The Aigues Valley

The Aigues Valley - South of the Luberon (Vaucluse)

Vast region which extends over the South part of the Luberon. Villages composing this area of wood, vineyards, cherry trees and olive trees, can by raising eyes, to see above the Mourre Nègre at a height of 1100 meters dominating our Aigues Valley. Its "capital" is La Tour Aigues, its highest point Vitrolles, its most remote villages : Beaumont de Pertuis to the East, Cabrières d'Aigues to the West, to the South La Bastidonne.

The water is present everywhere, every village possesses its fountains and its bench, always in the shade of plane trees, where meet in the evening the inhabitants come comment on the sold day or look at the game of bowls.

The advised roads were published for certain municipalities, they are drawn and reproduced and are proposed to you in tourist offices. By following them, they will lead you by way of the "sarrière" or the "gravière" towards the Bouffaou, the Mourre Nègre, the Roumagou or Mirail.

The friends who come every year in our valley leave happy, delighted and especially rested. They were welcomed in a region where farming and tourism become allied perfectly. Numerous entertainments are offered, exhibitions, votive holidays, walks, hiking which fill the vacationers avoiding noise, pollution and traffic.

At feet of a tree, in the grass where it makes good lunch, the flavors of lavender, thyme or rosemary put you in appetite and if you know the flora, some stalks of "pèbre d'ase" will give more flavour to the goat cheese which you will find on markets (on Tuesday in la Tour d'Aigues, on Sunday morning farmer market of Saint Martin de la Brasque).

In autumn colors change, it is an explosion of yellow, orange and brown colors that vibrate in the light ; of mushrooms which we name. You will hear "there is some ones", if you try to know more about it, the shepherd with the white hair who you will meet in hills will say to you "when we like, we do not show".

Our villages

La Bastide des Jourdans
The village owes its name to two knights, brothers and owners of the castrum then called bastida. It knew the prosperity because of its position on the axis of a communication route connecting Aix en Provence with Forcalquier but also thanks to the breeding of the silkworm which allowed the XVIIth century to associate a small textile crafts with the culture of the vineyard and the olive tree.

- Vestiges of the old ramparts and two medieval doors
- Notre-Dame church, originally a building from the XIIIth century transformed at the end of the XIVth, in 1500 and in the XVIIth
- The old castle (XIIIth) of which only stay the tours and some former structures, the belfry (XVIIth), the fountain said "de la Reine Jeanne", various chapels...
- Wide selection of pleasant and easy walks

Beaumont de Pertuis
From Ste Croix chapel, on the hill, landscape as far as the eye can see (Lure Mountain, Luberon, Ste Victoire).

- Vestiges of the ramparts
- Notre-Dame of Beauvoir Chapel
- Caves, chapel and St Eucher's hermitage at the South of the village in a cliff dominating the Durance

La Bastidonne
On the square, take the street of the Fountain or the staircase to enjoy the sight on the Luberon. Visit the Romanic church (XIIIth) and admire the former magnanerie. To note the experimental vineyard where culturales techniques are studied.

Cabrières d´Aigues
The prehistory, except some points of cut flint and polite stone axes, does not seem to have left tracks of housing environment. More precise is the Gallo-Roman period with graves discovered by an inhabitant at the beginning of the century.

- The district of the old castle : at the top of the village, vestiges of the initial fortress, old houses, fountains of which a semi-rupestral with washhouse.
- Notre-Dame de Belles Fleurs, primitive church (XVth), partially troglodytic building, beautiful intersections of the ribs.
- Old oil mill
- Rupestral houses in front of old village : ground floor cut in the rock with construction on the first floor

La Motte d´Aigues
In 1940, an excavation begun by Jean and Pierre Cotte around the ancient St Jean Priory allowed the update of a necropolis containing six skeletons, a sarcophagus, a capital with a geometrical decoration, mask of fountain, fragments of column, of ceramic and of glass. This discovery testifies of a land use in the first centuries AD. Fortified village established in the XIth century. Condemned by the ruling of Mérindol as Waldensian village, it was destroyed in 1545. The territory of the municipality draws a slender strip from the Crete of the Grand Luberon to the foot of the hills which line the Eze Valley.

The Bonde Lake offers you all the pleasures of the water thanks to a Lord, Fouquet d'Agoult who in the XVth century, avid to create a lake, made build an aqueduct. The lake is a part of a still used network of irrigation. 30 ha of surface for a depth between 2 and 5 m.

Mirabeau
The "castrum" is mentioned in 1118 but appears to be a dependence of Beaumont de Pertuis. Isolated in the heart of a pond surrounded with hills, the village checks the passage of the Durance in the entrance of the parade of Canteperdrix in the XIIth century.

- Old houses in the village (XVIth and XVIIth)
- The castle (private, no visit)
- Outside the village : Notre-Dame de la Garrigue Chapel (XIXth), Ste Madeleine Chapel Romanic building, old inn "du Grand Logis", St Sépulcre cave

Peypin d´Aigues
Village burst into four hamlets of which Fontjoyeuse (XVIIth) where you will discover its arched alleys, its outer staircases, its flowery terraces.

Saint Martin de la Brasque
In the border of the Piedmont of the Luberon, Waldensian village where appear the ruins of Castellas (XIIth) accessible by a botanical path (vestiges of the castle which burned in the XVIth century).

- Angesse Locality, rural building with incorporated dovecotes and oil mill.

La Tour d´Aigues
Perched on a nipple along the river of Eze, this village owes its name to a medieval fortification established in the XIth century. Territory of plains and hills where grows the vineyard which gives a famous wine.

- The ruins of the Renaissance castle (a fire ravaged it in 1780 then in 1792), its restored cellars shelter museums and exhibitions. In the main courtyard takes place every year the Festival of South Luberon.
- N-D. de Romegas church and the old alleys.
- The museum of the Earthenware : two cellars of the Castle were transformed into museum of the History of Aigues Country and of Earthenware.

Vitrolles in the Luberon
From the Antiquity, the communication route connecting the Durance valley with Céreste (Catuiaca) is known. Gallo-Roman setting-up, "oppidum" (very characteristic head to the West of the village) with an indistinct dating but credibly pre-Roman. The existence of a "castrum" is mentioned in the XIth century.

- Grand Pré Castle (private), vast quadrangular ancient country-house (XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries) and oil mill.
- Near the Col de Vitrolles (697m) were fitted out numerous easy hikes (1h30 each). From the lodge, walks or V.T.T rides.

Intermunicipal tourist office of the Aigues Valley

Le Château - BP 48 - 84240 La Tour d'Aigues
Phone : 04 90 07 50 29 - fax : 04 90 07 35 91
Courriel : contact@sourireduluberon.com

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