Drôme Provençale in 4 days

A Renaissance palace above the village where Madame de Sévigné died in 1696; its terrace looks over lavender fields to Mont Ventoux.

A listed hilltop village above the Rhône plain, with the 12th-century Romanesque church of Saint-Michel and a terraced garden of medicinal and aromatic herbs.

Nyons black olives gained France's first olive designation in 1994; the Thursday morning market sells oil, tapenade, goat's cheese and apricots.

A medieval fortress refitted in the Renaissance above Côtes du Rhône vineyards, home to the Wine University since 1978.

A family distillery in Nyons turning lavender, lavandin and herbs into essential oils in copper stills, which you can see working in July and August.

A town where some thirty potters still work; the museum traces its pottery history with old pieces, throwing demonstrations and contemporary exhibitions.

A listed fortified village built in the 12th century by the Knights Hospitaller around a commandery, abandoned in the 19th century and saved from 1926.

A listed village stacked up a hillside below its ruined 16th-century castle, with a spa fed by a sulphur spring known since Roman times.