The most beautiful villages of the Luberon

Bonnieux climbs the hillside in terraces, and the villa is a seven-minute walk from the centre. Take the steps up to the 12th-century upper church for the view over the valley to Mont Ventoux, then come down for a coffee and bread from Du Pain et des Miettes. The Friday market fills the streets, the Forêt des Cèdres is just above the village and the Roman Pont Julien just below.

On screen: Ridley Scott’s A Good Year (2006), with Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard, was filmed at Château La Canorgue, the wine estate just outside the village. More in our Luberon guide.

Facing Bonnieux across the valley, Lacoste is a quiet village of steep cobbled lanes and stone arches climbing to the château of the Marquis de Sade, bought by the fashion designer Pierre Cardin in the 1990s. The château opens from May to September and hosts the Festival de Lacoste in July.

An American connection: the Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, has its French campus in the village. There is no big market, but our Friday market in Bonnieux is only an eight-minute drive away.

Ménerbes stretches along a narrow ridge above the vineyards, its pastel houses tucked below old stone towers. Walk up to the church and the square, stop at the Maison de la Truffe et du Vin, and look out for Maison Dora Maar, where Picasso’s muse lived. The corkscrew museum is just outside the village. Market on Thursday mornings from April to October.

On the page: this is the village of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, the 1989 bestseller that introduced the Luberon to the English-speaking world.

Gordes is the postcard: stone houses stacked up a cliff beneath a Renaissance château, and the tip of the Golden Triangle. The Château de Gordes holds exhibitions, and just outside the village the Village des Bories shows how farmers once built in dry stone. Sénanque Abbey is a few kilometres north. Market on Tuesday mornings. It is the busiest village in summer, so go early and have breakfast with the view.

On screen: scenes of A Good Year were also filmed in Gordes.

Roussillon is built on ochre, and its houses glow in every shade from yellow to deep red. The Sentier des Ocres winds through the old quarries and closes on days of high fire risk or storms; wear old shoes, as the ochre stains. At Ôkhra, a former ochre factory, guided tours explain how the pigment was made. Market on Thursday mornings.

On screen: the village appears in the French classics L’Été meurtrier (1983), with Isabelle Adjani, and the comedy Gazon maudit (1995).

On the south side of the Luberon, reached through the wooded Combe de Lourmarin, this is the liveliest of the villages, with cafés spilling onto the squares under the plane trees. The Renaissance château is open almost all year, and the Nobel Prize-winning writer Albert Camus is buried in the village cemetery. The Friday market is one of the prettiest in Provence, with a producers’ evening market on Tuesdays in season.

On screen: the French hit series Le Cœur des hommes was filmed here.

A small, peaceful village of honey-coloured stone wrapped around its hill, with a clock tower and a château that is still a family home. The owners show visitors round the Château d’Ansouis in season, by booking only. The Sunday morning market is held by the old washhouse. Ansouis pairs perfectly with Cucuron, a few minutes away.

On screen: Claude Berri filmed Jean de Florette and Manon des sources (1986), with Gérard Depardieu and Yves Montand, in and around Ansouis.

A small town rather than a village, built on channels of the clear green Sorgue, with moss-covered water wheels turning in the streets and a richly decorated baroque church. It is best known for its antique dealers and its markets on Thursday and Sunday; on Sundays antiques and brocante line the water. See our antiques guide.

At the head of a narrow valley, the Sorgue rises from a pool at the foot of a sheer cliff: the largest spring in France, most spectacular in late winter and spring. Below it, restaurants line the emerald river under the plane trees. The Italian poet Petrarch lived here in the 14th century. On the short walk to the spring, stop at the Vallis Clausa paper mill, where paper is still made by hand. Go early in summer and combine it with L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

The heart of Cucuron is the Bassin de l’Étang, a large pool framed by tall plane trees, with cafés along its edge. Climb to the Saint-Michel keep for the view. Market on Tuesday mornings, and an evening market on Thursdays in summer.

On screen: film crews love it. The candlelit dinner scene in A Good Year was filmed beside the pool, and Jean-Paul Rappeneau shot Le Hussard sur le toit (1995), with Juliette Binoche, in the village.