Photo spot in Gordes
The Village des Bories dry-stone huts
A hamlet of corbelled stone huts with no mortar at all — twenty structures of bare limestone in scrubland, and nothing modern in the frame.
About The Village des Bories dry-stone huts
Get directionsDown a track off the D2 below the village, the Village des Bories is a restored hamlet of about twenty dry-stone huts: corbelled domes and vaults built from flat limestone slabs stacked without a drop of mortar, with sheepfolds, bread ovens and low walls between them. The technique is prehistoric in origin and the surviving buildings are mostly a few centuries old.
Photographically it is a set with no modern element in it at all. Bare stone, scrub, sky — that is the palette, and it means high-contrast graphic frames rather than pretty ones. Doorways make natural apertures for a portrait, the curved walls catch raking light beautifully, and a couple standing between two domes reads as scale in a landscape that otherwise gives none.
The stone is pale and the site is open, so the middle of the day is brutal and flat. First and last light are the only really good windows: low sun brings out every course of stacked slab and throws the shadows that give the domes their shape. Spring and autumn add green and flowering scrub; midsummer bleaches everything.
Practical: it is ticketed with fixed opening hours that vary by season — check the day's times, and be aware it can close in bad weather or for maintenance. The paths are rough and stony, the site is entirely unshaded, and there is no shelter if the mistral is up. Do not climb on the structures: they are held together by gravity and friction alone, and a dislodged slab is real damage.
Best time to shoot
First or last light, when low sun picks out every course of stacked stone
Tips
Ticketed with seasonal hours — check the day's times. Do not climb on the huts: no mortar holds them, only stacking.
Other spots in Gordes
The belvedere lay-by on the D15 at golden hour
The postcard of the Luberon: the whole village stacked up its cliff in one frame, from a roadside viewpoint that faces it head-on.
The calades and vaulted passages below the castle
Steep cobbled ramps and stone tunnels wound around the castle square — narrow, shaded and completely different from the postcard view.
Abbaye de Sénanque and its lavender rows
A twelfth-century Cistercian church at the bottom of a narrow valley, with lavender planted in lines right up to its walls from late June to mid-July.
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Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Village des Bories dry-stone huts — free of charge.