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Main Luberon page

Les Gorges du Regalon

Merindol, Lourmarin,Cucuron

Bonnieux, Lacoste

Menerbes, Oppede, Robion

Cavaillon, starting point of another grand tour

Luberon-Combe de Lourmarin-Bonnieux-Lacoste

Cabrières d'Avignon, Mur de la  Peste, Bories

Gordes and abbaye de Senanques

Gorges de Veroncle, Murs, grottoes de la Barigoule

Roussillon, ochre but a not so idyllic destiny

Apt, Saignon and Sivergues

Buoux, Pertuis, Ansouis, Cadenet,  abbey of Sylvacane

Correction by Mr.Rip Green)

Let’s return to Lourmarin via the road north, the D 943 direction Bonnieux. This highly acclaimed canyon-like road, which often gives you the impression you’re driving through Zion National park or Bryce canyon, cuts deep into the narrow valley, sometimes only a narrow chasm, and allows unfortunately only the passengers to enjoy the stunning scenery. The driver has to concentrate on the winding and dangerous road!! Especially in high season when bicycle riders are legion. At the fork to Apt we take the D 36 left to Bonnieux. After 2 km we’ll see on the left side a large parking space with a signboard (red bordered) with the inscription “Route DFCI Cretes”. This is a forest road to the “Foret des Cèdres”, accessible with your car when the barrier is open, which is NOT often in the summer (fire danger). The first 5 km leads you to a second barrier where you have to get out of the car and proceed on foot if you want to see the breathtaking panoramas over the valley bordered by the plateau de Vaucluse with the towering Mont Ventoux. While walking you will discover incredible views of Bonnieux, Lacoste, Roussillon and Apt. But let’s return from this little expedition and continue on the D 36 to Bonnieux. First we pass a typical Roman bridge on the road to Apt.
BONNIEUX, 425 m altitude, built into the rocks in different levels, made  a severe, even somber impression on me. The interiors of the gracious maisons de maitre often have a lovely graciousness, contrasting with their sometimes almost hostile and let’s face it, untidy facades. Most have breathtaking views of the valley, while the strong light enters thhouses trough high windows. 

Quite a few world celebrities have retired to this place, but live in complete anonymity, avoiding us, the outsiders that we are. The “Musée de la Boulangerie “ is worth a visit. It is located in an old house on the main street at 12 rue de la Republique. A big collection of all the tools used in the art of baking are on display. Notice that wherever you walk, you smell cedar, although they are only 100 years old. Taking the advice of a guide, we entered the bakery of Henri Tomas. The woman was charming! They told us that only Americans from San Francisco and Boston come to Bonnieux - very curious! 
While we try to get now to LACOSTE on the other side of the valley descending via the D 36 and making a left at the first sign to Lacoste, let me say a few words to you about  the terrible wars and destructions that took place in the Luberon during the religious wars of the middle ages.

Most of the inhabitants of the Luberon were followers of a Protestant sect called the “Waldenzes”. The Catholic repression was terrible. All of the villages and cities belonging to the "wrong" party were razed, destroyed, burned and all the inhabitants were slaughtered to the last man, woman and child.  Why do I mention all of this? Because the difference between Bonnieux and Lacoste is the difference between Catholic and Protestant. As Catholic as Bonnieux was,  Lacoste was even more Protestant. While driving, the scenery might seem idyllic and look like a something from a movie about gallant, chivalrous knights. The truth is much more cruel. After the destruction of Merindol and Cabrieres d’Aigues, Jean Meynier, the baron of Oppède, arrived in 1545 in Lacoste. It became a year of total disaster. Despite the deal made with the local aristocracy that nothing would happen if they opened the gates, as soon as the soldiers entered, a real mass murder started: it was apocalyptic. Men were thrown over the cliffs, women also -- but only after being raped. Fire was set in all the houses and only the chateau escaped thanks to the intervention of the vice-president of the Aix parliament. This chateau is located on the highest point in Lacoste. It became famous much later when the marquis de Sade lived in it from 1771 to 1778. Yes, the famous one.  He was imprisoned in the Bastille and when he died his janitor bought the castle.  The elderly owner, Andre Bouer, restored it slowly and patiently but only partly. 

The American professor Michael Jacobs, who stayed a while in Lacoste for the Cleveland Institute of Arts, admitted in his Provence book that he always found Lacoste “slightly sinister”. The Provence specialist Jean-Paul-Clebert says the same thing about his own village Oppede-le-Vieux and I will add my deux centimes worth by saying that despite the sun, beauty of nature, colours and wind I too find some places that give me an uneasy feeling.
Let’s have a comic interlude: the animosity between the two cafe owners in this so tiny village. Jacobs talks about it in his Provence book. The Café de Sade lies just at the entrance to the village, below the road level. An ideal small terrace where you can have an excellent meal. The owner,  Lilianne Segura, of Spanish origin, is called the “mother of Lacoste” for her kindness and willingness to help. The Café de Sade is also a hotel. The Café de France is statelier and has a big picture window giving you a beautiful view of the valley. It has an enormous ballroom. The owner Maurice Grau, got the clientele of the American girls of the Art Institute (half of the upper village belongs to the Cleveland Institute). At night a lot of customers come also from Avignon and that’s where the problem is: In the Café de Sade they affirm that the Café de France is a “centre of drugs and corruption”. Lilianne Segura is accused by Maurice Grau of being a police spy. The controversy has become so violent, that it has virtually divided Lacoste into two feuding clans!

 Bibliography:

"Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi de la France" by Prosper Merimée (Ed.Adam Biro, Paris 1989), "Guide de la Provence mysterieuse" by Jean-Paul Clebert (Ed.Sand, 1986), "Guide du Routard Provence 1998 (Ed.Hachette), "Provence", by Jacques-Louis Delpal (ed.Natahn Paris 1987), "A guide to Provence", by Michael Jacobs (ed;Viking, London 1988), "Luberon, carnets d'un voyageur attentif", by Ollivier-Elliot Patrick,(ed. Edisud Aix-en-Provence 1991)