Three to four days lets you cover Avignon, a couple of Luberon villages and a wine stop without rushing. Longer if you want to add Mont Ventoux or the truffle markets.
Discover Local Vaucluse: What to Do Around Mercure Vaucluse
At Mercure, we believe you shouldn't need a guidebook to feel like you belong somewhere. That's the idea behind Discover Local: since 1973, every Mercure hotel has been built around its neighbourhood, not just dropped into it — from the décor on the walls to the flavours on the menu. Step into any Mercure and our teams are on hand with the kind of tips you won't find in a guidebook: the market stall locals queue for, the bar where nobody speaks English, the walk that skips the crowds. They live here. They know. Discover Local isn't a generic city guide — it's a short, honest list of the restaurants, markets and neighbourhoods our own hotel teams actually recommend to guests, updated as the city changes around us. Below, you'll find our picks for Vaucluse, an interactive map to help you find your way, and answers to the questions travellers ask us most. So — where will Discover Local take you?
Vaucluse in 5 picks
Avignon
Start where the popes did. The Palais des Papes still dominates the skyline, and the broken Pont Saint-Bénézet — the real Pont d'Avignon of the song — juts halfway across the Rhône and stops. Walk the ramparts at dusk when the stone goes gold.
Gordes
A village built into the hillside, stone on stone, with barely a straight street in it. Come early morning before the tour buses, when the bakery's just opened and the Luberon valley is still in shadow below you.
Roussillon
The village itself is built from the same ochre that surrounds it — walls in ten shades of red and orange. Walk the Sentier des Ocres footpath through the old quarry pits; the colour gets under your fingernails, in a good way.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
A wine village in the truest sense — vines right up to the ruined summer castle of the popes. Cellars here pour the appellation's big, warm reds; ask which grower still hand-harvests, and they'll tell you without hesitating.
L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
Canals and waterwheels run straight through town, and on Sunday mornings it becomes one of France's biggest antiques markets — stalls along the water, melons and lavender soap next to old zinc counters and chandeliers.
FAQ
Avignon itself is very walkable and well connected by TGV. But the hilltop villages — Gordes, Roussillon, Ménerbes — are genuinely easier with your own wheels or an organised tour.
Late June into July, mostly on the Sault plateau and around the Luberon. Fields further north tend to flower a little later than those near Avignon.
Where to sleep
See our Mercure hotels across Vaucluse, ideally placed to explore these picks.