I saw one lovely hilltop village (Moustiers-Sainte-Marie) outside of Aix-en-Provence during the lavender tour, which inspired this additional day trip visiting more hilltop villages. There's just so much to see and do both within and outside of Aix!
Roussillon (all three photos above) was the lunch stop. It included an old ochre quarry to visit, which was wonderfully bright and perfectly explains why all the buildings in Roussillon are shades of pink and ochre. They put Toulouse's claim to "Pink City" to shame...although Roussillon is perhaps more of a Pink Village than a city.
Lunch was a sald with lavender and goat cheese atop it, naturally. Followed by lavender crème brûlée, naturally. When in Provence...consume lavender until it comes out your ears!
The last town to visit was Gordes. Travel+Leisure magazine named it "the most beautiful town in the world" in 2023, essentially based on the exterior view of it, above-left. Isnide the town, it is also very lovely...but I'm not sure what makes it more beautiful than Roussillon...or Aix.
The very first stop was market day in Lourmarin, which had the village absolutely hopping! I saw many of the same clothing and arts vendors in Aix-en-Provence a day or two prior. There must be a common "market circuit".
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