A Guest Post Renata Haidle is a Billings, Montana-based travel, architecture, and fine art photographer. She travels to Europe regularly, mainly to France and England, where she photographs beautiful architecture and snippets of everyday life. Her travel photos have been featured online and in print by various travel outlets and …

The Gift of a Town Perched on a hillside with its back to the Mistral wind, Ansouis is a gem of a village in the Luberon that definitely earns its status as one of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. With its tiny laneways, houses built into ancient ramparts, …

Sainte-Agnès, France is a perched medieval village, 10 kilometers inland from Menton, in the southeastern corner of the Cote d’Azur.  This rocky outcrop gracefully dangles at an altitude of 800 meters above the sea. Since 1997, this medieval village has been classified as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de …

Contributor blog post by Michel: Gordes is a beautiful village in the Luberon region about 1 hour southeast of our home in Sablet. The obviously strategic site where Gordes sits has been occupied since prehistoric times. The stone buildings were built against the base of the cliffs and spiral up …

Overlooking the towering Mont Ventoux is the sleepy plus beau village of Venasque with its fountains, charming walkways, artisan shops, ancient ruins and ramparts, cherry orchards, and stunning views of the Vaucluse as well as of the Giant itself. Read Cobblestones and Vineyards for photos of Venasque, a gorgeous perched village …

Cantilevered to a Luberon hillside are the striking remains of an ancient oppidum and its defensive dry-stone walls; Gordes can rightly boast about its ranking among les Plus Beaux Villages de France. However, at the height of Provence’s tourist season this town, with its single thoroughfare, becomes a ghastly traffic …

The village of Séguret is visually stunning in every way. It’s the prettiest Provençal village I have encountered thus far. It certainly gives my favourite, Joucas, a run for its money. This charming jewel of a village is filled with colourful flowers and crazy charm around every bend of its …

Blinded by the hues of lavender shutters. Gently numbed by a glass or two of chilled local rosé. It would be easy to overlook the hamlet of Mérindol during a visit to Provence. The Luberon region is brimming with villages laying claim to le plus beau village de France (the …

It was October, and we were back in Sablet with friends Steve and Mary from Michigan. One of our morning rituals is to sit around the kitchen table drinking petit cafes and reading our iPads and English language papers. Invariably the question is asked, usually by Mary, “Michel, what’s the …

Jessica and Elodie are celebrating an anniversary. These tourism graduates launched their travel agency Provence Authentic one year ago, in January 2015. Originally from Lyon, Jessica has lived in Provence for a decade, and Elodie is local. She was born in Carpentras, only 15kms away from their headquarters in Vacqueyras. …