After a couple of busy days settling back into the house and getting on top of a few things I needed to do, I decided to get back out on the bike this morning. I had an appointment with my neighbour to pop to the Recycling Centre (furniture hunting) at 2 …

Contributor blog post by Vaucluse Dreamer: Over the years that we’ve been coming to the Vaucluse we have often ‘popped’ across the hills that sit between the Luberon & Mont Ventoux. This has always been done by car and I’ve seen people on bikes riding it and thought to myself …

Martine Bertin-Peterson is intrepid; she had a window of 90 minutes of “downtime” between her back-to-back tour groups, yet she agreed to meet me for a glass of rosé. Beneath the walls of the immense Palais des Papes in Avignon, we chatted about her food and wine excursions in Provence. …

After a 45-year business career with some of the largest corporations in the world, Anthony Craig called it quits. It was a milestone moment when he resigned from nine corporate boards, and he and his wife relocated to Provence. Craig is now a published author, his book It’s All About Lunch shares their story of renovations …

In 1999, a decade after the publication of Peter Mayle’s “A Year in Provence”, Georgina Causton and her partner decided to take a sabbatical year. Smitten by the South of France, they never returned to live in London. Instead, they bought a house and three mortgages later ended up with …

Just the name Joucas alone is pretty. There is something about this village, some je ne sais quoi, that just makes it mine. I could imagine myself living here. It’s quiet, peaceful, scenic, charming, and pretty. Yet, it’s not far from the shops and restaurants in Gordes, Goult, and Roussillon. …

Contributor blog post by David Taylor: Whilst the local roads are quieter as the tourist season begins to calm down the latest challenge to ones journey is the tractors towing the trailers laden with grapes. Its been an exceptionally hot summer with low rain fall (until recently) which has led …

How do you test a hotel’s 5-star rating? Forget about checking for dust on picture frames — deliver a thunderstorm in the middle of a meal service. L’Orangerie’s terrace was brimming with lunchtime customers enjoying their market-fresh plats du jour and local rosés when the typically far-reaching view of the Luberon vanished …

Before we moved to France I had read Peter Mayle’s account of his idyllic year in the Luberon region of Provence, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, when planning our great escape from the grey-skied rat-race that is the City of London we never contemplated moving to the Luberon. Somehow it …

We’ve been back home for a week and our tans are fading, so it’s time to return to my own A-Z of the Vaucluse as a way of helping to keep me going over the next few weeks until we travel down for another visit. This week I move onto …