Apt

Apt is the market town of the Luberon — 12,000 people, a working centre rather than a hill village, and the place the villages come to shop. It sits in the Calavon valley between the Luberon massif and the Vaucluse plateau, and it is the capital of the regional nature park.

Two things bring visitors: the Saturday market, which is one of the largest in Provence, and candied fruit, which Apt has made since the fourteenth century.

The Saturday market

It fills the entire centre from early morning until about one o’clock: produce, cheese, olives, honey, lavender, fabric, brocante, and a good deal of the region’s small production that never reaches a shop. It has been running since 1523.

Come early. By ten the streets are solid and parking is a serious problem — use the car parks on the ring and expect to walk.

Candied fruit

Apt calls itself the world capital of fruits confits, and the claim holds up: the technique of preserving fruit in sugar syrup arrived here in the fourteenth century under the popes at Avignon, and the town has been at it ever since. Cherries, melon, apricot, figs, angelica.

Two consequences worth knowing. It is the base of the calisson and of the fruit in a Provençal Christmas. And the syrup left over from candying is what the berlingots of Carpentras are made from.

Several makers open their workshops; the largest is on the edge of town.

What to see

• Cathédrale Sainte-Anne — with two crypts stacked one below the other, the lower of them pre-Romanesque, and a treasury holding an eleventh-century Arab standard brought back from the First Crusade
• Musée de l’Aventure Industrielle — the industrial history of the Luberon: ochre, candied fruit and earthenware, which is more interesting than the list suggests
• The old town — a knot of narrow streets, a belfry over the street, and the Calavon behind
• Maison du Parc — the Luberon park headquarters, with a palaeontology collection and the walking maps

The Colorado Provençal

Ten kilometres north-east at Rustrel, a set of abandoned ochre quarries far larger and wilder than the more famous ones at Roussillon: cliffs, gullies and pinnacles in red, orange and white, with marked trails of one to two hours through them.

It is a private site with a paid car park, it is exposed and hot in summer, and the ochre dust stains clothes and shoes exactly as at Roussillon.

Getting to Apt

• By bus — from Avignon and Cavaillon, and Apt is itself the hub for the Luberon villages. Services are infrequent; check the return.
• By train — no passenger station. The old line is now a cycle path.
• By car — 50 minutes from Avignon, an hour from Aix. On Saturdays park on the ring. See parking in France.
• By bicycle — the Véloroute du Calavon runs along the old railway, flat and car-free, and is the pleasantest approach.

Around Apt

• Rustrel — the Colorado Provençal, 10 km
• Roussillon and Gordes — 10 and 20 km west
• Bonnieux and the cedar forest — 12 km south
• Saignon — a small village on a rock 5 km away, with a view over the whole valley and almost no visitors
• Sault — the lavender plateau, 40 minutes north-east, flowering later than the Luberon

When to go

Saturday, whatever the season — the market is the reason. Otherwise May, June, September and October. Apt is a real town rather than a picture, and it stays open and alive out of season when the villages around it shut.

See the lavender fields of Provence and Provençal cuisine.

Weather in Apt

Updated: 18 September 2026