Chartreuse de Valbonne

Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson

In the hollow of a valley of the rich state forest of Valbonne, the charterhouse was born when Guillem de Vénéjan ceded the estate to the Carthusians in 1204. Plundered and burned in 1585 during the Wars of Religion, it was rebuilt from 1593, then endowed in the 1770s–1780s with a new church whose vaults were the work of the Franque brothers, celebrated architects of Avignon. In 1806, Napoleon I gave the monastery to the hospice of Pont-Saint-Esprit; after the departure of the Carthusians following the laws of 1901 and an auction by the State in 1907, the pastor Philadelphe Delord acquired it in 1926 and opened there in 1929 a leper hospital for patients from the colonies — the Association de secours aux victimes des maladies tropicales still owns it. Listed as a historic monument in 1959 and again in 1974, the charterhouse spreads out its Burgundian-style glazed-tile roofs, exceptional in southern lands, a great cloister 350 metres in perimeter and a small cloister. A vineyard still surrounds the buildings, carrying on the winemaking tradition of the fathers, while the surrounding forest invites you to extend the visit with a walk.

Getting there : Route de Valbonne, 30130 Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson, in the heart of the state forest; self-guided interior visit €6, from 13 July to 30 September (Tuesday–Friday and weekends, 10 am–6 pm in 2026); guided tours on request; tel. 04 66 90 41 24.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound