Gordes & Roussillon.
Two of Provence’s prettiest villages.
Having spent the weekend exploring parts of Provence at sea or river level, on Jour 5 we decided to head to Provence’s mountain areas. Provence is blessed to have a beautifully varied landscape. As well as its world-famous coastal areas like Les Calanques and Cote d’Azur it also has several impressive mountain ranges to choose from. We set off for the Monts de Vaucluse (The Vaucluse Mountains) and Les Massif du Luberon (The Luberon Massif — a French word for mountain range). These ranges of the French Pre-alps climb to a maximum height of 1,256m (4,121ft) and are home to some of the most beautiful villages in not just Provence, but all of France.
Travelling eastwards away from the Rhone, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves driving in the Calavon Valley, home to the Calavon River (which flows downhill into the Durance and empties into the Rhone at Avignon). Alpine foothills and cedar trees surrounded us on all sides as we continued through the heart of Provence’s mountain region; The Monts du Vaucluse and Mont Ventoux were on our left, with Grand Luberon up ahead of us and the wider Massif du Luberon further to our right.
The aim for our day was to spend time in two of Provence’s prettiest villages, heading to Gordes for the morning before going to Roussillon in the afternoon.
Gordes
Sitting high up on the southern slopes of the Monts de Vaucluse, Gordes is one of Provence’s best-looking villages and is recognised for this officially as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the most beautiful villages in France). Gordes is a typical example of a “village perché”, or hilltop village, and is also representative of a traditional, rural Provence. Stone is everywhere here, with stone masonry being a historical cultural skill that was used to shape the landscape. Perched at a height of 340m, the village itself is set upon an acropolis of rock that looks like it’s from an Ancient Greek movie set, with the golden stone protruding out from the mountain and the sun passing overhead.
History
Gordes has been a seat of wealth and power throughout its history, with its mighty Chateau sitting at the highest and most central point of the village. The chateau is one of the jewels of the village and has been listed as a Historical Monument since 1931. A former medieval fortress, it is made up of three parts that result from successive extensions over the centuries. The only remaining part of what was a mighty building in the 12th century is the tower on the east side of the building. In the 14th century, insecurity and disorder in the region caused the original fortification to be enlarged and rebuilt in the Renaissance style. When we visited there was a great art exhibition explaining the history of the village, which was in both French and English.
After the death of King Rene in 1481, Provence was incorporated into the wider Kingdom of France as a royal province, although Gordes was home to a resistance that strongly opposed French centralism, a claim which it would later pay heavily for. From the early 18th century to the mid-19th century the village had 3,000 inhabitants, but the effects of a dying economy led to a rapid decline in the population, with less than 1,000 inhabitants at the end of the Second World War.
Depopulation, the ruin of the village and the increasing poverty of the inhabitants who stayed behind marked a painful break with the past. Before the Second World War, Gordes was a ghost village offering the distressing image of a heap of ruins. Gordes’ passion for independence was repeated during the Second World War, with Gordes later receiving the Croix de Guerre medal for its role as an active resistance village.
Gordes’ houses, and even its new buildings, are built using a variant of the dry-stone technique typical of this part of Provence. Stones also pave Gordes’ steep and narrow, arcaded alleys, known locally as calades, pictured below. These narrow corridors thread their way between the buildings, and as you wander and explore you often find new viewpoints of the Luberon Mountains on the opposite side of the wide plain of the Calavon valley (above).
After the destruction of World War II, Gordes began to attract many artists attracted and inspired by the ruins, the isolated site, the landscape and the light. Large numbers of neo-romantics came to stay or settle in Gordes between 1940 and 1970, and with them, they brought about the revival of the village. Today, after less than 50 years, the population has risen to over 2,000 with many living in its small hamlets dotted across the hills, and it welcomes many more tourists during the peak summer season.
The Senanque Abbey
About a 10-minute drive from Gordes is the phenomenal Abbeye Notre Dame de Senanque. This mediaeval Cistercian Abbey is hidden in a remote valley of lavender fields just outside Gordes and is one of the most instantly recognisable images of Provence. We spent about two hours here, strolling through the fields surrounding the abbey and admiring the vivid purple of the lavender, the luscious green of the trees, and the soft grey of the stone.
The abbey itself was established on the Sénancole River in 1148 and took over a century to build. At first, it prospered, perhaps a little too much given its ideals of isolation, as it was destroyed during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century. It was then sold after the French Revolution and acquired by Lérins, a Cistercian abbey based on an island off the coast of Cannes. After this, the Monks returned and then left again, with Sénanque temporarily becoming a cultural centre in 1969, during which the famous lavender was planted. The current small community of monks (there are only six monks as of 2019) has lived there since 1988. Their Abbot is based in Lérins and today Sénanque is technically a priory rather than a full-fledged abbey.
Roussillon
After lunch headed out across the Calavon Valley, ascending up into the Massif du Luberon to Roussillon. Located 10km (6 miles) east of Gordes, Roussillon is a very different village although also recognised as a Plus Beaux Village de France (most beautiful villages in France). It sits on the western edge of Luberon’s Ochre region, providing the russet-red rocks that the village is famous for. The sudden explosion in colour is unexpected, with pines and oaks providing a green offset to the redness underneath. The Ochre comes from iron oxide deposits that sit in the sandy soil and were deposited millions of years ago when Provence was still underwater.
One of the villagers took advantage of this geological phenomenon in the late 18th century. Jean-Étienne Astier studied the properties of the ochre and established an industrial mine that extracted it from the sand. Although all but one of the original mines have now closed ochre is still essential to the village, becoming the cornerstone of Roussillon’s bustling tourist industry. Now the second most popular village in the area (after Gordes), the red rocks and the cute village are a must-see when visiting Provence.
Sadly the village is a little short when it comes to historic sites, it is well stocked when it comes to shops and cafes, with many lining the lower streets selling artwork, boutique jewellery, pottery, and other local items (photos on the below left). The Place de la Mairie (town hall square) is the main hub of activity in the lower part, with the upper part of the village being much quieter and more picturesque for photographs of its pretty streets and alleyways (photo on the below right). Also in the part of the village are the traditional provençal church and bell tower, and the 17th and 18th-century houses, all painted in all the local ochre shades from soft gold to deep, rich red.
Roussillon’s main tourist attraction is the Sentier des Ocres (Ochre trail), a short and easy hiking trail through a former ochre quarry and the woods surrounding the village. The path is easy to get to and well-maintained, with steps and handrails throughout. You can choose between a shorter trail of about 1.5km (30m), or 3km (60m), with both providing beautiful vistas of Mont Ventoux and the Monts du Vaucluse. When walking the trails, you feel as if you’re miles away from Provence or even France, with the environment feeling much more like Arizona or Colorado in the United States (photo below).
In summary, these two villages in the mountains of Provence are some of the prettiest the region has to offer, with a day trip to both being the best way to visit (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). There’s plenty to do in both, but not too much to tire you out before heading back to your accommodation for the evening. We found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable day out of exploring and being immersed in a different type of provencal living.
