
The little village of Saignon where we stayed for a week to explore the Luberon region of Provence

The former town hall and clock tower of Saignon, built in 1584, around the corner from our apartment

Chris on the terrace of our rustic but comfortable apartment in an old house in Saignon

View from the top of Saignon rock, the site of a fortress since at least the 900s AD

Villagers conversing on a terrace

Farmland around Saignon. The local crops include wine grapes, cherry trees, and lavender.

Mountains in the distance

Plaza in the center of Saignon (the place under the arches is the old village wash house)


Card players in the main plaza

Saignon's church, a wide but plain Romanesque structure

The only decorations on the outside are the columns and some 17th-century wood carvings on the main doorway

Full moon over the cliffs around Saignon

An old Provencal windmill



The red and ochre stone in parts of Provence have been used for centuries to make pigments

Road up to the hilltop village of Bonnieux

Cedar trees around the old church at the top of Bonnieux

Looking down on rooftops and another church in Bonnieux



An ancient Roman bridge, Pont Julien, near Bonnieux


The 16th-century Chateau of Lourmarin






View of the village of Lourmarin from the chateau



A simple country church in Provence



A pretty restaurant where we had lunch in the town of Apt, near Saignon

The Oppedette Gorge


The village of Oppedette at the top of the gorge



The village of Simiane-la-Rotode is set above fields of lavender (not yet in bloom when we visited in May)


The old covered market in Simiane-la-Rotonde has a fabulous view


Ceiling of a cone-shaped 12th-century castle keep, the "rotonde" from which Simiane-la-Rotonde gets its name


A window in the hexagonal keep

Although Provence's famous lavender wasn't blooming in May, its poppy fields were a riot of color



An unusual settlement of stone houses (bories) near the village of Gordes. Historians aren't sure when it was built, but it was inhabited into the 19th century

The part on the left was a pig sty

The interior of a borie

The picture postcard village of Gordes