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Like other Provençal ranges, the Montagne du Luberon, to the north of the Durance valley, is east-west and is gently concave in the middle. The area is a regional park, created to preserve the area's natural assets.
The limestone of the hills and the wild untouched landscapes are rich in wildlife, both flora and fauna. Many species of orchid, grow here as well as other rareties such as black-berried honeysuckle. Bird life includes several rare raptors such as Bonelli's eagle and the eagle owl.
A much more intimate mountain than either Ventoux or Lure, Luberon is 40 miles (65km) long, divided into Grand Luberon east of the Combe de Lourmarin with Bonnieux at the col, and Petit Luberon to the west. Once a walker's preserve, a road along the crest of Grand Luberon has more recently opened out its expansive vistas to the motorist.
Destinations in Montagne du Luberon
The chief village of the Luberon is Bonnieux, set close to the top of the road that separates the Grand and Petit Luberon, and reached from Apt, Pont Julien or a turning further west along the N100. Positioned on terraces linked by tightly turning streets, and between the old and new churches, the village is extremely attractive, especially when viewed from the west.
The new church has some good paintings, and nearby there is a Bakery Museum. For many visitors the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread is the essence of France. Bonnieux's museum offers a fascinating look at the history of the baking trade.
To the south of Lourmarin is Cadenet, its square dominated by a wonderfully vibrant statue of André Estienne, born here in 1777, and famous as the drummer boy at the Arcole Bridge battle in 1796. The battle was part of Napoleon's Italian campaign, fought to expel the Austrians from northern Italy. The French army had stormed the bridge several times, but each time had been driven back by stout defensiveness. With defeat looming, André swam the river, placed himself behind the Austrian defenders and beat a rapid tattoo on his drum. Believing themselves attacked from behind, the Austrians fell back, allowing the French to pour across the bridge.
During the 1939-45 war the Germans began to confiscate similar statues for melting down, but a group of Partisans hid the drummer boy until peace came. Their exploit is recorded on the statue's plinth.
While in the village, be sure to visit the Musée de la Vannerie, an interesting museum of basket making set up in an old basket workshop. Cadenet was a centre for basketwork in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
From Cadenet the D543 crosses the Durance en route to Aix-en-Provence, but we make one more visit, turning right along the D561, following the river for a short while, then going left to reach Silvacane Abbey.
From Bonnieux there is a fine view of Lacoste to the west, nestling below its partially ruined castle. In the eighteenth century the castle passed to the Sade family. The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), Lord of Lacoste for 30 years and infamous for his erotic writings, escaped here to avoid prison, but ultimately spent more time in prison than in the castle.
To the south of Bonnieux the D943 that traverses the Luberon passes through glorious scenery, a lush green coombe ? sometimes quite narrow ? studded with rocky outcrops. The next village is Lourmarin. The chteau here is part medieval, part Renaissance: its hexagonal tower can be climbed for a panoramic view of the Luberon, the Durance Valley and Montagne Ste-Victoire beyond. The chteau was once owned by the Agoult family, one of whom ? the Countess of Agoult ? married the composer Franz Liszt. One of their three children married Richard Wagner.
Moving eastwards from Lourmarin, the visitor passes through a series of delightful villages. There is Cucuron, with an interesting museum devoted to the history and culture of the Luberon, and Ansouis, with a fine fortified chteau and a museum that claims to be 'extraordinary' but is hardly earth-shattering. The museum is devoted largely to underwater life, with a recreated underwater cave. There is also some Provençal furniture and a collection paintings by the museum?s creator, Georges Mazoyer. The village itself is rather more interesting: a pretty place, well-situated on the Luberon.
To the west of Lacoste is Ménerbes, a sprawling, somewhat elusive village. The castle and church are ruinous and cannot be visited, but the old, upper village with its tight alleys has changed little since the sixteenth century when Catholics besieged the Protestant villagers for over five years. The villagers used a secret passage to replenish their food, a passage never discovered by their besiegers who were constantly amazed by the village's powers of survival.
West again is Oppède-le-Vieux, perhaps the most extraordinary of all the Luberon villages. During the Wars of Religion the Lord of Oppède was Catholic, while his village tenants were Protestant. He sent 800 villagers to slavery in the galleys of Marseille, the almost totally depopulated village falling into disrepair. About 100 years ago Oppéde was rediscovered and has since become popular with artists and holidaymakers. The restoration work has been carefully conceived so that today Oppède is an almost intact medieval village, its houses seemingly growing from the rocky spur on which they sit.
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This is the second of the 'Three Sisters of Provence': Thoronet, the third 'Sister' will be visited later. The abbey's name is from the Latin Silva Cannorum (forest of reeds) because the area was a swamp when the Cistercian monks arrived in the eleventh century. In 1289 during a violent ownership dispute with the Benedictine monks of Montmajour Abbey, there were fights and several monks were held as hostages. An ecclesiastical inquiry was needed to decide that the Cistercians rightfully held Silvicane. They held it for a further two centuries, but the abbey was then abandoned and became a parish church. Later it became a farm, but is now state-owned and has been restored.
Externally, the abbey is plain Romanesque, but inside the roof is a wonder of the stonemason's art, with high-soaring ribs supporting stone vaulting, the ribs themselves supported on elegantly twisted columns. |
There is an almost secret atmosphere here. Dozens of varied villages repay a visit; no two are alike in character and architecture, though many have shared the suffering of sixteenth-century massacres. Members of the Vaudois sect, who were followers of the twelfth-century fundamentalist Petrus Valdo, seeking to escape persecution in Piedmont, settled in the Luberon in the fourteenth century. The Popes at Avignon declared the Vaudois to be heretics and the repression of their 10,000 homes took place in 1545 with fanatical inhumanity. Some of the villages were never allowed to be rebuilt, their names extirpated from maps and records. Old Mérindol, the religious centre of the Vaudois, is still just a heap of stones. |
