Gordes has been classified among the most beautiful villages in France, a designation it holds alongside its long history as a settlement shaped by medieval lords, Renaissance nobles, and waves of artists who arrived in the twentieth century drawn by the quality of the Provençal light. The village château was rebuilt in its current Renaissance form in the sixteenth century and still anchors the centre of the town. During the Second World War Gordes served as a centre of local Resistance activity, a chapter the community continues to remember with quiet pride.

The golden hour before sunset, when the low sun strikes the warm stone faces of the buildings most directly, is the moment this view is at its most luminous — worth timing a visit around if you can.