Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and its star

Moustiers is built into a notch in the limestone where a stream comes down out of the mountain, so the village climbs in terraces on both sides of a ravine, connected by stairs and a small bridge, with the chapel of Notre-Dame de Beauvoir above it and a gilded star suspended on a 200-metre chain strung between the cliffs. The star is the local legend and the thing everyone looks for; the ravine and the tiled roofs are what actually photograph.

The usable frames are the approach road from the west, which puts the whole village against the cliff, and the stepped path up toward the chapel, which gives you rooftops, the ravine and the valley behind in one look. Early morning has the village to itself and even light in the ravine; by eleven in season the lanes and the two squares are full, because Moustiers is on every Verdon itinerary.

The climb to the chapel is 262 steps and genuinely steep, so it is a decision rather than a stroll, and worth it mainly for the view rather than the building. Combine with the plateau: Moustiers is twenty minutes from the lavender fields and ten from the turquoise water at the Pont de Galetas.