The Luberon is a range of low hills and a string of stone villages, each one stacked on its own rock with its own opinion of the view. A weekend is enough to drive the loop slowly, stop where the light asks you to, and never once feel hurried. Take the back roads; they are the point.
I. Day one — the north slope
Begin at Gordes, stacked white above the valley, then drop to the Abbaye de Sénanque, where the Cistercian monks still farm lavender below the cloister. Lunch at Roussillon, built from its own ochre, the cliffs behind it the colour of rust and apricot.
“In the Luberon the road is short and the day is long — which is exactly the right way round.”
II. Day two — the south slope
Cross the range to Bonnieux and Ménerbes, then end at Lourmarin, the softest of them, where Albert Camus is buried in the village cemetery. Time the Friday market at Lourmarin or the Saturday one at Apt, and let lunch follow the basket.
