I have been wondering, what are the secret ingredients that make a place truly special?

Somewhere, when you arrive for the first time, makes your heart skip a beat and that when you return for the hundredth time, makes you shudder in delight as it welcomes you back.

The world is full of many beautiful locations. What is truly captivating to one person might be quite unremarkable to another. Of course there are world-renowned sights; The Grand Canyon, Machu Picchu, The Great Wall of China, dazzling cities like Rome, Paris, Sydney, all of which can stun and amaze; but they’re not really the type of places I’m thinking about.

What I’m referring to are much simpler, less sophisticated places whose list of attributes include character and charm; places with a story, a history begging to be explored.

My list includes meandering, cobbled streets, crumbling stone buildings, clay tiled roof tops and faded shutters. A gently rolling landscape resplendent with vineyards and olive groves, where once a year gently wafting lavender and dancing sunflowers, like an artist’s paint brush, splash their brilliance.

Countless sites boast such criteria but there is something which makes the place I am thinking of particularly special, one, which no matter how hard I try, I am unable to completely explain. Maybe that isn’t important, maybe all that matters is that I have found a place whose magical ingredients and ambience have captured my heart, a place I want to become a part of, a place which when I return to I never want to leave.

If you’ve been there maybe it has the same effect on you too?

Lourmarin in the Luberon Valley, Vaucluse, Provence  ~ A special place, my special place……. where’s yours?

Come back next time and I’ll tell you why you too will not want to miss a visit to Lourmarin, the tiny, utterly beguiling, medieval village, huddled under the southern Luberon hills of Provence’s beautiful region of the Vaucluse, a truly special place!

Download the printable The Lourmarin Travel Guide