To accompany these photos from a trip to the Luberon region of Provence, I promise not to wax lyrical in effort to transport you to a place you’ve never been to. I promise not to make you jealous.
I’m sharing them with you because they were taken on a trip three whole years ago. I want you to feel sorry for me.

Or at least tell me if there’s a place you feel the same way about. Provence, you see, specifically the Luberon, is the place I want to go back to every day of my life.

If I won the lottery tomorrow (note to self: must buy a ticket), I would insist that my husband leave his job. He would be fine with that.
I would be on a plane within a couple of weeks and rent a house or apartment somewhere like Bonnieux, Lourmarin or Goult. After several months if we still felt like it, we would start looking for a house to buy.

I would be sure a vase of sunflowers was the first thing I’d see every time I walked through the door.
I’d find a French tutor from Provence who was educated in Paris. She’d be female, feisty and bored enough with her small town Provencal lifestyle that she would go along with my plan for us to be new best friends. Preferably she’d live next door to me.

Most Saturday mornings we’d drive my new used Renault (stick shift, of course, and with no power steering), to the market in Apt. We’d walk or ride bikes everywhere else.

As part of my French lessons we’d cook together using my fancy new stove I bought with my lottery winnings. She’d show me how to do magical things with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes.

After several months of leisurely drives in the stick shift Renault, seeking the perfect Mas en Provence, my husband and I would find a place where we wanted to live.

As a matter of serendipity, this town where we settle will be the same one where we have been renting. Our mas will be located in real estate speak, “in a quiet corner of the village.” In Goult, it would be fine.

Of course, I’d bring my new stove with us, and I’d paint the front door blue.

My mas en provence will be will très post-Peter Mayle, meaning without exposed wiring or holes in the roof. There will be terracotta; there will also be airconditioning.

I’ll send vintage postcards I have written at a desk facing a window to friends and family using yellow mailboxes.

My French tutor/friend and I will continue to go to various markets throughout the region. Before visits to the US, I will try to remember to buy lots of Savon de Marseille (soap) for my mother.

One night after dining outside around an old table I picked up at a marché and after a few too many glasses of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, my friend will give me the recipe for her grandmother’s cassoulet. I will treasure it forever, but will never be brave enough to try making it myself.

Each spring break and summer vacation my daughters will come to stay with us. There will always be plenty of room.

I’ll take them to Arles and Avignon and we’ll go shopping in Aix. We’ll lounge on the beach in Cassis and come home with rosy cheeks and shoulders.

In July we’ll drive up to Mount Ventoux with the windows rolled down and look at lavender fields.

C’est tout.
I was just kidding about feeling sorry for me, by the way. But I do want to know:
Where is your Provence?
All photos Margo Millure © – For any social sharing please credit correctly. Please contact for any other re-use.
This is exquisitely beautiful, Margo! Sigh…I’m in heaven. 🙂 My Provence would probably be Northern Italy, between the lakes and the mountains and the sea. That would be perfect. 🙂
Just gorgeous Margo, thank you for sharing your Provence with us.
I love the photo of the blue door!
Margo, this is great and the funniest article on Travel Belles. May I just say that this sentence: “…there will also be airconditioning.” is very American! 🙂 Provance is on my bucket list. Anyway, if you buy a house there can I be your guest for 2 weeks? 🙂
Really spectacular photos, Margo. I could almost feel the sun’s heat on the landscape, the bright pop of a strawberry’s taste. And that shot of the two little girls is like a painting; the lighting is exquisite.
Karen McCann
enjoylivingabroad.com
Simply amazing! I love Provence!
What a magical description of a wonderful part of France. I biked through Provence several years ago and loved the colours, the smells and the beautiful villages. May you win the lottery.
Fabulous photos as usual. Where’s my Provence? In Provence, bien sur!!
I love the photos, Margo! We spent just one week in Bonnieux, several years ago, and it was sublime. We have also visited the Minervois, in the Languedoc region of SW France, sometimes for a month at a time because its layout reminds us of the Luberon, but it’s cheaper! If I won the lottery, I would also love to live in the Luberon, or perhaps nearer the coast in Provence, or Italy…
Nice. Our provence is nearby in Ilse sur La Sorgue where we have a little old apartment which we’ve restored and a basement which we’re “doing”. And we have air but not american by the way – it gets hot in summer. Provence generally brings to mind a Mas with a some land and may some fruit trees or olives? Problem is unless you live there, which we don’t, it’s too hard – upkeep and safety I think. So my advice is go for what you can afford – be it a mas or a little apartment like ours in a corner of a nice little town. We rent it on holiday sites and it pays for itself and we visit once or twice a year but can dream of one day ….. maybe or maybe not but it’s another winder into the world, just two weeks is restorative and it’s all set up like “home”.
Don’t be put off by first blush of the realtors windows/webs as there are some nice little places for not much money – well under $150k if this is not much money. Go for it rather and dream about it. Generally I think we regret the things we don’t do (when we had that chance) and not those we do do. We deal with those and grow
Oh Ken, I loved it there!
me too, Bernadette! 🙂