A mas in the Alpilles, between Avignon and Arles

The Alpilles run some twenty kilometres from east to west, between the Rhône valley and the plain of the Crau. That is not much, and it means you stay there without ever driving far: ten minutes from Saint-Rémy to Les Baux, a quarter of an hour from Eygalières to Maussane. Avignon is twenty minutes away, Arles twenty-five. The relief, though, is steeper than its height suggests — the crests are bare, and the dry combes climb quickly.

The three ways in. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is the liveliest: market on Wednesday, shops open all year, and the ruins of Glanum at the foot of the range. Eygalières, to the east, is smaller and dearer, with isolated farmhouses among the olive trees. Maussane and Le Paradou, to the south, look out over the olive plain and stay quieter. Les Baux-de-Provence, finally, is for visiting rather than staying: the village is taken by storm during the day and empties in the evening.

What the mistral changes. It comes down the Rhône corridor, blows for several days at a time, and it is the real climate of the Alpilles. It clears the sky — which is why the light is what it is — but it makes a terrace unusable and cools the evenings sharply, June included. The farmhouses turn their backs on it: check which way the terrace faces, and whether there is a cypress hedge, which is not there for the photograph.

Oil and stone. The plain along the southern edge is an almost continuous olive grove, and the mills open to visitors at harvest, from November to January. The limestone quarries of Les Baux, worked since antiquity, supplied the stone of the villages around; it is the same white rock you find in the walls of the houses you rent. The markets fill the rest of the week, and each village has its own.

When to come. April and May give the garrigue in flower and days already warm; September and October bring the grape harvest and then the olives. July and August are hot, and that is when the inertia of stone walls counts most: shutters closed by day, open at night. The hilltop villages are for early morning or late afternoon — at two o'clock the white stone throws everything back at you.

What lies around, within the hour. The range is small, but well placed. Arles and its arena are twenty-five minutes away, Avignon and its palace twenty, Nîmes three quarters of an hour. The Camargue begins just to the south: lagoons, salt pans, and the beaches of Saintes-Maries an hour off. The Luberon lies east, three quarters of an hour by the Durance valley. A house in the Alpilles therefore allows whole days elsewhere without ever changing beds, which is rare in Provence.

Our addresses in the Alpilles are rented direct from their owners, who know which way the wind blows at their place and which day the nearest market is held.