Gordes

Gordes is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

The residents are known as Gordiens. The nearest big city is Avignon, smaller are Cavaillon, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Apt.

Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ("The most beautiful villages of France") is an independent association, created in 1982, that aims to promote small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of 2008, 152 villages in France have been labelled as the "Plus Beaux Villages de France".

There are a few criteria before entering the association: the population of the village must not exceed 2,000 inhabitants, there must be at least 2 protected areas (picturesque or legendary sites, or sites of scientific, artistic or historic interest), and the decision to apply must be taken by the town council.

Similar associations have been set up in Belgium (Les Plus Beaux Villages de Wallonie), Quebec (Les Plus Beaux Villages du Québec) and Italy (I Borghi Piu Belli d'Italia).

Provence (French pronunciation: ​[pʁɔ.vɑ̃s]; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm, pronounced [pʀuˈvɛⁿsɔ]) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhone River on the west to the Italian border on the east, and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and includes the départements of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse.

The Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana, which evolved into the present name. It was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence until 1481, when it became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than five hundred years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of the region.

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (French pronunciation: ​[pʁɔ.vɑ̃s alp kot da.zyʁ]; Provençal: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur / Prouvènço-Aup-Costo d'Azur) or PACA is one of the 27 regions of France.

It is made up of:

It encompasses six departments in south-eastern France, bounded to the east by the Italian border, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and by the principality of Monaco, to the north by Rhône-Alpes, and to the west by Languedoc-Roussillon, with the Rhône river marking its westernmost border. The six departments are:

The region logo displays the coat of arms created in the 1990s and which combines the coats of arms of the old provinces making up Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

Economically the region is the third most important in France just behind Île-de-France and Rhône-Alpes. Its GDP in 2006 was € 130,178 million ($US 163,600 million) and per capita GDP was € 27,095 ($US 34,051).

The Vaucluse (French pronunciation: ​[vo.klyz] ; Occitan: Vauclusa in classical norm or Vau-Cluso in Mistralian norm) is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The name Vaucluse derives from the Latin Vallis Clausis (closed valley) as the valley here ends in a cliff face from which emanates a spring whose origin is so far in and so deep that it remains to be defined.