Provence
If those names mean little to modern English readers, how about Peter Mayle? His book A Year in Provence details the fun and tribulations of twelve months in the Luberon, and, through a set of tones, signs and symbols understood only by Anglo Saxons, transmits to the cognoscenti the secret knowledge that rural Provence is the new Elsewhere. Mayle also gives an important, if sotto voce, reassurance that you don’t need to speak the language to live there and the French might be okay after all. The result was a huge hike in real-estate prices throughout the region. Paysans, deeply attached to le terroir, turned into property developers overnight when they learned how much les pigeons anglais would pay for a house built on a rocky little triangle of it, so long as the house included a swimming pool. Nevertheless, there remain today many unspoilt picture-perfect villages and hamlets throughout the Luberon; Roussillon probably provides the best starting point with its famous ochre earth contrasting with the deep green of the pines.