The Luberon in 4 days

The Luberon's most photographed village, tiered up a spur to its Renaissance castle; climb the cobbled lanes, then walk down to the terraced gardens.

A Cistercian abbey founded in 1148 in a narrow valley below Gordes, still home to monks; see the cloister and bare Romanesque church.

Two marked loops of 30 and 50 minutes through old ochre quarries, among cliffs and spires in every shade from yellow to deep red.

At Gargas, a guided walk through part of 40 km of hand-dug ochre galleries, entered through 15-metre portals cut into the cliff.

A village on the plain south of the Luberon, around a castle with Provence's first Renaissance wing; Albert Camus is buried in its cemetery.

Ochre quarries near Apt, worked until 1992, now a canyon of coloured sands, earth pillars and red cliffs crossed by marked trails.

Atlas cedars planted in 1861 on the Petit Luberon ridge, with a flat 2 km botanical trail and clifftop paths looking over the Durance valley.

A town laced with arms of the clear, cold Sorgue and mossy water wheels; its Sunday market joins one of France's largest antiques fairs.