In the Vaucluse, 35 kilometres from Avignon, Bédoin curls up in the sun, pleasantly sheltered from the Mistral wind, at the foot of the southern face of the Mont Ventoux.
Even before arriving in the village, you cannot help but notice, at the top of the Saint-Antonin hill, the baroque church of Saint Pierre which dwarfs all the other buildings with its size and grandeur. Built between 1708 and 1736, its Jesuit-style façade would easily evoke the cathedrals in Mexico if it weren't for its wrought-iron campanile (19th century), so typical of our region, and the snow-capped Mont Ventoux just behind it.
Around the church, the houses in the medieval village huddle together against the hill, their natural stone or ochre-tinted façades towering over the old narrow streets.
The village is quite lively; shops, outdoor cafés and restaurants line the main street. And water is everywhere with no less than 15 fountains and a washhouse. Around one or the other, you will always see a small group gathered to chat and gossip.
You will also notice a stele in the village. Inaugurated on May 4, 1795, it is a memorial to the victims of the French Revolution, a very somber period in the history of Bédoin. Royalist and attached to the pope, Bédoin was considered counter-revolutionary and repression followed. In 1794, sixty-six villagers were guillotined or shot, houses burnt, places of worship devastated...
An edifice that escaped this episode is the Chapel of the Madeleine, 3 kilometres from the village on the route to Malaucène. The oldest building in Bédoin, it was built in the 11th century with three naves, three apse chapels and a barrel vault ceiling. Its two-storey bell tower dates from the 12th century. The ensemble is one of the most beautiful examples of Provençal Romanesque architecture and art. Attesting to much earlier human occupation, it also holds a paleochristian sarcophagus.
