A walking holiday in the Luberon

Splendid week.  Roussillon, Bonnieux, Gordes and Saumane are delightful.  (Fontaine de Vaucluse is innundated with tourists from a huge car and bus park - to its detriment.)

All walks were good but the last two, that from Gordes to Fontaine de Vaucluse and the Fontaine circular walk, were absolute delights - some of your best.

Upgrades well worth taking for quiet terraces.

Thanks not only to Peter Mayle, the Luberon has a high public profile and the trip started with correspondingly high expectations.  Delicious food and crisp white wines: tick.  Provençal rosé for elegant variation: tick.  Gentle hills with vineyards, shady woods, olive trees and wild flowers and butterflies aplenty: tick.  Purple fields of lavender scenting the countryide: tick.  Relaxed lifestyle with friendly bars and restaurants: tick – although in places the bars are too widely spaced for walkers.  Langorous evenings with gentle breezes: tick.  Bright mornings promising warm southern sunshine: yes, but …

We have long since abandoned the Mediterranean region in sultry, stuffy July and August, yet hoped late June would be fine.  Which is how it happened that we were there when France recorded its all-time record temperature – over 45 degrees just a few miles from us.  We shortened the walks to try and arrive at our destinations before lunch, and gave up walking altogether after the temperature reached the upper thirties.  Our dominant memory is the endurance trek across the parched garrigue above Fontaine de Vaucluse, the temperature reaching 39 degrees and the water bottles emptying too rapidly for comfort.  After that, it was just too hot to do much beyond enjoy the swimming pools and air-conned rooms of the hotels.

But that was entirely our choice.  Ten degrees cooler, and this would have been another wonderful Inntravel holiday.  The Hotel du Poète at Fontaine de Vaucluse is one of the nicest we have stayed at; the nearby paper-mill and Petrarch museums provided interest on a day too hot to walk; and of course for geologists the famous vauclusian spring was an essential sight.  Roussillon was a revelation with its bright red and yellow ochre-stained cliffs visible from miles around.  The fruit and drink stall discovered by Pont Julien added luscious juicy cherries to our day’s picnic.  Clear cool (non-potable) water in lavoirs at Le Chateau and Cabrieres refreshed us.  The Romanesque grandeur of the Abbaye de Senanque conferred cool cloistered calm in a secret-seeming valley.  An amble around Gordes as evening fell and the tourist hordes departed led us to a memorable meal at the Artegal restaurant.

Not our first visit to Provence – and we hope not our last, either.

The whole itinerary was excellent, but highlights for us were the path from Joucas to Gordes on the high ground, and the gorge Le Vallon des Esperacon on the descent into Fontaine de Vaucluse.

Each village we stayed in was lovely, and we really enjoyed exploring them.

We can thoroughly recommend this holiday. A wide variety of terrain, beautiful views and panorama. It was a part of France that we hardly knew at all and we will be inspired to go back and explore further. We especially enjoyed the walking to arrive at Fontaine de Vaucluse on day 5; the valley descent had exceptional views and beauty. Another highlight was the walk on day 4 on the garrigue where they had suffered a wild fire. Despite the burnt terrain, the views across the valley were superb - breathtaking. I visited the Abbaye Senanque and thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The guide was clear and very well-briefed and I coped with her French absolutely fine. Very interesting. Despite being very touristy we found the 'villages perchés' to be delightful; lovely buildings and little streets. On day 5 we did the detour near the mur de la Peste to see a small village and Chateau at Cabrieres. Very well worth the detour. The village is sleepy and typically French. The man at the limited opening bar Le Vieux Bistro there was very welcoming and friendly. A great little detour.

This is a gorgeous hike, taking  you through countryside you could not possibly see from a car.  Highly recommend this walking tour.  

Walks were wonderful. We loved seeing the vineyards, olive groves, and poppy fields. Each village had its own personality. We learned about the history of the places, such as the Plague Wall, the industries the villages once had, Abbey de Senanque, and the history of the French Resistance. The terrain was varied from the lush fields to the arid garrigue, and the gorge around Fontaine de Vaucluse. Some of the paths were rougher than we had anticipated, with loose stones and rocks on steep ascents and descents. We recommend good hiking shoes and poles.

We particularly enjoyed our stay at Hotel du Poete. Wonderful position.

A rather surprising highlight was arriving at the river on the descent into Fontaine de Vaucluse. It was a welcome change from the parched landscape we had become used to (even in May). 

It was another enjoyable Inntravel holiday.  Due to increasing age and a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease we had to be less ambitious than in previous years but we got the level about right and hope to be able to have another Inntravel walk next year.

Combining the two walks (Secret Provence and Hill-Top Villages of the Luberon) made an excellent holiday with very good walking and superb accommodation.  In particular Le Domaine du Bois des Dames and Le Mas Bella Cortis made us most welcome and provided us with lovely if different environments. Thank you to Clothilde and Arnold and Pascale and Christelle for their hospitality and good food. All of the accommodation was well chosen by Inntravel and all hosts were very welcoming.  The Hôtel de l'Horloge (which we added on in Avignon) is a gem for a city centre hotel.

The holiday is remarkable for any number of features: the well-chosen tracks, the comfortable pace, the range of views from the ridges, the variety of vegetation, the welcoming hotels, sumptuous breakfasts, fine dinners, the inclusion of unusual sites such as the Abbey at Senanque and the lesser-known Village of the Bories. 

On a quiet evening, at 'Le Chateau' in Fontaine de Vaucluse, the local chef is a font of information about the local scene--from house prices to truffle hunting.

In Gordes, L'Artegal restaurant (facing the chateau in the center of the village) provided a very good supper.

For walkers with a historical bent, Laurence Wylie's Village in the Vaucluse  (1957, third ed., 1974) offers an in-depth portrait of Roussillon in the 1950s, with comparisons ten and twenty-five years later. This classic study is still in print.

The walks through this beautiful part of France were both interesting and lovely. While we chose to go late in the season (October), the weather was perfect and the villages relatively quiet.  Each days walk was thoroughly described in the notes and easy to follow while on the trail.  There was a good variety of terrain and walking surfaces. The hotels provided a perfect place to put our feet up at the end of the day! 

It is hard to suggest a highlight, the whole trip was simply glorious. The hotels were all so different, the walking remarkably varied too, ranging from the valley walking of the first 3 days to the ridge/hill walking at the end of the week. All the hotels were welcoming and had superb breakfasts. If I have one tiny niggle it is that the David restaurant in Roussillon was mind numbingly  slow, and with almost no choice of menu it was sad we had 2 meals there. We solved the problem by paying the difference for the more expensive menu.

Roussillon, Gordes and Fontaine-de-Vaucluse were all beautiful villages, with lots of lovely places to visit and see. Our favourite was Fontaine-de-Vaucluse as it was so lovely to see the gushing waters and to walk along the river. We really enjoyed walking up to the aqueduct and along the canal (this wasn’t part of the Inn Travel route, but is well worth doing). 

We’d also strongly recommend the diversion on the last but one day of the holiday into the hamlet of Cabrières-d’Avignon which has a fascinating history and an excellent restaurant, where we had lunch - Le Vieux Bistrot. It made the last part of the walk harder work, but was worth it! 

Another fabulous Inntravel trip! The villages and walks chosen by Inntravel helped highlight the best of Provence. As usual, everything was well thought out and organized. This was our 6th trip with Inntravel. We are looking forward to planning number 7!

Each day we experienced wonderful walks in the Luberon, enjoying the favourable June weather and marvelling at the fields of glorious poppies, woods of holm oak and just a hint of the lavender to come. 

The highlight without a doubt is the beautiful walk down through the woods and seeing the gorge and Fontaine [de Vaucluse] beyond. 

Restaurant David at Roussillon was exceptional, and the visit to Bonnieux quite early in the day was rewarding.

I could not be happier with my Inntravel experience. Every aspect exceeded my expectations. 

We spent four days in Paris prior to coming to Provence and visited Musee D'Orsay and saw the great works of the Impressionists. On our first circular hike around Rousillion, we walked down into a meadow and it seemed as if we walked into the field of poppies that Monet had painted. The beauty of the landscape could not be described in advance and we were constantly being amazed by our surroundings. Time has stood still in some of the areas we walked in which we added to the charm of our trip. The love the French have for this part of their country is seen through the care they have for the land and the structures on that land. 

Another excellent Inntravel holiday. In Spring, France is wonderfully fresh and verdant, and on the walks we were delighted to see so many wild flowers, and thrilled to hear nightingales singing!  Provence is a popular visitor destination and even in May the villages were quite crowded and touristy, however once in the countryside we saw almost no-one, and had the walks pretty much to ourselves. French food is always a great pleasure; we ate very well throughout the holiday with a special mention for the breakfasts at Hotel du Poete, and the included dinners in Roussillon which were outstanding. 

We would ABSOLUTELY recommend Inntravel to anyone seeking a reliable, experienced, customer orientated AND competitively priced travel coordinator! In fact, we have already done so and have friends set up to travel with them in the next few months. We found Inntravel to be responsive and knowledgeable. When we hit a snag towards the end of our trip (because of the French rail strike) Inntravel was quick to advise and assist us. The trip proceeded with minor modifications. Their insistence on obtaining travel insurance, which we’ve never done on previous trips, turned out to be very sound advice! We are already looking at their website for future trip ideas!

Our Inntravel experience was wonderful. All of the elements were accomplished professionally, quickly and with courtesy. The hotels booked for the trip were of high quality and a restful experience after a day of walking. We did a self-guided tour and the directions and descriptions were spot on and allowed for us to navigate across the Provence landscape. We would travel with Inntravel again and would recommend this to others. 

Wonderful experience which met or at times even surpassed our expectations

Wonderful trip. Well chosen itinerary, interesting scenery, faultless organisation and impeccable route notes, as ever! The included and recommended restaurants were all excellent, particularly Chez Dominique. Loved Fontaine de Vaucluse - would like to return to see the spring in its full glory!

The paths were ideal for walking and the routes well planned and varied. All three villages were very touristy and crowded, but on the walks we rarely met anyone. It was good having at least two nights in each hotel. Regarding the three circular walks, we cut the first one (from Roussillon), missing out the village and cliff (the path through the woods was easy to follow); we opted to walk to Les Bories from Gordes rather than the Abbayede Senanque (but we were disappointed with the tarmac and traffic, and we were unable to find any other way back to Gordes); and we spent our day in Fontaine visiting the museums - Petrarque and Jean Garcin. They were both excellent, informing us about the poet and his links to Provence, and about life under the Vichy regime, respectively. We were lucky to be in Gordes on market day. 

We very much enjoyed visiting the hill top villages, especially Gordes with its many well preserved old buildings and large chateau. The walking in the limestone hills and valleys near Fontaine de Vaucluse was excellent, often accompanied by wonderful fragrances of wild thyme, rosemary and juniper.

This is an absolutely excellent walking tour. The walks are very nice and goes through a wonderful and very varied terrain, the length and difficulty was perfect for us (about 6 hours walking including lunch every day). The hotels are all of very high quality, and a swimming pool is precisely what you want after a day's walk. The villages are very charming and lively. The food at the restaurants was also very good. All taxi and luggage transfers worked like a clock-work.

The shorter walks were not too strenuous, even at 30+ degrees. There was a good mix of hill tops, woods and fields. Flowers everywhere were spectacular, and the rushing water in Fontaine de Vaucluse was a real joy. Well worth adding a day or two in Avignon if you can.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our city add-on in Avignon at Hôtel de l’Horloge prior to Hill-Top Villages of the Luberon

Two suggested restaurants - Le Chateau in Fontaine-de- Vaucluse and L'Epicerie in Avignon (Place St Pierre - popular with tourists but none the worse for that). Of the non-hotel restaurants Restaurant David in Roussillon was outstanding (although the shortness of the set menu meant that we had to have some repetition on the second night); Chez Dominique in Fontaine ok but food and ambience not as good as Le Chateau. 

This was our 12th Inntravel holiday, and they've all been excellent, but our first visit to Provence, and we're wondering why we've waited so long. What people say about the quality of the light is true: even simple flowers like poppies and buttercups seem redder and more yellow. And Roussillon was a particular gem, with the ochre and the feel of an artists' colony. A memorable holiday as always, with the added fascination of seeing how people voted in the presidential election! 

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our 2-night Avignon city add on after Hill-Top Villages of the Luberon.