A Week in Provence

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After visiting multiple spots in Italy, we chose to spend a week in Provence just relaxing. We visited the area in the summer of 2017 on a Backroads cycling trip, and we remembered Bonnieux as a small charming town in the hills, with a 12th century church and some amazing ice cream, so we booked an AirBnB there for a week.

After one night in Nice, we picked up our small rental car with an automatic transmission (thank goodness!)  from the airport, and we drove out to Bonnieux.

Provence is a popular holiday destination for folks from all over the world, and the drive from Nice to Bonnieux along the motorway was pretty easy. Once we found our exit, it was quite the journey up the hill to Bonnieux, with very narrow roads and plenty of curves. The town has a one-way road to the top, with a stoplight that allows cars to go in each direction at a time. I wonder what happens if someone runs the light. 

Our host met us at the top near the tiny market and showed us to our rental, an ancient stonehouse that had been fully remodeled. It was a steep walk up the hill, but the view from the patio made it all worth it. We could see all around the area, all the way over to the next village of Lacoste. We spent lots of time staring from the patio and the bedroom. 

We parked our car down in the village and settled in for the week. We quickly got used to leaving our car down the hill in the parking lot near the boules court. It wasn’t that close to our place but it made it much easier to get in and out of town when we did want to leave.  

After driving that first day, I knew that I didn’t want to be driving into town in the dark so we decided to stick to day trips and be home in time for dinner. This worked out pretty well for us, even though at this point in late October a lot of the local restaurants were starting to close for the season. We wound up eating at two places twice each, and doing our own cooking with fresh stuff from the market.

Side trips from Bonnieux

Our hostess left some of the best guidance I’ve ever had in an AirBnB, with detailed instructions on different day trips and restaurant recommendations in all kinds of towns nearby. Rather than do any more work, we went with her suggestions and she never led us astray. 

Chateau La Coste

Our first trip was to the Chateau La Coste, not to be confused with the historic chateau in the nearby town of Lacoste. This Chateau is definitely a modern creation. 

Chateau La Coste is a massive, 600-acre vineyard, farm, and boutique hotel just under an hour from our place in Bonnieux. It boasts four restaurants, several little boutique shops, and most impressively, an art and architecture walk around the property featuring some of the most famous artists around the world. The place is the brainchild of Irish property magnate Paddy McKillen and he’s created an amazing destination in Provence.

We started our day with a delightful lunch outside at Vanina, the Italian restaurant. It turned out that school holidays were on during our visit and the place was crowded with young families. It was a hot day though and we didn’t see too many families decide to take on the art and architecture walk.

We bought our tickets at the museum shop and got our maps with all of the different artworks installed on the property. There are sculptures and structures of all different shapes and sizes, from famous artists like Richard Serra and Ai Weiwei, to renowned architects like Frank Gehry and Tadao Ando, to musicians like Yoko Ono, Michael Stipe and Bob Dylan. Our guide made sure to point out some things we should definitely see and sent us on our way.

The walk is advertised at about two hours, but we spent nearly three. We wandered up and down the different paths, through the vineyards and the rest of the farm. We occasionally saw other groups but for the most part had the place to ourselves. 

As an art lover this was about my perfect day and I would highly recommend a visit to Chateau La Coste. Definitely bring some water because it’s a long walk without much in the way of services along the way. My only disappointment was the wine. Since I was driving, I didn’t taste it on site but bought a half bottle to take home. I drank half a glass then tossed it out. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a wine in France I didn’t like before. Next time I will taste first!

E-Biking   

During our Backroads tour we visited several towns in Provence and the Luberon. We are pretty strong road bikers and that year, like many before, we did a 72-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe the first weekend in June, so we thought we were in plenty of shape to do short 25-35 mile rides in France.

Once we got to the tour in mid-June of 2017, Provence was having a heat wave and 100+ degree temps combined with 9 a.m. starts made road biking a lot more difficult than back home. We had a great time, but we learned our lesson – from now on, when we go on vacation we rent e-bikes. 

For one of our days in Bonnieux, we rented a couple of e-bikes from one of the two local shops and spent the day riding around the area, visiting many of the same places we had seen before and some new favorites. 

We rode first to the small town of Lacoste and saw the historic chateau of the Marquis de Sade, which is mostly a preserved ruin, then continuing down the road to the well preserved Abbaye St. Hillarie in Vaucluse, dating to the 13th century. We had the Abbaye totally to ourselves to explore. 

We continued on to the beautiful hill town of Gordes where we parked for lunch and had a wonderful meal outside near the main square. We then headed back down the hill and came back into Bonnieux via the historic Roman bridge nearby. 

We found the roads in town much easier to navigate on e-bike, almost easier than the car, and for long stretches we were able to take a dedicated bike path off the main highways. It was an absolutely perfect day, and much more pleasant than doing all that pedaling on our own.

Roussillon

During our Backroads trip we cycled through Roussillon but didn’t get to spend much time there. This time we got to spend the day there, hiking through the famous Ochre Trail.

Roussillon is most famous for these bright red sandy hills caused by iron oxide deposits in the soil, dating back millions of years. In more recent history, ochre was mined from the 18th century until around 1930. One of the old quarries is now a well-established hiking trail, with both a long and short option to explore the beautiful red cliffs. 

We parked at the convenient lot at the top of the trail and enjoyed our stroll through the beautiful cliffs, ranging in color from mustard to orange to deep red. We had to be careful to dust off our shoes so we wouldn’t stain the carpets inside our rental house.

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

For our final excursion from Bonnieux, we drove a short distance to the quaint village of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. The small town is built on both sides of the Sorgue River and the river features heavily in the town, with lots of sweet bridges, water wheels and riverside cafes along the way.

The town was probably the busiest we visited in Provence since we went on Sunday, during their weekly antique market. The town has lots of antique shops anyway but on Sundays there are stalls everywhere, selling all kinds of interesting furniture and bric a brac, old and modern, for all different price ranges. It was a lot of fun to browse and if I had a house in France I expect I would come there to find some one of a kind pieces to furnish it.

At the recommendation of our AirBnB hostess we had lunch at the Cafe Fleurs, right on the canal. After a week of good food ranging from Italian to burgers but nothing especially French, this was our most authentic meal of our trip. We were a little unsure of the menu, so we just went with the daily special, which I think was some kind of pork hoof. Whatever it was, we didn’t ask too many questions. Everything was delicious including the chocolate mousse served out of a gigantic bowl at the end.

Halloween in Bonnieux

Our last night in Bonnieux the town was celebrating Halloween and they went all out. The tiny little market near our rental house decorated the entire place and all the workers were in costume. The place was totally dark so if you wanted to actually shop, someone took you around with a lantern. The market and several other businesses around town gave candy to the kids and parents had stands setup with goodies the kids made for a small fee.  Mark even got to get some of the kids’ cotton candy himself. Even though he didn’t have a costume they decided he qualified as a kid.

We celebrated by having our second dinner of the week at Maison Baumo, enjoying burgers, wine, and a really fun local band playing covers, mostly in English. It was a great way to end our week in Provence.

Conclusion

There is so much to see in Provence and we were lucky to have incredible weather so late in the season. We loved having one place to stay, getting to shop at the weekly market and having the ability to cook on our own and just enjoy the amazing views. While late October worked for us, we had to work a little harder to find places to eat and definitely had to call to verify if places were open. I imagine in larger, more popular towns we might have had a different experience but we loved our quaint little hilltop retreat.

See all the places we visited in Provence on Trip Advisor.