I’m not someone who enjoys shopping, especially as shopping means more to carry and we have way too much stuff to carry as it I, at Michelle’s suggestion I had a look at a shop selling ceramics. This was not your usual bowls and plates but instead beautiful pieces, such as two discs I bought to hang in my kitchen, that are little works of art, and I could decide between the two. The elderly artist, Edith Fidler and her husband Eugene, now deceased, were friends of Picasso many years ago.

After Roussillon Michelle suggested to Julian that we go and visit a bridge older than the Pont du Gard which bears his name. And so we drove across to the Pont Julien, which allowed us to take in more of the lovely Luberon scenery.

This bridge, dating to 3BC, was part of an important Roman road leading to Rome, as all important roads do so they say. We discovered it was named after the local Roman town of Apta Julien, now simply called Apt, but we didn't tell Julian this and so he considered it his bridge.

And so we piled ourselves back into the car for the trip back to Avignon. Michelle was very complimentary regarding the beautifully behaved kids in the back. They love riding in the very back row of seats in this type of car, while Rob and I had the middle row. We really didn't hear much out of them all day but they claim to have had a great time.

It was sad to say goodbye to Michelle, another of the special people we have been privileged to meet on this journey.

We decided to get a quick bite to eat and an early night once we arrived back in Avignon. We were spoiled to hear a lady with the voice of an angel singing opera in the place directly in front of the Papal Palace and so we decided to eat in the café right that would allow us to continue to listen as we watched.

Sadly her performance soon ended and the meal was the worst that I can remember in all of our travels. However in light of the perfect day we had enjoyed and the delightful music we were treated to, the sun went down on a day well worth remembering for the good things alone. Of course we left feeling that we had simply dipped our toe in a very small part of this special corner of the world and agree that we must return one day for a much longer period to truly explore and get a proper taste of the Luberon.