Gateway to the south of France, the Drôme shines with a thousand and one flavors. It is an ideal destination to recharge your batteries and enjoy yourself. The sun shines, the luminosity adds to the beauty of the landscapes. From perched villages to local markets, you can trace an itinerary of charming stops in a magnificent environment. You have a choice of monuments and sites to discover, some very popular like the Crocodile Farm(Pierrelatte), the Ideal Palace of the Postman Cheval(Hauterives) or the City of Chocolate(Tain l'Ermitage). In addition, there are castles, including the unmissable castle of Grignan where the Marquise de Sévigné ended her life and which hosts remarkable nightly festivals every summer.
The Drôme offers a very rich patchwork from the gentle and hilly north, dotted with orchards and charming villages, to the Provençal Drôme of olive groves and lime trees, vineyards and lavender, from the wild Vercors massif to the Diois, a little jewel far from the cities where alternative life choices are being experimented with, against a backdrop of ecological houses, organic vegetable gardens, recycling, and the circular economy... Conviviality and solidarity are on the program, so much so that some decide to settle there, year round. The others can always camp at the edge of the Drôme, under a yurt, stay in a tree house, hike with donkeys, fly in a paraglider, walk on the tracks of the Huguenots, enjoy a plate of local charcuterie accompanied by a small local wine, at noon before choosing a starred table and great wines in the evening.
When to go ? You can go to the Drôme all year round. It is easy to come from Paris by TGV and to arrive directly in town, in Valence or Montélimar, for a city stay in any season. But of course, summer is the great tourist season in the Drôme, the one when you can enjoy the banks of wild rivers, the scent of lavender in bloom, the tasty fruits and vegetables of the Rhone valley, the buzzing of bees and the song of cicadas. Autumn sees the wine festivals. At Christmas, markets and illuminations enchant the towns. In February, we celebrate the olive. And when it snows, the resorts of the Vercors and the Diois invite you to enjoy the joys of skiing.
The Drôme has several climates, under the influence of the mountains and the Mediterranean. The amplitude is important between the seasons. For example, in the northern Drôme, the average temperature is 4°C in January and 22°C in July... The sun shines 2,100 hours in the north of the region, and already reaches 2,570 hours in Montélimar! Winters are harsh in the Haut-Diois or on the Vercors plateau, but much milder when you go down to the plain and especially towards the south. The mistral wind blows strongly in the Rhône valley.
