Gordes has a market on Tuesday morning and a hard cut-off. After about 09:30 in summer the approach road jams and the car parks fill, and there is nothing to do but wait it out. Arrive before that and the village is calm, the stalls are still going up, and you can buy sausages and a bakery breakfast without queueing for either.
Nearly every good morning we had came down to the same thing: leave earlier than feels reasonable. Here is how we spent 7 days in Provence, 20 to 26 July 2026, across two bases and entirely by car.
Base one near Coustellet covered Gordes, Sénanque and Saint-Rémy; base two in Aix covered the city, Lourmarin and the Sainte-Victoire side. Restaurant and café totals below are what we paid in July 2026, for two unless noted. Other prices are stated where useful and may have changed.
Why Two Bases
The Luberon and the Alpilles are village country: Gordes, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Saint-Rémy, the vineyards below Les Baux. Everything sits 20 to 40 minutes apart, the days start early because the markets do, and the afternoons are too hot to use. A remote house with a pool is the right answer: out at seven, back at one, out again at five. It is the same rhythm we used in Piedmont.
Aix is the opposite, a proper city with a market spread across the old town, better walked than driven. We took an Airbnb ten minutes from the centre and used the car only for Lourmarin and the Sainte-Victoire side.
Getting There
We flew Frankfurt to Marseille on Lufthansa, scheduled 08:40, about 50 minutes late after an unscheduled maintenance issue. The A320neo cabin was good, but the aircraft did not have Wi-Fi yet.
The rental was more interesting. We booked a 1 Series or equivalent with Sixt for €271.54, and the app’s self-check-in offered alternating upgrades, an X1 or a GLA. Those offers appear from about two and a half hours before pickup and improved the closer we got. The counter might have done better, but the queue was long.
Skip the tolls once you are in the region: the alternative routes push you into the countryside and cost maybe 15 minutes. On the way back, refuel at the E.Leclerc in Vitrolles rather than the Total beside the rental return, 10 to 15 cents a litre cheaper.
Base One: Terres Élaïs, Near Coustellet
We paid €565.08 for three nights without breakfast. Steep for a B&B, and still the easiest recommendation in this post. The estate is family-owned with only four rooms, tucked far enough away that you arrive on a track rather than a street. There is a pool and a large outdoor kitchen with fridges you can treat as your own, which is how we ended up eating melon, cheese and ham with a bottle of rosé by the water instead of driving anywhere.
Three caveats. Our room had a private bathroom but not an en-suite one: you cross the hallway, and the door does not lock from outside. Most people will not mind. We did, slightly. The Wi-Fi was down indoors after a summer storm, which mattered more than expected on the first night. And a note in French asks you to bring pool towels, which we did not read in time.
None of that changed the verdict: 9.5 out of 10. Book the en-suite category and the half point goes away.
Affiliate disclosure: The Booking.com link below is an affiliate link. If you book through it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Book Terres Élaïs: Booking.com
Day 1: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and a First Evening in Gordes
An hour early for check-in, we drove to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for a pizzette and a stroll, about €38 between us. We also stopped at Chez Stéphane for cheese. It was very hot, and after ninety minutes we gave up and went back to sit still.
Gordes in the evening is striking, built into the rock with walls stacked above walls, and thoroughly touristic: expensive hotels, and a surprising number of Italian restaurants and shops.
We ate at La Bastide de Pierres. I had the polpette all’arrabbiata, good, though I was not sold on the combination with potatoes. My girlfriend had the mezze maniche alla gricia. With two glasses of wine and water, €70.
Parking is free after 19:00, which makes Gordes ideal for dinner, and €8 for four hours by day. Park in the upper village: the tariff is the same everywhere and the lower lot is much smaller.
Day 2: The Gordes Market and Sénanque
Back to Gordes on Tuesday for the market, and this is the day the timing rule was born. Check current times before you go, but it appeared to start around eight.
We picked up breakfast at Le Fournil de Mamie Jeanne (€9.20), then good macarons and coffee at Ladurée (€28.50). Then the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, five kilometres north: a Cistercian abbey founded in 1148, still an active monastery, set in a fold of the valley with lavender running up to the walls. The chapel is €8. We skipped it, walked the grounds and bought lavender sachets for €10.
The drive back is one-way and awkward: about 30 minutes for what looks like a five-minute hop on the map.
Afternoon was siesta, pool and lunch in the outdoor kitchen. In the evening we drove to Bibendum in Avignon. The dining room was fully booked, a decent signal in itself, so we sat at the bar, which serves sharing plates all evening. Eggs, hummus and cheese with two glasses of wine came to €43, an excellent deal.
Day 3: Saint-Rémy Market and Two Very Different Vineyards
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence grew as the Roman town of Glanum, just south of it, emptied out in the third century. Van Gogh spent a year at the Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum here and painted more than 150 works, including The Starry Night.
Breakfast at La Maison Favier: a breakfast bun, brioche with sunny-side-up eggs, two cappuccinos, €32.
Wednesday is market day, with many of the same vendors as Gordes. Saint-Rémy is far bigger though, scattered across the old centre, each section with its own focus: produce, meat and cheese, then linen, baskets, woodwork and ironwork. Very good to wander. Very busy.
Park at Parking de la Libération: 90 minutes free in high season, then €2 an hour. That covers a quick loop; with breakfast and proper browsing, budget two to three hours. The entrance is easy to miss, and overshooting commits you to the one-way loop around the centre.
Château d’Estoublon is the grand one, roughly 120 hectares of olive groves against 18 of vines, which is why the oil rather than the wine made its name. The staff were very attentive and stood out to us. We ate at La Table d’Estoublon for €81 and left with oil and wine for €265.50. It was on the expensive side, but we had a great time.
Mas de la Dame, on the way back, felt very different: small, easy to drive past, with friendly staff and wines ranging from inexpensive to serious. We bought two half-bottles.
We finished at the estate with cheese, melon, ham and rosé by the pool.
Day 4: Coustellet to Aix
Coffee and a light breakfast at Capèla Café in Coustellet (€8), then 50 to 70 minutes to Aix.
Lunch was Le Jambon-Beurre, a baguette shop where you pick your own cheese and ham, €19.80 for two. It reminded me of banh mi, which makes a certain sense: the Vietnamese took the French baguette and filled it with their food, the French filled it with theirs.
Coffee at Café Adoré (€10), tiny with only a few seats, good enough that we came back on our last day and ate properly, €24.50. Afternoon shopping took us to Franc 1884, where a team of ten makes lavender wands, or fuseaux de lavande, by hand, then a “little” pre-dinner snack at Madeleines de Christophe. Fresh batches through the day, and they fill you up fast.
Just as well dinner was light: Le Bouillon Aixois, €52.60 for two. Cheap and simple, portions on the small side, still excellent value. An Aperol Spritz was €7.
Day 5: Lavender, a Hidden Château and Lourmarin
Breakfast at Maison Weibel, €37.50. The place is known for its pastries; the breakfast was good without being outstanding. Try the other cafés first.
Then Terre Ugo, an organic lavender farm five minutes from the centre, three hectares and 45,000 lavandin plants. We stopped at the café rather than touring the fields. Staff told us that field entry was €10 per person when we visited in July 2026. Peak bloom runs roughly 25 June to 25 July, and by the last week the fields were dried out with the purple mostly gone. The one thing we would change about the week: come two or three weeks earlier.
Château de Beaupré is hidden away and not a tourist fixture. The staff were welcoming, and we liked the wine, but did not have room to carry bottles home. The château has an online shop and asks international customers to contact the boutique about shipping.
Lourmarin in the evening. We arrived around 17:00 to free, easy parking, which makes it one of the only pretty villages here that does not charge. Friday is market morning and it gets crowded; we used this lot, but there are several.
Coffee at Les Commissions is fine, though it sits on the edge so you miss the pulse of the place. Au Panem is the market-morning bakery, and Franc has a second shop here. An hour on foot covers the shops, art and ateliers unless you shop seriously. Franc’s pieces are handmade rather than mass-produced.
Restaurants open around 19:00. We chose Brasserie de la Fontaine, open only since June, and had the Lourmarin rosé, the truffle croque monsieur, the ceviche, cheese with honey and bread, then chocolate mousse. The kitchen does tapas-style sharing plates only. €79. Excellent food, small portions, and service not settled yet: we waited a while just to order drinks. You sit by the street, which suits the evening.
Afterwards we walked up to Château de Lourmarin, already closed. Go before dinner if you want to go in. Even from outside there is a good view back over the village and the whole place feels medieval. Ten out of ten for a small town.
Day 6: Aix’s Market, Caumont and the Sainte-Victoire Side
Breakfast at Deïa Coffee & Kitchen, coffee and both eggs benedict variations, €41.50. They bake everything themselves and it sits far enough off the main streets to stay quiet. We would go back.
Saturday is the market, and it is the best argument for Aix: spread across the old town with each square taking a theme, clothing, flowers, food, produce, fish. You can walk it for hours without repeating yourself.
Lunch was focaccia at Novettino, the Mama Mia and the Primavera, €23.63 for two.
The cloudy weather made Hôtel de Caumont a good choice, €28.50 for two. The building earns the ticket on its own, begun in 1715 and staged inside as an 18th-century mansion. The café is very good and very expensive; Book in Bar across the street is the cheaper version, €5.80 and completely charming.
In the afternoon we drove to Barrage de Bimont, a hydroelectric dam with hiking trails leading off it. We went for the view from the dam wall.
Continue to Vauvenargues for the view across to the château. Picasso bought it in September 1958 and is buried in the grounds beside his wife Jacqueline. Still private family property and closed to visitors, so the roadside view is what you get.
It rained that evening, so we ordered in.
Day 7: Coffee in Aix and Departure
On Sunday we went back to Café Adoré, refuelled at Vitrolles and dropped the car at Sixt. The return was as smooth as the pickup.
Market Days
Tuesday Gordes · Wednesday Saint-Rémy · Friday Lourmarin · Saturday Aix. Confirm locally, and arrive before 09:30.
Places We Saved for Next Time
We did not visit the places below, so these are not recommendations, only ideas we saved and ran out of time to try.
Avignon and nearby: L’Agape, Première Édition and Édition Café, antique shops in Avignon, Pont du Gard and Le Mas des Poiriers, a private full-property rental rather than a casual stop.
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue: the Sunday antiques market and Le Jardin du Quai.
Gordes: Clover Gordes, Le Mas and Pistou.
Saint-Rémy and Les Baux: Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Pierredon, EDŪ, L’Oustau de Baumanière, Les Baux-de-Provence and Château des Alpilles.
Aix: La Cabane en Ville, Flowers of Aix, Étude, AREV, La Flamme d’Aix, Pizza des Arts, Mitch and Licandro Le Bistro.
If we did the week again, we would keep the two bases and come two or three weeks earlier.