Provence

Provence is shaped by light, scent and texture. Lavender fields, stone villages, markets, olive groves and Mediterranean hills have made the region one of Europe's most recognisable landscapes of art and leisure.

Provence takes its name from the Roman Provincia, and the Romans left Arles, Nîmes and the theatre of Orange behind them. The popes made Avignon their seat in the fourteenth century; Aix-en-Provence became the elegant capital of fountains and plane-shaded boulevards where Cézanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire again and again, from his studio on the hill of Les Lauves.

Inland, the Luberon holds villages perched on rock — Gordes, Bonnieux, Ménerbes and Roussillon with its ochre cliffs. The Alpilles shelter Saint-Rémy and Les Baux, the Camargue spreads across the Rhône delta, and the plateau of Valensole turns purple with lavender in early summer. Weekly markets remain at the heart of village life, and Marseille and the Calanques lie just to the south.

Lavender blooms from late June to late July, the season of the Festival d’Avignon and of Aix’s Festival d’Art Lyrique. High summer is hot, dry and busy, with the mistral clearing the skies; rooms in the Luberon book far ahead for these weeks. May and early June bring wildflowers, cherries and mild walking weather.

September and October are ideal: the grape harvest in the Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, olive picking later in the season, and quieter villages under softer light. Winter is cool and often bright; Arles and Avignon stay lively, and truffle markets run in the Vaucluse. Many country hotels close between November and March.

The finest stays in Provence are country houses and village hotels rather than city palaces. La Bastide de Gordes is built into the ramparts of its hilltop village, looking out over the Luberon. In the Alpilles, Baumanière at Les Baux-de-Provence combines a long-celebrated restaurant with rooms spread across several old mas below the fortress. Further north, Hôtel Crillon le Brave occupies a cluster of stone houses facing Mont Ventoux.

Each suits a different side of the region: the Luberon villages and markets, the Alpilles with Arles and Saint-Rémy close by, and the vineyards and cycling roads of the Ventoux. All three are at their best from May to early October. LVXVRY advises on the right base, or on combining two, and arranges each stay directly with the hotel.