Secret Provence: Exploring the Drôme Provençale in the South of France

“Night was falling quickly and, having just navigated the breathtaking, and breathtakingly treacherous, roads over Provence’s jagged Mont Ventoux, I was anxious to reach our destination before dark. Not until the GPS announced two kilometres ahead did tiny Montaulieu appear, a hilltop mirage dramatically backlit by the setting sun. Eight hairpin turns later, we’d reached our destination: minuscule, enchanting and utterly silent. Everything and nothing to do with the charming, upscale, tourist-clogged perched villages of the Provence I knew. But this wasn’t Provence, it was the Drôme Provençale, a region seemingly suspended in time.”