Perched upon a limestone promontory in the Vaucluse department of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur sits the village of Gordes.

The village is no stranger to accolades, which it receives in spades, but to have achieved top spot in the world, when it did not even enter the competition, could probably mark its finest achievement.

The title was granted by the US travel magazine Travel+Leisure, a periodical with 4.5 million followers on Facebook and who claim to reach 16 million readers a month.

Gordes was the only village in France to reach the top 20, and indeed, only one of a handful in Europe to do so. In second place came the village of Shirakawa-gō in Japan, followed by Giethoorn, in the Netherlands.

The other European villages in the list were Oia (Greece), Grindelwald (Switzerland), Portfino (Italy), Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Germany) and Frigiliana (Spain).

Sitting on a rock at 340 meters of altitude, with a panoramic view of the lavender fields of the Luberon is not a bad place to be if you want to be a competition winner.

But the village also seduces with its carefully preserved dry stone buildings, which cascade down the hillside. A network of narrow cobbled streets in the centre of the village is enlivened by many workshops and galleries, making the village a centre of art and culture, celebrated each summer at the Festival de Gordes.

Although new homes have been built the planning rules are strict, in order to maintain the harmony of the local architecture.

A handful of celebrity names have purchased a property in the village and if you want to join them expect to pay between €3,000m² at the bottom end to around €10,000m² at the top end.

The population of the village is around 1,700, but given its renowned status`, each year it caters for around a million visitors. Beauty sometimes comes at a price.

<ul>



   <li><a href="https://france-insider.com"><span style="font-weight: bold">France Insider News</span></a></li>

</ul>