Provence: Lavender and Hilltop Villages

Five days in Provence, timed for the moment when lavender turns the Valensole plateau into ruler-straight rows of purple, from mid-June to mid-August. The route links Valensole, Gordes clinging to its white stone cliff, Roussillon and its blazing ochre quarries, the abbey of Senanque tucked into its valley, then Fontaine-de-Vaucluse where the Sorgue erupts at the foot of a 230-metre wall, before L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and its antique dealers. This is a Provence of scent and low, raking light, shifting from bare rock to deep green within a few kilometres. Visit the hilltop villages early, before the coaches arrive; Senanque is at its best late in the day, when the sun lights the lavender rows in front of the abbey. Outside flowering season, the ochres and villages still justify the trip.