Provence Travel Guide

 

I’m so excited to finally share with all of you the second part of my honeymoon with my Provence Travel Guide! I hope you were able to read my Saint Jean Cap Ferrat Travel Guide, for the first part of my honeymoon! This was my first time in Provence and there is SO much to explore. We really only covered a region called Luberon, but we can’t wait to go back (hopefully soon) and explore more of Provence!

WHERE TO STAY

We drove about two hours from Nice, France to the Luberon region in Provence. The drive was beautiful and highly suggest renting a car while you are visiting the French Riviera to explore as much as you can. We stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast in Luberon called Chambre La Jassine. André made sure our stay was perfect and was so welcoming with many suggestions of restaurants and places to explore near Luberon. She had an incredible breakfast hot and ready to go for us every morning that was just as delicious as the one we had in Cap Ferrat. We loved eating our breakfast in her garden and enjoyed her the beautiful scenery and pool during our stay. The house was over 300 years old and newly remodeled. We loved staying here because it was so charming and gave us a more authentic French experience as opposed to staying at a hotel. Her adorable dog, Shu Shu, was always on the grounds and enjoyed greeting us we were coming and going to explore! Everything was always so neat and clean and tried to find ways to “accidentally” lose our passports so we wouldn’t have to leave! We would both highly recommend staying here and want to stay here for our next visit!

 

 

WHERE TO EAT

Just like St Jean Cap Ferrat, we ate our way through Provence! As mentioned above, we would have a delicious breakfast every day at Chambre La Jassine then would head out to our next adventure filled with other delicious treats along the way. On the first night, we went to a restaurant about 10 minutes away from where we were staying called, Auberge des Carrieres. This had a fun casual feel and we enjoyed dinner on the patio. We both had fish as our main course and cheese for dessert! They had a delicious selection of cheeses for dessert and was by far my favorite part of the night.

 

 

One afternoon, we explored several cities amongst Luberon and ate at this delicious outdoor cafe called, Bistrot Le 5 in Menerbes. We had an incredible view that overlooked the town and the Luberon region of Provence. We split a bottle of rose and had the salmon gnocchi! It was so delicious and definitely worth the drive to visit! We then had dinner that evening at a restaurant called La Bergerie. This was our favorite meal in Provence. The restaurant was connected to Hotel Capelongue and also looked like an amazing place to stay. We had the most incredible view of the sunset with drinks and appetizers where we discovered their amazing Poischicade spread. We loved it so much we ended up buying several bottles of it at the hotel! We have yet to open a bottle because we are saving it for a special occasion. Our other appetizers and entrees were also to die for. They are known for their truffle pizza, which was incredible and then had fish and lamb for our main course! Not only was the ambiance amazing, but the food was, too!

 

 

Another restaurant we loved was Restaurant La Bartavelle. Like all of the restaurants, this had another incredible view and ambiance. This one was more quaint as it was a smaller cafe nestled in the streets of Goult. The food was also so amazing, especially their fish soup! Our last night we had dinner at Le Petit Cafe. This looked out to the cathedral in Oppede and its charming surrounding streets. We ate outside on their patio which had adorable multi-colored lights displayed throughout the whole restaurant. This was such a fun way for us to remember our last night of the trip! We never felt rushed to finish our meal and enjoyed our table and a glass of wine the whole evening!

 

WHERE TO EXPLORE

The best part about Provence was that there were so many places to explore! As I mentioned before, renting a car is definitely the best way to get around and gives you the option to explore as much as possible. Closest to our stay was Oppede Le Vieux’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Right by Oppede Le Vieux with the exception of a short hike, the cathedral was accompanied by the most gorgeous view of Luberon! The cathedral is in the process of being restored was so interesting to read about its history.

Another fun spot just a short drive from our stay was a village called Gordes. Just outside Gordes is the perfect scenic view that is the ultimate spot for taking photos! Chris and I definitely held up the line take our’s below -oops! It was such an adorable town with cute patisseries and lavender shops! I would highly recommend stopping here not only for the photo but to wander around as well!

 

 

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue was another one of our favorite spots! It is the perfect stop if you are wanting to hunt for antiques and has the most adorable French market every Sunday. One of our favorite spots was Patisserie Jouvaud! It’s one of the first stops right as you enter the town and its filled with row after row of pastries and baguettes. It’s a great little stop even just for coffee or a fun gift! If you happen to be in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue on a Sunday you will be greeted with a ton of antique shops and markets all throughout the town. There is also any type of French food you can imagine in the market and is so exciting to wander around and sample your way through the market! We bought some incredible cheese but it sadly melted in the car on our way back to our bed and breakfast. So, if anyone happens to ever go to the market at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue you know I will be expecting some cheese upon your return!

 

 

Pont du Gard was another incredible spot that I highly recommend. It was about an hour drive from Oppede but is the perfect stop after going to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue! We were only there for a couple of hours but it could be an all-day adventure if you wanted! You will first enter the grounds like a museum entrance and is a bit of walking involved to finally see Pont du Gard- but so worth it! There are spots to rent kayaks and is something we wished we would have done! We had done a lot of exploring that day so we opted for a bottle of wine and enjoyed the view instead.

 

 

 

Another fun place to explore especially if you love Haribo candy is the Haribo Muse Du BonBon! We stumbled upon a sign en route to the Pont du Gard and had to make a quick detour because we LOVE Haribo. This was such a fun part of our trip because it was so unexpected and not something the typical person does on their honeymoon. For us, it was such a blast and was really interesting to see how the candy was processed and we even got to make our own bag of candy! This would be such a fun stop if you are visiting with family or love candy just as much as we do.

Carriers Lumieres is another must if you are in Provence! This museum is unlike any museum I ever have visited! The museum is in an old rock quarry and projects images off the walls while playing music to the theme of the exhibit. We ended up going on the day of the Picasso exhibit and it was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen! This is the perfect museum especially if you are looking for a new and exciting museum experience. If you love art just like I do, then this will be such an exciting museum for you to visit!

There are a ton of vineyards throughout all of Provence, but we only visited Chateau d’ Esclans. Chateau d’ Esclans produces my favorite rose, Whispering Angel! It was one of my most anticipated spots of the trip and it did not let us down! Unlike Texas vineyards, it was not overcrowded and we were one of the only couples visiting the vineyard that day. It was so interesting to see how the wine was produced and fell in love with several other wines they had to offer! The grounds were incredible and had the most beautiful hydrangeas that I had ever seen! Almost more beautiful than the ones in Nantucket (see my travel guide to Nantucket, here). If you love rose and Whispering Angel, then this is definitely a must when you visit Provence!

 

 

 

Lastly, another must-see spot in Provence is Senanque Abbey. Located just outside of Gordes sits this beautiful church in a field of lavender. We didn’t stay too long here because it was so crowded, so we just stayed for a few pictures. There are so many lavender fields throughout Provence and Senanque Abbey has a beautiful one on its grounds. Unfortunately, on our visit, a lot of rain hit Provence so there wasn’t as much lavender blooming. There were still a few fields we would randomly find on our drive and had to stop and take a few pictures!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my travel guide just as much as we enjoyed our stay! Feel free to ask me any questions about our stay in the comments below!

 

xo,

kristen