Provence at Half Speed: Spa Towns, Ochre and Lavender

Editor's note

The first two nights are spent on Avenue du Club Hippique, a little over two kilometres from the town's sights. Aix-en-Provence was founded as Aquae Sextiae in 122 BC, and the Thermes Sextius still stand on the site of the Roman spa, so the week opens by taking the waters. After that it is walking: the Cours Mirabeau, the plane-tree avenue of fountains and cafés laid out in 1651; the Atelier de Cézanne at Les Lauves, the studio where the painter worked in the years before his death in 1906; and the route called the Pas de Cézanne aux Balcons d'Aix-en-Provence. With a full day, Montagne Sainte-Victoire can be climbed to the Croix de Provence, the peak Cézanne painted again and again.

Editor's note

Two more nights, at Chemin Monplaisir outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. At the foot of the Alpilles lie the ruins of Glanum, a Gallo-Roman town, with Les Antiques: the Mausoleum of the Julii and the triumphal arch. Beside them stands the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, the asylum where Vincent van Gogh painted in 1889–90, its garden still there. Paths climb into the Alpilles towards Mont Gaussier, the hill above Glanum. The second day takes in Les Baux-de-Provence, a ruined citadel on a rock above the Val d'Enfer, and the Carrières de Lumières in the quarry beside it, where paintings are projected onto the walls. At Fontvieille are the Moulin de Daudet, the windmill of Alphonse Daudet's Lettres de mon moulin, and the Château d'Estoublon, which makes Les Baux-de-Provence wine and olive oil.

Editor's note

One night at Chemin de Fontanille in Gordes. Roussillon sits on one of the largest ochre deposits in Europe, and the Grand Circuit of the Sentier des Ocres runs 1.7km through the old quarries above the village, past formations stained in seventeen shades from pale yellow to blood red. North of Gordes a narrow valley drops to the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, founded in 1148 and still home to Cistercian monks, with its Romanesque church and lavender-ringed cloister. Gordes is best seen from the terrace below the Renaissance château, rebuilt in 1525 on an 11th-century base, looking south over the Luberon valley and its dry-stone bories. The Musée de la Lavande at Coustellet has been devoted to the fine lavender of Provence since 1991.

Editor's note

The last night is at Chemin de la Paludette in Gréoux-les-Bains, a little over a kilometre from the thermal town, with the Promenade au Bord du Verdon running along the river. Gréoux-les-Bains has a sulphur spa used since Roman times, the second chance in the week to take the waters, and the Château des Templiers stands above the thermal town. This is also the stop that sets the month: north of the town the Plateau de Valensole is covered in lavender that blooms in summer, and walking those fields in bloom is the reason to come in June, July or August. At Manosque, the L'Occitane factory tells the story of the Provençal cosmetics brand born in Haute-Provence. From here it is 60 km back to Aix-en-Provence.