Views from Oppède-le-Vieux in Provence

Oppède is the name of the present-day village and the old fortified part of it is called Oppède-le-Vieux. As the French Wikipédia article about Oppède says, the name might derive from the Latin term oppidum, which was the name given to fortified hilltop villages in Gaul and other lands when the Romans conquered them. That seems more than likely to me. The first photo below shows the view from the lower, newer village up to the older, fortified place. We climbed up that hill on our first full day in Provence in September 2001.

You can see the church on the left and the ruins of the old château-fort on the right in the photo above. Below is a closer view of the church, Notre-Dame-Dalidon, from the other side. The English-language Wikipedia article says that the old village was a ghost town by the beginning of the 20th century. It has been largely restored since then.

The views out over the Luberon valley from the old village are pretty spectacular.

In the photo below, you can see the Mont Ventoux on the horizon to the north.

The next photo shows the street (or path) that we walked up to get to the church and the ruins up on the hill.

In it, you can see the church and the towers of the old fortress.

The gîte we stayed in was in Cavaillon, a larger town just 7 or 8 miles to the east. The villages named Ménerbes, Lacoste, Goult, and Bonnieux are all between 4 and 7 miles farther on, and the bigger town of Apt is just 20 miles from Cavaillon.
The whole Luberon Valley is pretty small.

I believe I took the picture below in Ménerbes, which is just a couple of miles from Oppède. Nice roof tiles...