A GUIDE TO LOURMARIN: WHAT TO SEE, DO AND TASTE IN PROVENCE'S MOST CHARMING VILLAGE

Lourmarin is a village best discovered on foot, without a plan. Start at the central square, where café terraces spill out onto the cobblestones and the morning light falls across stone facades. Follow Rue du Temple towards the château, then lose yourself in the smaller streets that branch off it — narrow, quiet, lined with old houses whose shutters come in every shade of blue and green. Stop for a café crème. Sit for longer than you intended. There is a boulangerie producing gibassier, the Provençal olive oil biscuit, best eaten still warm. A tea shop tucked off the main route, with a garden terrace built for reading. A free wine tasting at Domaine de Fontenille, right on the village square.

The French have a word for this: flâner. Lourmarin was made for it.

The oldest Renaissance château in Provence is also one of the most unlikely stories in it.

In 1920, a Lyon entrepreneur named Robert Laurent-Vibert used his family fortune — built on the men's hair product Pétrole Hahn — to rescue the château from demolition and restore it stone by stone. His condition: that the building serve young artists in perpetuity. The Académie des Sciences, Agriculture, Arts et Belles Lettres of Aix-en-Provence has overseen it ever since.

Inside, you will find period rooms, a remarkable spiral staircase and a calendar of concerts, exhibitions and art residencies that continues through the seasons. The terrace is worth the climb alone: from there, the village spreads below and the Luberon stretches out behind it.

Plan an hour to an hour and a half. The château is open year-round, though guided visits vary by season.

Mas Arnal

Also in the commune of Lourmarin, the Mas Arnal is a family-run organic estate of 8 hectares, its varied soils and renovated barrel cellar producing wines of real finesse. They also produce the Vin Beaumier — the house wine of the Beaumier hotels. Visits by appointment, for tastings in the company of the winemaker. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00. Four minutes by bike, 8 minutes on foot.

Château La Verrerie

Further afield, near Puget in the southern Luberon, Château La Verrerie is one of the appellation's most emblematic estates: 150 hectares of land, of which 56 are vines cultivated organically, on a site founded in the 1980s on the grounds of an ancient glassworks. The domaine offers a full oenotourism experience — walks through the vines, cellar visits, tastings of wines and olive oils in a refined setting. Open daily 10:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 19:00. 34 minutes by bike, 15 minutes by car.

Lourmarin is a good base for exploring the countryside on foot or by bike. The trails of the Grand Luberon start almost from the village edge, winding through garrigue, dry-stone walls and cypress alleys before opening onto views that stretch to the Alps on clear days. For something more demanding, the Buoux site — about 15 kilometres east — is one of the most celebrated climbing spots in France, its limestone cliffs drawing enthusiasts from across Europe. Those who prefer two wheels will find quiet roads through the vineyards connecting Lourmarin to Cucuron, Ansouis and Cadenet with little traffic.

On Friday mornings from April to June and September to October, a guided market itinerary winds through the Lourmarin stalls with a focus on the best local producers — a good way to learn whose olive oil, whose cheese and whose honey is worth taking home. Later in the morning, the Château La Verrerie wine truck parks near the village square, offering tastings of estate wines alongside provisions from the local épicerie.

To stay in the heart of the village, Le Moulin de Lourmarin offers rooms set in a converted olive mill a few steps from the market square — a hotel in Lourmarin that places you at the centre of things from the moment you arrive. For something quieter at the edge of the village, Le Galinier is a Beaumier guesthouse — a B&B in Lourmarin with the unhurried rhythm of a private house.