A Saturday in the Luberon: Apt market, Sénanque, Gordes and the ochre road

Apt, Gordes, Roussillon, Bonnieux, Avignon

1. 7:50 am1

   Out of Avignon early, east on the D900Apt

   Every Luberon market is finished by 13:00 and the good half of it is finished by 11:00, so this day only exists if the car moves before eight. A hire car is not optional here — the villages are 10 to 20 km apart with two buses a day between them — so budget it as a line of the day, not an afterthought. Which market you get depends entirely on the weekday: Saturday is Apt, Sunday is L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Coustellet, Tuesday is Gordes, Friday is Bonnieux and Lourmarin. Verified 2026-09-06: the big Apt market is Saturday 08:00–13:00, Gordes' is Tuesday morning and Bonnieux' is Friday, so the weekday table here is right. Note that this day has been REORDERED on the same date — the Sénanque visit was booked into a window in which the abbey runs no tour at all. See that stop.

   26 min by train or taxi · 26 km
2. 8:45 am2

   Apt on a Saturday, the biggest market in the LuberonApt

   Saturday only, and it takes the whole old town. The food is at the Place de la Bouquerie end; the souvenir stalls creep up towards the cathedral, so start low and work up. Buy today's lunch here — tapenade, a Banon wrapped in its chestnut leaf, tomatoes, and the candied fruit Apt has made since the popes were in Avignon. Park at the Place Jean Jaurès lot and walk in; the streets are closed to cars. Verified 2026-09-06: Saturday only, 08:00–13:00, and it has run in this square for five centuries. The 08:45 start is right and the food end thins out well before noon.

   25 min by train or taxi · 25 km
3. 11:15 am3

   Gordes from the road, then Gordes from insideGordes

   The view of the village stacked up its cliff is from a lay-by on the D15 coming up from Cavaillon — not from anywhere inside the village — so stop there before you drive in or you will never see it. Parking within the walls is metered and full by 11:00 in summer; the lot below the château is the one that turns over. Moved earlier on 2026-09-06 (it was 12:30–13:40) so that Sénanque can take an afternoon tour slot; nothing at this stop is time-gated.

   8 min by train or taxi · 1.7 km
4. 12:35 pm4

   The market lunch, eaten at the Village des BoriesGordes

   Twenty dry-stone huts in a field three kilometres below Gordes, almost always empty, with walls to sit against and a little shade — the best lunch table in the Luberon and it costs the price of the entry. If it is shut, the lane down to it runs between olive terraces and does the job just as well. Moved on 2026-09-06 (it was 13:55–15:00) to fit the reordered day; the field has no opening hours to break.

   8 min by train or taxi · 2.5 km
5. 1:45 pm5

   Sénanque, on a visit booked days agoGordes

   IMPOSSIBLE AS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED — corrected 2026-09-06. It is a working Cistercian monastery, not a monument: the interior is by guided visit only, booked online, and anyone who turns up unbooked gets the shop and the outside of the church. But the tours run Monday to Saturday at 09:40, 10:00 and 10:30 and then not again until 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15, 16:00 and 16:45 — last morning entry 11:00, last afternoon entry 17:00, and Sundays are afternoons only. The old 11:15–12:15 slot fell squarely in the closed middle of the day, when no tour exists to book. This visit has therefore been moved to the 13:45 tour, and Gordes and the Bories lunch have moved ahead of it. Book the exact departure time online; places are capped. The lavender in front flowers from mid-June and is cut in the third week of July — after that the photograph everybody drove here for is a field of stubble.

   15 min by train or taxi · 9.5 km
6. 3:30 pm6

   The ochre trail late enough for the colourRoussillon

   A 30- or 50-minute loop through worked-out ochre quarries; take the long one, the extra twenty minutes are the best of it. Late afternoon is when the reds do what the postcards promise — at midday it is flat and glaring. The site closes for January. Do not wear white: the dust is a pigment and it does not wash out. Verified 2026-09-06: the Sentier des Ocres is closed for the whole of January and otherwise open daily, 7 February to 31 December 2026; in July and August it runs 09:00–19:30, with the ticket office closing 30 minutes before the gates. Entry is €3.50.

   12 min by train or taxi · 7.7 km
7. 5:15 pm7

   Tasting at Château La Canorgue below BonnieuxBonnieux

   Organic long before anyone here was, and the house from A Good Year, which they are politely tired of being asked about. The cellar door shuts at 18:00 exactly and all day Sunday. Buy the rosé to drink tonight and the red to carry home; they will not ship it for you.

   43 min by train or taxi · 43 km
8. 8:15 pm8

   Back inside the walls for a late tableAvignon

   Beside the Palais des Papes with a terrace over the square, and one of the few kitchens inside the ramparts still serving at 21:30 in high season. If the festival is on in July the entire city eats late and books out a week ahead — reserve before you leave for the market in the morning, not when you get back.