South of France

The Luberon is towards the west of the Provence region. It is the beautiful region made famous by Peter Mayle during his year in Provence. It is to the east of Avignon and to the north of Marseille.

The Luberon is best known for its hilltop ‘perched’ villages - small, often steep, traditional villages built centuries ago on top of rocky spurs in the region. Many of these ‘perched villages of Provence’ are now also classified as ‘most beautiful villages in France’ - the region has perhaps more of these than any other part of France.

The area is also quite compact - hence it is easy to visit several of the villages during a week vacation in the Luberon without spending too much time in the car, and still allowing plenty of time to sit by the pool at your villa!

Read more

The south of France has a mild - warm climate, with different characteristics in the east and west of the region.

Weather in south-east France and the Mediterranean

Along the coast of the Mediterranean, in Provence and Languedoc Roussillon, the climate is typically Mediterranean! During the summer the days are hot and sunny and rain infrequent. The winters tend to be quite short and mild.

This region of France has more days of sunshine than any other in the country (excluding Corsica).

A strong northerly wind, the mistral, frequently blows through the region, and can cause periods of cold windy weather even as late as the end of spring.

Thunderstorms are very common in the summer in south-east France.

Weather in south-west France and the Atlantic Coast

This region tends to have generally mild winters and warm-hot summers. However exceptions to the rule are not uncommon - winters can have very cold spells, and even in the height of summer it is possible to have cooler wetter weather from time to time.

Although summers tend to be dry, all year round the region gets more rain than south-east France, being brought in from the Atlantic ocean. This explains why the region produces fruit so effectively - the combination of warm yet occasionally damp weather is ideal for producing many crops.

Thunderstorms are also common here during the summer though less often than in the eastern part of the region.