Experience the best of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie clings to a limestone cliff at the western edge of the Gorges du Verdon, in Provence. A stream tumbles through the middle of the village, and a chain strung between the crags above holds a golden star, which legend says a knight hung there after returning from captivity in the Crusades. A path of stone steps climbs to the chapel of Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, set on the cliff.

Moustiers has been famed for its tin-glazed pottery, faïence, since the seventeenth century, and workshops and a museum keep the tradition alive. Below the village, Lac de Sainte-Croix fills the lower end of the Verdon canyon with green-turquoise water for swimming and boating. The lavender plateau of Valensole stretches to the south-west.

Lavender honey, goat's cheese, olives and lamb scented with wild herbs fill the shops, and truffles from Aups in the Var appear on winter menus. The village is on the list of the most beautiful villages of France and is busy in high summer. The lavender blooms from late June through July.