Provence is the interior behind the Mediterranean coast: limestone ridges, villages built on top of them, vines, olives, and for a few weeks in summer the lavender that appears on every photograph of the region and is in flower for a much shorter period than most visitors realise. This page covers that interior, the Luberon, the Alpilles, the Vaucluse and the Valensole plateau, with Avignon, Aix and Arles as the towns. The coast has its own pages.
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The Romans were here heavily, which is why Arles has an amphitheatre still used for events, Nimes has a temple in better condition than almost anything in Rome, and the Pont du Gard carries an aqueduct 49 metres above a river. The popes were in Avignon for most of the fourteenth century. Van Gogh painted around 300 works in Arles and Saint-Remy in about two years. It is a dense region and the distances are short, which tempts people into seeing it from a car window.
What Makes Provence Different to Pack For
The lavender is a six week event
The Valensole plateau flowers from roughly late June to mid July and is harvested from about the middle of July. The higher fields around Sault run later, into early August. Arrive in late August and you will find stubble. This single fact determines when most people should come.
The mistral
The cold dry north wind down the Rhone valley, most frequent in winter and spring, blowing at 60 to 100 km/h for three, six or nine days. It makes a 15°C day feel like 5°C, it is relentless, and it is the reason the old farmhouses have almost no windows on their north side.
A merino wool base layer for women under a windproof is the right answer, because the problem is wind stripping heat rather than low air temperature.
Hot, dry summers and real winters
July and August run 28°C to 35°C with heat waves higher, and the region has a serious wildfire risk that closes forest and hill access on high risk days. Winter sits at 3°C to 12°C, sunny and cold in the wind.
Every village is on a hill and paved in stone
Gordes, Roussillon, Menerbes, Bonnieux, Lacoste, Les Baux, Saint-Paul: all of them are climbs on polished stone and cobble, usually with steps.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Provence Packing List
Footwear
Flat shoes with grip for the villages, where the stone is worn smooth and the lanes are steep. This is the item that matters most for a village-based trip.
Waterproof hiking shoes for the Luberon and Alpilles trails, the ochre trail at Roussillon, the Colorado Provencal at Rustrel and the walk up Mont Ventoux's lower slopes. The garrigue is thorny, loose and sharp underfoot, and the ochre paths stain shoes orange permanently, which is worth knowing before you wear pale ones.
Clothing
Light layers for summer with a windproof for the mistral, which arrives regardless of season. A packable rain jacket, since autumn storms here are violent and brief.
Long trousers for the garrigue, which is thorn scrub. Covered shoulders and knees for the Palais des Papes chapels, the abbeys at Senanque and Silvacane, and village churches. Provence dresses simply and well; the markets are casual and the restaurants in Aix are not.
Warm layers from November to March, because the wind makes the winter feel far colder than the numbers.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat with a chin cord, because the mistral will take an ordinary hat, plus high factor sunscreen and sunglasses. The lavender fields, the ochre cliffs and the Roman sites are all open ground in fierce light.
Practical
A car, realistically, since buses between hill villages are infrequent and the markets are early. Cash for markets. A cool bag if you are buying cheese and charcuterie in July. Antihistamines if lavender or grass pollen affects you, which catches people out in a lavender field. And a phone holder if you are driving, because the lanes are narrow and unforgiving.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Luberon villages
Gordes stacked in pale stone on a rock face, Roussillon built from the ochre it sits on, Menerbes, Bonnieux, Lacoste with the ruins of Sade's chateau, and Oppede-le-Vieux abandoned and partly reclaimed.
Practically: grippy flat shoes and a hat. Park below and walk up, because the centres are closed or impossible. Gordes is spectacular and busy; the villages either side of it are not. The Abbaye de Senanque below Gordes has its own lavender in front of it, flowering at the same time as Valensole, and it is a working Cistercian monastery, so shoulders and knees and silence.
The Valensole plateau
Rolling lavender fields on a high plain east of the Luberon, with the Verdon beyond.
Practically: late June to mid July. The fields are private working farms; park in the marked areas, do not drive onto the tracks, do not pick, and do not trample a row for a photograph. Bees are working the flowers in enormous numbers and will be around you constantly, which is the point of the crop; move calmly and they are not a problem unless you are allergic. Sun hat, water and an early start, because it is hot and shadeless by ten.
Roussillon and the ochre
A village of red, orange and gold houses built from the ochre quarried beneath it, with the Sentier des Ocres walking through the old workings, and the larger Colorado Provencal at Rustrel nearby.
Practically: the ochre dust stains fabric and shoes permanently. Wear dark shoes and clothes you do not mind. The trail is short, steep in places and has drops. Full sun.
Avignon, Arles and the Roman sites
The Palais des Papes at Avignon, the largest Gothic palace in Europe, and the bridge that stops halfway. Arles with its amphitheatre and the Van Gogh sites. The Pont du Gard, a three tier aqueduct bridge from the first century. Nimes with the Maison Carree and its own arena. Glanum at Saint-Remy.
Practically: flat shoes on Roman paving, which is uneven and polished. Covered shoulders in the chapels. Avignon's festival in July fills the city completely and books out months ahead. The Pont du Gard has a swimming spot in the river beneath it and a long hot walk from the car park.
The markets
Every town has a morning market on a fixed day: Isle-sur-la-Sorgue on Sunday, which is also an antiques centre, Apt on Saturday, Saint-Remy on Wednesday, Aix most days.
Practically: go at eight, not eleven. They end at lunchtime and the good stalls sell out. Cash, a basket or bag, and flat shoes on cobbles. This is the best thing to do in Provence and it costs nothing.
Mont Ventoux and the Verdon
Ventoux is a bare limestone summit at 1,909 metres, famous from the Tour de France and visible from most of the region. The Gorges du Verdon east of Valensole is a 700 metre deep limestone canyon with turquoise water.
Practically: the summit of Ventoux is 15 degrees colder than the plain and ferociously windy, so take real layers even in August, and the road closes in winter. The Verdon has cliff paths with exposure, a 700 step descent on the Sentier Blanc-Martel with a tunnel that needs a torch, and cold deep water. Both are proper mountain environments rather than scenery.
What Not to Bring
Leave pale shoes for Roussillon. Leave a hat without a chin strap. Leave the assumption that lavender is out all summer.
Leave heels for hill villages. Leave a large car for the lanes, which are single track with stone walls. Leave the idea of cycling Ventoux casually. And leave any thought of walking into a lavender row for a photograph, which is somebody's crop.
Essential Resources for Women in Provence
Emergency numbers in France: 112 is the European emergency number and works everywhere. 15 reaches the SAMU medical service, 17 the police, 18 the fire service. In rural Provence the fire service, the sapeurs-pompiers, are also the first responders for most incidents including wildfire, which is the seasonal emergency here.
Tourist support: France has no dedicated tourist police force. Rural Provence is covered by the Gendarmerie rather than the Police Nationale. A theft requires a plainte filed at a gendarmerie or commissariat, and the pre-plainte-en-ligne service lets you start it online.
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Paris at fr.usembassy.gov covers France, with the Consulate General in Marseille the nearest post to Provence and a consular agency there for limited services. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the CHU de Nimes, the Centre Hospitalier d'Avignon and the CHU de Marseille at La Timone are the referral hospitals for the region, with 24 hour urgences, plus smaller hospitals at Aix, Arles, Cavaillon and Apt. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance.
Official health authority: the French Ministry of Health at sante.gouv.fr, with Meteo France for the heat wave and wildfire risk alerts. In summer the prefectures close forest and hill areas on high fire risk days, and the daily map is the thing to check before any walk in the Luberon, the Alpilles or around Ventoux.
US State Department travel advisory for France: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for France: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the wildfire information for southern France and the advice on driving and vehicle break-ins.
Official tourism authority: Atout France at france.fr, with Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Tourisme and the Luberon and Verdon regional park offices for trail status, market days and the lavender flowering reports, which are published week by week in season.
Solo women safety assessment: Provence is among the easiest and most pleasant regions in Europe for a woman travelling alone. It is rural, prosperous and long used to independent visitors, crime against travellers is low, the villages are tiny and safe, and street harassment is rare outside the larger towns. Eating alone is completely normal, markets are sociable, and a woman walking a village at dusk is unremarkable. The urban caution applies in Avignon, Arles, Nimes and Aix, all of which have ordinary city pickpocketing around their stations and busy squares, and Avignon in festival season is crowded enough for bag theft to be common. The single most reported crime against visitors in this region is vehicle break-in: cars are broken into at trailheads, viewpoints, lavender field laybys and the Pont du Gard car parks, often in minutes and in daylight. Leave nothing visible, leave nothing in the boot, and take your passport and documents with you. The genuine physical risks are environmental. Wildfire is the serious one: summers here are hot, dry and windy, fires move fast in the garrigue, and access to forest and hills is closed by prefectural order on high risk days, which is not advisory. Check the map, respect the closure, and do not smoke or barbecue outside. Heat is the second, with the plateau and the Roman sites unshaded and heat waves regularly above 38°C, so walk early and carry water. The mistral is the third and it is underestimated: it strips heat, unbalances you on an exposed ridge, makes cycling dangerous and can turn a pleasant walk on Ventoux into a serious situation. In the Verdon, the gorge paths have real exposure, the tunnels need a torch, and the water is cold and deep with currents near the dam releases. Driving is the last: the lanes are narrow with stone walls, the drink driving limit is 0.5 and the region is full of wine.
Reading On
Provence is two and a half hours from Paris by TGV to Avignon and is best done slowly from one village base rather than as a circuit. The France travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the France packing list for women covers a trip across it. On the coast below, the Marseille packing list for women covers the port and the Calanques and the Nice packing list for women the Riviera, with the Corsica packing list for women offshore. North up the Rhone, the Lyon packing list for women is two hours away, and the Annecy packing list for women and Chamonix packing list for women reach the Alps. West and north, the Bordeaux packing list for women, the Dordogne packing list for women, the Loire Valley packing list for women and the Paris packing list for women cover the rest. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why a thin wool layer under a shell is the answer to a mistral, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
