GO FRANCE: CAROLINE MADDENlet the movie industry do the legwork as she embarked on a trail of locations that have been used to bring the beauty of France to the silver screen
THERE ARE FEW words that conjure up the good life as powerfully as “Provence”. Utter those two little syllables and you can almost feel the warmth of the dappled sunlight filtering through the plane trees, smell the lavender-heavy air and hear the chorus of cicadas as you linger over a bottle of local rosé.
But with six departments – administrative districts to you and me – to choose from, each with its own micro-climate and culture, and hundreds of perched villages, medieval squares, chateaux and vineyards worthy of a visit, the challenge lies in knowing where to start.
Stick too closely to the guide books and you risk flying home with the nagging suspicion you’ve been round the tourist beat of Provence. Go too far off the beaten track and your view of rolling lavender meadows could be spoiled by nuclear power plant cooling towers looming in the distance. Head too far to the southeast and you’re straying from rural relaxation into the ritziness of the Riviera.
In order to pack as much of Provence as possible into our all-too-brief summer holidays, we decided to let the movie industry do the legwork for us. We embarked on a trail of locations that have been used for film shoots, and in doing so discovered some of the most beautiful places imaginable.
The Luberon Valley
On the southern slopes of the Luberon mountain range, in the Vaucluse region of Provence, lies a string of exceptionally pretty villages that have proved a rich hunting ground for Hollywood and the French film industry alike.
First stop is the tiny village of Vaugines, which enjoyed its 15 minutes of fame after featuring in Jean de Florette, the most popular foreign language film ever made. Scenes from the sequel, Manon des Sources, were also shot there.
Jean de Floretteis the tale of a hunch-backed tax collector played by Gerard Depardieu who inherits a farm in rural Provence. Jean moves with his wife and daughter, Manon, from the city to Provence, and is determined to make a new life as a farmer, but is scuppered by his greedy neighbours Caesar and Ugolin who covet the water spring ( la source) they've discovered on his land.
The exterior of Vaugines’s 11th-century Romanesque church, Holy Barthélémy, was used in Manon’s wedding scene and for Ugolin’s funeral, and can be found on the edge of the village. Like Vaugines itself, the church is simple, beautiful and glowing golden in the late summer light. It’s also possible to see Jean’s farmhouse across a nearby valley, though it’s said the owners are far from thrilled when tourists turn up.
The small square of Vaugines is the perfect place for a spot of lunch, preferably gambas and frites at Café de la Fontaine, where you can sit and take in the quaint stone houses with their painted shutters, many of which serve as pied-á-terres for Parisians.
And then it's on to Cucuron, a five-minute spin down the road. This village's photogenic looks have caught the eye of many a director, and it has served as a picturesque backdrop for numerous movies, including Le Hussard sur Le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof), which was filmed in 1994 and starred Juliette Binoche and Olivier Martinez.
In the medieval section of Cucuron, you’ll find a maze of twisting streets and alleys, perfect for working up an appetite with a pre-prandial explore. The old town is protected by ancient rampart walls and if you climb to the St Michel donjon, there’s a wonderful view across the terracotta jumble of village rooftops.
However, Cucuron's loveliest feature is the Bassin de L'Etang in the main square, a long rectangular pond shaded by soaring, 200-year-old plane trees, and surrounded by cafes and restaurants. It's not surprising that this setting was used for the scene in A Good Yearwhen Russell Crowe's character Max – an investment banker who inherits a ramshackle chateau and vineyard in Provence – takes Marion Cotillard's character out for dinner.
Directed by Ridley Scott (who has a house in the Luberon) and based on Peter Mayle's book, A Good Yearwas panned by critics when it was released in 2006, but don't let that put you off. Who cares if a film is predictable and ladles on the schmaltz a bit too thickly when it succeeds in bottling the hazy, golden light of Provence so beautifully?
On one corner of the square is a terrace hidden almost entirely by trellised greenery, marking the entrance to the Michelin-starred restaurant La Petite Maison. Unfortunately, we were whisked past the terrace and inside to a wood-panelled room where we found ourselves attempting a five-course menu, four courses of which were lobster-based. A better option is to eat at Restaurant de L’Etang where you can reserve a table by the pond and enjoy lighter dishes such as roast aubergine millefeuille.
Head south out of Curcuron and after a 6km jaunt along country roads flanked by neat rows of vines, you'll pass under an archway that brings you into Ansouis, the epitome of the sleepy Provencal village. Ansouis, which made a cameo appearance in Jean de Florette, has everything: one outstanding restaurant (La Closerie), a cafe-bar, boulangerie, an 11th-century chateau and the ability to make you feel like an overachiever if you're up before 10am. It is one of the most beautiful villages in France, and with more than 300 days of sunshine a year, it is in one of the most sun-drenched parts of the country. The nearby lake, L'Etang de la Bonde, is a wonderful place for a cooling dip.
Where to stay:self-catering in a countryside location is the best option when touring the villages of the south Luberon. If you stay in a hotel or chambre d'hôte in a town or village you're less likely to have a pool, plus every time you pass a farmers' market you'll be kicking yourself that you can't cook the fresh produce yourself.
Château Saint Estève de Neri, a vineyard owned by an English couple Allan and Alexandra Wilson, was one of our best finds. A two-bedroom converted cottage is available for weekly rentals and has its own private terrace looking across the vines to the mountains. We were fortunate enough to stay there while the autumn vendange, or grape harvest, was going on. The only problem lies in not being seduced by the lifestyle, as the Wilsons certainly seem to be living the elusive Provencal dream encapsulated in so many films made in the region.
The Golden Triangle
Cross over to the northern flank of the Luberon range and you'll enter the Golden Triangle, an area containing many famous perched villages such as Bonnieux, Ménerbes and Gordes, all three of which were used in the filming of A Good Year. Château la Canorgue, an organic winery which doubled as Max's shabby-chic estate and where most of the film was shot, is not far outside Bonnieux and is open to the public for wine tasting.
Bonnieux itself is a treasure trove of antique shops, artists' ateliers, winding streets and vaulted passageways. Many of the cast of A Good Yearstayed in this picture-perfect village during filming. Dinner in one of the many terrace restaurants offers a sweeping panorama over the plains of the Calavon valley, laid out in a patchwork of vineyards, cherry orchards and groves of silvery olive trees.
As you polish off your lavender-infused crème brulée, you can gaze across to the ruins of Lacoste castle standing on the other side of the valley, where its former owner the Marquis de Sade got up to all sorts of scandalous high-jinks with local servant girls.
The nearby village of Ménerbes is also recognised as one of the most beautiful in France, but is a victim of its own – or rather of Peter Mayle's – success with his hugely popular book, A Year in Provence, which he wrote while living in Ménerbes. Indeed, many of the perched villages in the Golden Triangle feel as if they have suffered from overexposure. This might explain why Mayle relocated to Lourmarin (near Cucuron) and more recently, if the rumours are to be believed, to Vaugines.
Where to stay:a great base in Bonnieux is the Old Gendarmerie, a police station which has been converted into spacious apartments with a shared pool. holiday-rentals.co.uk.
Marseille
Finally, if you're using Marseille as a gateway to Provence, don't miss Château d'If, the island prison from which Edmond Dantes, the hero of the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo, escapes. Take the €8 boat trip from the harbour to the island to see just how severe France's penal system was. Unfortunately for the non-fictional inmates of Château d'If, escape wasn't an option – most went insane or died there.
Get there
Ryanair (ryanair.com)flies from Dublin to Carcassonne and Grenoble. Aer Lingus ( aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin to Lyon four times a week. You can then take the TGV from Lyon to Avignon.