The Best Mas and
Bastides in the Luberon

There is a particular quality of light in the Luberon in the early morning — pale gold, almost white — that makes everything look as though it has always been there and always will be. The limestone hills, the lavender rows, the shuttered farmhouses with their walled gardens. It is a landscape that rewards slowness, and the best places to stay here understand that.

The Luberon is not short of places to sleep. But most of them — the converted barns, the holiday villas, the restored manoirs — are designed for a kind of comfort that has nothing to do with the place itself. What follows is a shorter list: the properties where the house, the landscape and the hospitality are genuinely inseparable.

La Bastide de Gordes

Gordes sits at the northern edge of the Luberon, above the valley, and the Bastide is the best hotel in it. A 16th-century fortified manor, it was restored with exceptional care and an eye for what matters — the views, the proportions of the rooms, the quality of the stone. The spa is remarkable without being showy. The restaurant takes the local ingredients seriously. Breakfast on the terrace, with the valley below and the village above, is one of those hotel mornings you don't forget.

The terrace at La Bastide de Gordes, looking south across the Luberon valley towards the Durance river.

© La Bastide de Gordes

Book the rooms on the south-facing side of the house. They are quieter, and the light in the afternoon is extraordinary. If you are visiting in summer, reserve a table at the restaurant at least a week ahead — it fills quickly with people who have driven from as far as Aix.

Le Mas de Peint

Le Mas de Peint is not in the Luberon at all — it is in the Camargue, an hour to the south — but it belongs in any honest conversation about the finest places to sleep in Provence. A working farm in the flatlands between Arles and the sea, it has been run by the same family for generations. The rooms are simple in the way that only very expensive rooms can be: white walls, linen curtains, a window that opens onto the reed beds.

The horses are real. The flamingos are real. The cooking is local and seasonal in a way that most restaurants in Paris only claim to be. There is nothing about Le Mas de Peint that is designed for Instagram, and it is the better for it.

The courtyard and main house at Le Mas de Peint, photographed in October when the light is at its most extraordinary.

© Le Mas de Peint

A note on booking

Both properties fill early — especially in July and August, when the Luberon receives more visitors than it was built for. The best months to visit are May, early June and September. The lavender peaks in mid-July, but the crowds peak at the same time. Come in September for the harvest, the soft light and the return of the locals.

Early September in the Luberon — the crowds have thinned, the light has softened and the villages feel like themselves again.

© Notes Editions

If you are looking for something smaller and less formal, the villages of Bonnieux, Lacoste and Ménerbes all have good small hotels and chambres d'hôtes run by people who have chosen to be there. They are worth seeking out. We will add them to the Provence guide as we visit them.

The Luberon is a place that improves with return. The first visit is for orientation — for learning which villages face which way, which roads are worth taking slowly, where the morning market is and when it ends. The second visit is when it becomes somewhere you understand. The best hotels here are the ones that make you want to come back.