Lourmarin

French commune
nomcommune=Lourmarin
région=Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
département=Vaucluse
arrondissement=Apt
canton=Cadenet
insee=84068
cp=84160
maire=Blaise Diagne
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Communauté de communes des Portes du Luberon
longitude=5.363045
latitude=43.769606
alt moy=200 m
alt mini=169 m
alt maxi=818 m
hectares=2,018
km²=20.18
sans=1,119
date-sans=1999
dens=55
date-dens=1999

Lourmarin is a town and commune of the Vaucluse "département", in southern France.

Geography

Lourmarin is located at the foot of the Luberon Massif where a southern pass debouches over the Luberon from Apt on the northern side of the Luberon. The pass divides the Grand Luberon from the Petit Luberon range, an area rich in Neolithic remains and noted for its dramatic massifs and rockscapes. The Aigue Brun brook comes out of the pass and runs just to the west of the village ("Aigue" is a Provençal word for "water", coming from Latin "aqua").

History

Lourmarin has been settled for at least a thousand years, and was probably a Neolithic campsite before that.

A fortress was first built at the site in the 12th century, and was rebuilt by Foulques d'Agoult in the 15th century on the foundations of the earlier castle. It was restored in 1920.

In 1545 the town was burned down because its population was predominantly Waldensian protestant.

ights

Extremely picturesque, the village is a magnet for tourists. Prominent sites are the village itself, the pretty Renaissance castle, the Catholic and Protestant churches and the view from the village of the Proches Bastides, a large fortified farmhouse dating to the Middle Ages. From the village itself it is 20 minute drive down to the Durance River and then about 40 minutes on to Aix-en-Provence.

Miscellaneous

Lourmarin was the birthplace of Philippe de Girard (1775-1845), an engineer and inventor of the linen spinning mill, as well as the name-sake for the town of Żyrardów in Poland (a toponym derived from the polonised spelling of Girard's name).

The writers Henri Bosco (1888-1976) and Albert Camus (1913-1960) both lived there and are buried in the local cemetery.

Another famous writer, British expatriate Peter Mayle today lives in Lourmarin. One of his books, "A Year in Provence", giving the chronicle of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes, was made into a TV series and a film. Another of his books was also made into the film "A Good Year" (2006) directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, which was filmed nearby in the same region. As a result, in recent decades Luberon and its towns and villages like Lourmarin and Ménerbes, which probably were the lesser known parts of Provence, even in France, became better known in the English-speaking world.

Lourmarin's Sister City is Żyrardów, in Poland.

External links

* [http://www.chateau-de-lourmarin.com/ Château de Lourmarin]