Luberon Villages Worth Building An Itinerary Around

Locals having drinks outside the grocery store in Oppède

Oppède-le-Vieux: This is the old half of Oppède, largely abandoned by the mid-1900s, climbing a rocky outcrop toward a ruined castle and a Romanesque church. The walk up is short but steep, and at the top is a view of farmland and vineyards running out toward the Luberon on one side, rooftops tumbling below on the other. Down in the newer part of the village, lunch at Bistro Les Poulivets put us on a shaded patio surrounded by local families out for a long Sunday meal. We were clearly the only outsiders at the table.

One of the many studios showcasing students works in Lacoste

Lacoste: A different energy entirely, driven by the SCAD campus (Savannah College of Art and Design) tucked into the old village. Student installations turn up in doorways and courtyards where you don't expect them, which gives the streets a lived-in feel rather than a museum-piece one. The ruined Château de Lacoste, once held by the Marquis de Sade's family, sits at the top of the village, and the climb up rewards you with a view across the valley to Bonnieux on the opposite hillside. We could have spent the whole day here, taking in the views, visiting ateliers and exhibits.

The workshop at Mathieu Lustrerie in Gargas

Gargas: Ochre country, the same red-and-gold mineral earth that makes neighboring Roussillon famous, but without Roussillon's crowds. What prompted us to go there was Mathieu Lustrerie, the workshop trusted with restoring the chandeliers inside Notre-Dame after the 2019 fire. Gargas also has one of my favorite restaurants of the whole trip: La Chape, a big outdoor courtyard with a play structure for kids and a crowd that was, again, entirely local. We went back twice for lunch and dinner.

A beautiful lavender field in Sault

Sault: If your Provence trip is built around lavender, you've heard of Valensole and its crowds. Sault gets the same electric-purple fields with almost none of the traffic, because it sits at a higher elevation, which means its lavender typically blooms later in the season. That gap mattered on our trip: an unusual mid-July heat wave had pushed Valensole's fields past peak before we arrived, while Sault's altitude bought enough time that we caught full color there. The drive up climbs steadily through hills and forest until Mont Ventoux comes into view, and by the time you reach the village the air is noticeably cooler. Before we walked through the fields, we stopped by a family-run lavender distillery where we got a tour and learned the differences between lavandin and lavender, the natural distillation process and bought a couple bottles of lavender oil made from lavender grown outside the shop.

Lavender in its last quiet moment before the still.

A view over the village of Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt

On the drive back south from Sault and just north of Gargas, you will pass by Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt, another quaint but often missed village that features chåteau ruins and chapel, and a 17th century windmill above the village. Definitely do not miss if you have the time.

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