Deborah G
Google
On the first stop of our “sisters trip” to Provence, my three sisters and I stayed 8 nights in 2 rooms at Les Terrasses du Luberon, which we used as our home base to explore the lovely villages of the Luberon, including Bonnieux (with Les Terrasses on its edge), Lacoste, Roussillon, Oppede le Vieux, Gordes (and the Abbaye de Senanque), Lourmarin, Ansouis, Fontaine de Vaucluse, L’Isle sur la Sorgue, and more (even a day trip to Avignon). Cutting to the chase, we absolutely loved it and cannot recommend it more highly. Let me count the ways.||First, the situation and stunning views! They have 5 rooms, side by side, each with its own outside door along the terrace (with privacy dividers between the five rooms). The terrace overlooks the Luberon valley toward Lacoste, Gordes, and other villages. Each room has its own little table and chairs outside its door on the terrace. The sunset views over the valley are simply breathtaking, and with the dark skies of the Luberon, the carpet of stars on clear nights will amaze you--truly good for the soul! It was too chilly in May for us to use it, but they also have a lovely little pool on the far side of the terrace. Bonnieux is a mere 10 minutes or so walk away, and yet you feel such privacy at this lovely little B&B. (And it had private parking on site for our rental car!) When you look at a map, it’s perfectly situated in the middle of the Luberon villages and so serves as a wonderful home base for exploring the Vaucluse.||There is a small kitchen directly off the terrace (next to the guest rooms) for the guests’ use, with two refrigerators, a cooking surface, pots and pans, and cupboards full of plates, glasses, silverware and such. One refrigerator contains soft drinks and similar items for the guests, with a log to check off what you take (an honor system). They also offer wine by the bottle upon request. Outside the kitchen is a little glass-enclosed porch on the terrace (in case of rain) with small tables and chairs. One evening, we obtained a lovely bottle of rose from Michael to go along with the picnic dinner that we assembled with purchases from one of the village markets that day and enjoyed our meal overlooking the valley as the sun set. ||Second, Michael and Sabine are wonderful hosts—welcoming, gracious, and extremely helpful with suggestions, tips, etc. They serve a wonderful breakfast each morning, always with good coffee, a fine selection of breads, honey, butter, and jam, cheese and sliced meats, the offer of a soft-boiled egg, berries and other fresh fruits that tasted better than anything we can get in the states, and additional special offerings that change each day. The table was always beautifully set for the four of us when we arrived in the breakfast room each morning. ||One sister loved the dark honey that they served and asked Sabine where she obtained it. We also raved about Provencal lavender, and she told us of the Museum of Lavender and its boutique (which is what we were interested in). She printed out the names and addresses of both places (which were near each other and which were situated along the way to Avignon), so we stopped at both on our day trip to Avignon. (The honey store is a small, family establishment with dozens of different kinds of honey. While the couple own and run it do not speak much English, they were just lovely, and with our limited French, and good humor on both sides, we managed to communicate fairly well. We left with several different kinds of yummy honey to bring home to the states. Ask Sabine for the name.)||Finally, one sister dealing with the side effects from cancer treatments had a troublesome stomach one morning, and when Sabine heard of it, she brought out her special herbal tea, which really did help my sister! On a more serious note, a different sister had a sudden medical issue one morning that was a bit scary, and Michael went out of his way to lead us in his car (so that we could follow in ours) to the Urgent Care in Apt. We would have been lost without his guidance, not knowing where to go, and we shall always be very grateful to him for this kindness. (Luckily, the issue turned out not to be serious.) I shudder to think what we would have done had we stayed somewhere else…. Thank you, Michael & Sabine!||As we could not see everything in the area that we wanted to see, we shall have to return someday. When we do, we wouldn’t even consider staying anywhere else.|