I went to Grambois on a thick, August day. Temperatures are always high in Provence in August and, in its way, the heat means that if one ventures out, there is a certain delicious solitude in it. I didn't see another soul in this village in the heart of the Luberon. It is slightly out of the circuit.
I sauntered through the streets, slowly, as they were empty. Behind closed shutters and thick stone walls, the village had retreated for the afternoon. It is a village of passages, archways and small squares.
Grambois sits on a hillside in the southern Luberon. From the edges of the village, the lands falls away toward vineyard after vineyard. It is a graceful place, but not a precious or overly curated one.
Despite its relative serene presence, its history is a more muscular and turbulent one. The village is documented from the 11th century adn by the Middle Ages, its elevated position made it strategically important. In the 13th and 14th century it was one of the fortified strongholds of Provence.
What was so lovely visiting the village on this quiet Sunday afternoon in August was how little it seemed interested in performing any of its history. There were no crowds moving from monument to monument. There was simply the stone relics of the past, bleached to soft shades of cream and grey; plants spilling from the walls and doorways and broad views across the Luberon.
