La Fleur du Luberon - GORD107EE

Gordes offers more commodities than other Provençal villages of similar size. It has a wide selection of restaurants, spas and shops from the family friendly to the exclusive range of products.

South France Holiday Villa offers a wide selection of luxury villa rentals in and around the village of Gordes.
Staying in a luxury villa rental in the Luberon, places you in the midst of a National Park composed of three mountain ranges that form the heart of Provence and contains many charming hilltop villages and river valley hamlets. Villages such as Lourmarin, Gordes, Menerbes, Bonnieux and Roussillon bring romantic images to mind, but other lesser known towns and villages such as Mirabeau, where the iconic French films 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources' were filmed are also waiting to be explored. It is a perfect place to relax, discover vineyards, cycle, fish or go mountain climbing.
The Luberon is the heart of Provence, its sundrenched landscapes dotted with hilltop medieval villages, castles, forts and ancient ruins.

There is a deep sense of history, yet at the same time the region is wonderfully wild and beautiful, a place where you can spend a peaceful day walking or biking along quiet trails, through oak and cedar forests and among fields of wild thym and rosemary.

Overflowing with character, the Luberon National Park offers a sweet dolce vita climate, pure clean air, the mauve splashes of lavender; the subtle nuances of green from vineyards, olive groves, fruit orchards and natures wilderness; the flamboyant ochres and the austere white of the limestone hills.

And this is the living Luberon, where everything goes back to man's relationship with the basic elements. The dry stone walls, the bories, the imposing bastides, the villages perched precaiously on hillsides. A harmony carved out over the millenia.

In the last two decades the Luberon has become known in the English-speaking world especially through a series of books by British author Peter Mayle chronicling his life as an expatriate settled in the Luberon village of Ménerbes. One of Mayle's books was made into a film A Good Year (2006) directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and filmed in the region.

In more precise terms the Luberon is the name given to a range of mountains running about 34 miles (55km) roughly eastward from Cavillon to Manosque. The region has been designated as a park "le Parc Régional du Luberon' that is divided into the Petit Luberon to the west, and the grand Luberon to the east. UNESCO classified the Luberon as a worldwide Biosphere Reserve in 1997.