This was the most exhilarating and overwhelming town for me. Spectacular, unbelievable and impossible all come to mind.
Gordes is a very beautiful old village, perched on the southern edge of the high Plateau de Vaucluse. The stone buildings built in tight against the base of the cliffs and those perched on the rocks above, including the 12th-century castle, are made of an beige stone that glows orange in the sun.
The view from the village is a southern panorama out across fields and forests and small perched villages to the Montagne du Luberon. Behind the village (to the north), small roads lead into the rocks and valleys and forests of the Plateau de Vaucluse, with the picturesque Abbaye de Sénanque only 4 km away, yet isolated in its little valley.
This village can boast about being amongst one of the most beautiful villages in France. It has narrow cobbled streets which thread their way through tall houses; built against the rock, clinging onto its flanks and whispering the tales of a thousand legends.
Gordes is also proud of its castle firmly planted in its very core and which reminds the passer-by of a past rich with conquests but also marked with the sufferings of its inhabitants.
As for the soul, Gordes has sheltered many a famous artist such as André Lhote, Marc Chagall, Jean Deyrolle, Victor Vasarely and Pol Mara, who amongst others have found inspiration there (hardly surprising).
