What it is actually like to live Eygalières, all year, not just in August.
Eygalières sits at the eastern end of the Alpilles, on a low hill above the plain, about thirteen kilometres from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It has 1,773 residents. A stretch of open country separates it from the better known villages at the western end of the range, Les Baux and Saint-Rémy, and that distance is a large part of why it feels different from them. The village has two halves, and the difference matters more than it sounds. The lower village, along rue de la République, is where daily life happens: the cafés, the shops, the post office and the Friday market. Above it, reached by climbing from the place de l'Église, where rue de la République becomes rue du Docteur Roque, is the old quarter: largely residential, much quieter, and with the views. Which half you buy in decides which of the two villages you actually live in, so it is worth spending a day in each before you choose.
One more thing before the detail, because it changes how you read the rest of this guide. Not everybody who buys here intends to live in the house all year. Many of our buyers divide it: some months living here, the rest letting the house through us so that it earns while they are away. Both are covered below, and they are genuinely different experiences. Which one you have in mind changes what you should look for, in a house and in a village.
Eygalières in numbers
Population: 1,773 residents (INSEE, 2023 census)
Second homes: Around 30% of homes, 419 of 1,397 (INSEE, 2023)
Commune: Eygalières, 13810, Bouches-du-Rhône, académie d'Aix-Marseille
Market: Every Friday morning, all year, along rue de la République, avenue Léon Blum and place Marcel Bonein
Brocante: Last Sunday of the month, from 7am, place Marcel Bonein and rue de la République, professional dealers
Crèche: Crèche Li Petouset, in the village, for children under three
Primary school: One public primary, Impasse des écoles. 151 pupils in 6 classes, 51 of them in maternelle (2025 rentrée)
Collège: Collège Mont Sauvy, Orgon, about 10 km
Lycée: Lycée Ismaël Dauphin, Cavaillon, or Lycée Adam de Craponne, Salon-de-Provence
Doctors: Two GPs at the Centre médical Les Passereaux, avenue du Général de Gaulle
Living in the village
Dentists and pharmacy: Three dentists and a pharmacy in the village
Emergency department: Cavaillon hospital, about 14 km, around 20 minutes
Supermarket and fuel: Intermarché, Orgon, about 8 km, with a 24 hour fuel station
Post office: Agence postale communale, avenue Charles de Gaulle
Fibre: 99% of premises can be connected (Arcep, June 2026)
Open all year: Six restaurants and cafés, plus the bakery and the butcher
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence: About 13 km, 15 to 20 minutes
Avignon TGV: About 32 km, 35 to 40 minutes
Marseille Provence airport: About 65 km, under an hour
Nearest regular bus: Zou! line 706 from Orgon to Avignon, about 55 minutes
Sources: INSEE census 2023; Ministry of Education school data, 2025 rentrée; Mairie d'Eygalières; Arcep fibre data, June 2026; Zou! timetable, September 2026. Drive times are typical, outside peak traffic.
Everyday life in Eygalières
Eygalières is a small village, but it is perfectly set up for everyday life. Most of an ordinary week happens on foot, within a few minutes of rue de la République.
Health
Two GPs practise at the Centre médical Les Passereaux on avenue du Général de Gaulle, and the village also has three dentists, a pharmacy, nurses and a speech therapist. The nearest hospital with an emergency department is in Cavaillon, about twenty minutes by car.
Food and shopping
The bakery and the butcher are open all year, and the Friday market brings in fruit, vegetables, cheese and everything else for the week. For a bigger shop, most people drive to the Intermarché in Orgon, about eight kilometres away, which also has the nearest fuel station, open around the clock.
Post and banking
The agence postale communale on avenue Charles de Gaulle handles post and parcels, and La Banque Postale customers can withdraw cash at the counter. For the main banks, Saint-Rémy and Cavaillon are the nearest towns.
Internet
Fibre reaches 99% of premises in the commune. It is still worth checking the specific house on the national coverage map, particularly for a property out in the countryside.
Families
There is a crèche in the village, a primary school with six classes, and school buses to the collège in Orgon and the lycée in Cavaillon. Schools are covered in full below.
The four seasons in Eygalières
Eygalières is busy from June to the end of August, calmer from November to March, and at its best in the weeks either side.
Summer, June to August in Eygalières
Warm, lively, and the season when Eygalières is a destination as well as a village. The highlight is the fête votive de la Saint-Laurent: six days in August, around the feast of Saint Laurent on the 10th. The village gives itself over to abrivados and bandidos, the Camargue tradition of running bulls through the streets, along with a blessing of the horses, the pégoulade parade, open-air dances, concerts, pétanque competitions, a funfair and long communal meals.
Worth knowing if you are buying on or near rue de la République: it is one of the best weeks of the year, with the whole village outside your front door. For anyone letting their house, it is also the easiest week of the year to fill. Just a note that parking takes a little more planning in July and August, especially on Friday market mornings. Residents use the public car park around the centre and walk in, and for anyone buying a village house, a garage or private parking is a real advantage.
Autumn, September to November in Eygalières
The months residents name when you ask which they would keep. The crowds thin in the first week of September and the village goes back to being lived in rather than visited. The summer haze clears as the nights cool, and the September light is the reason painters and photographers have come to this part of the Alpilles for generations. The low sun picks out the limestone ridges and the texture of the old stone in a way high summer never does.
On the plain below, the olives deepen from green to black and purple, and the harvest begins in late October. Mid September brings the vide-grenier, around a hundred stalls along rue de la République, the sale that pays for the Christmas parade. October is the village's cultural month. On the first Sunday, the Foire de la Sainte-Thérèse becomes the Journée à l'Ancienne, when the village recreates life around 1900 with a parade in period costume, folk groups and traditional crafts. Through the early part of the month, the Festival sous les feuilles d'automne runs alongside it. September is the month owners most like to keep for themselves. The weather holds, the village is calm, and there is little reason to let it.
Winter, December to February
Winter is the real test of a village, and Eygalières passes it well. It is a slower, more intimate season, but the village does not close. The bakery and the butcher stay open, and so do six restaurants and cafés, which is rarer in the Alpilles than it should be. Evenings move indoors: dinner with friends, a fire lit, the village at its most local.
The olive harvest runs from late October into December, the last agricultural event of the year. The oil from this plain carries the AOC Huile d'Olive de la Vallée des Baux-de-Provence, pressed from Aglandau, Salonenque and Grossane olives, and several mills within a short drive welcome visitors through the season.
Then comes the evening the whole village waits for. On a Saturday just before Christmas, rue de la République fills with families from mid afternoon. There are games and activities for the children first, and at six o'clock the parade sets off, with characters from fairy tales and favourite films making their way through the lit-up streets. Fireworks close the night. It is free, it has run for more than twenty years, and it belongs entirely to the village.
What makes it so special is how it is paid for. Every September, the association behind the parade runs the village vide-grenier, around a hundred stalls along the same street, and the money raised goes towards December. Neighbours selling to neighbours in the late summer sun, so that every child in the village gets a night of lights and fireworks in midwinter. If you want to understand Eygalières in a single evening, this is the one to come for. The Friday market runs every week through the winter. It is smaller, and the faces at it are the people who live here.
Spring, March to May in Eygalières
Spring is when the village moves back outdoors. Carnival arrives in the middle of March, on a Saturday afternoon, with a parade through the streets and the burning of the Caramantran, the straw figure blamed for the winter and ceremonially sent off to end it.
The cafés never really close, so the terraces simply fill as the weather warms: a coffee in the sun one week, lunch outside a few weeks later. The countryside turns green and the walking is at its best. Plenty of residents will tell you May is the finest month of all. May is also why many owners keep spring for themselves and let the high summer instead. If the house needs to earn, that is the balance most people settle on: you keep the months you would choose, and let the months everyone else wants.
A year in Eygalières at a glance
Dates follow the village's usual pattern. The mairie's agenda gives the exact day each year.
- Every Friday: Market, rue de la République and the village centre
- Last Sunday of the month: Brocante
- Mid March: Carnival and the burning of the Caramantran
- March to May: Terraces fill as the weather warms, and the best walking of the year
- August: Fête votive de la Saint-Laurent, six days around the 10th
- September: Forum des associations, and the vide-grenier with around a hundred stalls
- First Sunday of October: Foire de la Sainte-Thérèse and the Journée à l'Ancienne
- October: Festival sous les feuilles d'automne
- Late October to December: Olive harvest
- A Saturday before Christmas: Christmas parade and fireworks
Schools and families
- Under three: Crèche Li Petouset, in the village, run by the Mutualité Française
- Three to eleven: The village primary on Impasse des écoles, maternelle and élémentaire together. 151 pupils in 6 classes at the 2025 rentrée
- Eleven to fifteen: Collège Mont Sauvy in Orgon, about 10 km, with a school bus from the village
- Fifteen to eighteen: Lycée Ismaël Dauphin in Cavaillon, with a school bus from the village, or Lycée Adam de Craponne in Salon-de-Provence
These are the schools the mairie lists for the village's sector. The carte scolaire is set by the department and can change between years, so it is worth confirming with the mairie for the year you plan to move.
Bilingual and international options
- Collège Jean Brunet, Avignon: A public collège with an American international section. About 30 to 35 minutes
- Happy Forever School, Bouillargues, near Nîmes: A bilingual French and English Montessori school and collège for ages two and a half to sixteen.
- International Bilingual School of Provence, Luynes, near Aix-en-Provence: A private school for ages two to eighteen, offering both the French Baccalaureate and the International Baccalaureate, with boarding from age eleven. About an hour
Eating and drinking year-round in Eygalières
For a village of under two thousand people, Eygalières eats remarkably well, and it does so all year. These six stay open through the winter.
Restaurant Paulette
A village favourite on rue de la République, run by Laetitia and Nicolas. The cooking is seasonal and homemade, built around produce from Alpilles farmers, and in the warmer months lunch is served under a wisteria-covered terrace. They also have guest rooms, so it is a good place to send visiting friends.
Bistrot Quàsi
A relaxed, sociable bistro on rue de la République from Édouard Giribone, formerly chef at Edù in Saint-Rémy, and Louis Villard. Expect sharing plates, thin, crisp pizzas and French Italian bistro cooking, the kind of place you drop into with friends rather than book weeks ahead.
Café de la Place
The village café on the place de la Mairie, and the closest thing Eygalières has to a front room. It is busiest on Friday market mornings and at apéritif time, when a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie on the terrace is a village ritual.
Brasserie Le Progrès
A proper village brasserie on the corner of place Marcel Bonnein, with a terrace and a rotisserie, cooking fresh on site with homemade desserts. It is open every day from early morning until late, so it serves as breakfast spot, lunch stop and evening meeting point all in one.
L'Oiseau qui Chante
A generous Italian trattoria in a stone village house at 30 rue de la République, with a hidden patio at the back and a small bar inside. It comes from the team behind the restaurant of the same name in Saint-Rémy, and it has taken over one of the most handsome addresses on the main street.
Le Bistrot du Brau
Traditional bistro cooking with a menu signed by chef Christopher Hache, at the four-star Hôtel La Bastide d’Eygalières, set in an oak wood just outside the village. In summer you eat on a shaded terrace, and in winter by the fire in the lounge. It is listed in the Michelin Guide.
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L'Estagnol
“A family home, a shared kitchen” is how L’Estagnol describes itself, and it suits the place. Chef Fabrice Meynadier cooks seasonal local dishes and sharing plates, served in the garden by the pool or in a Mediterranean dining room with a fireplace. It is recognised by Gault&Millau.. *Closed in February and March.
Domaine La Pierre Blanche
An adults-only hotel of fifteen rooms and suites, three kilometres from the village on the route d’Orgon. Its restaurant, L’Opale, is led by chef Romain Serradimigni, with a more casual bistrot alongside and the Ambar Sunset Lounge for cocktails as the light goes. *Closes for part of the winter.
The bakery and the butchers
Boulangerie de Provence
The village bakery at 48 rue de la République, for the morning baguette and pastries, and open on Sunday mornings.
Boucherie d'Eygalières
The village butcher at 100 rue de la République, popular with local cooks. Alongside the meat you will find a few ready-prepared dishes and homemade pâtés, soups and sauces, which are very useful on an evening when you do not feel like cooking.
The Alpilles on your doorstep
The village sits against the Alpilles Regional Natural Park, and the walking, cycling and riding are the reason many people move here. The olive groves on the plain and the limestone ridges above are both on the doorstep, and spring and autumn are the seasons to enjoy them most. A kilometre out, framed by cypresses, is the Saint-Sixte chapel, the image of Eygalières most people have seen without knowing where it was.
Sport and clubs
Tennis Club d'Eygalières: Courts on chemin du Cimetière, for all ages and levels
La Boule Eygaliéroise: The village pétanque club
Football Club Mollégès Eygalières: Shared with the neighbouring village of Mollégès
Centre Équestre Les Grandes Terres: Riding centre on chemin de la Maillère
M'Eygagrimpe: Climbing club at the Maison des Sports
Golf: Golf de Servanes at Mouriès, an 18 hole course, and Golf de Manville at Les Baux-de-Provence
“For me, Eygalières is the picture-postcard image of Provence: beautiful stone houses, olive groves and breathtaking countryside. What makes it so special is how the village has evolved over the past twenty years. It used to be a very quiet little village with hardly anything going on. Today, you have wonderful restaurants, cafés, lovely shops and a real village atmosphere. It's not just somewhere beautiful to spend your holidays. It's somewhere you can genuinely enjoy living, all year round.”
Géraldine Pic, Director of Property Sales
Who lives in Eygalières
Around three in ten homes in Eygalières are second homes, a measure of how many people have fallen for the village and chosen to keep a house here. The year-round population is mainly French. Around it is a genuinely international community: Swiss, Belgian and British residents, Parisians who work in the city during the week and come back for long weekends, and others from across Europe and beyond. The village has also long attracted people from film, music, art and business, drawn by its beauty, its privacy and its discretion. With 150 children at the village school, a market every Friday and restaurants open through the winter, Eygalières stays lively all year round.
How you meet people in Eygalières
We asked a member of our local team how a newcomer ends up with friends here. The answer was simple: become part of the rhythm of village life. Go to the market every Friday, take your coffee at the same café, come to the village events, and let it happen gradually. In a village this size you see the same faces, conversations start naturally, and the invitations follow. The associations matter too, and the village has more than thirty of them. The Forum des associations each September is the easiest place to start. Whether it is sport, culture, music, art or the festivities themselves, joining one gives you a reason to see people every week rather than simply passing them in the street. Pétanque is the quickest way in of all: people gather to play, to watch and to talk, and nobody expects you to be an expert. The more you join in, the sooner Eygalières stops being where you bought a house and becomes home.
Getting here, and what is within reach
Life in Eygalières is easiest with a car. Most of what you need is close by, and everything else is a straightforward drive.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence: About 13 km on the D99, 15 to 20 minutes. Larger shops, banks and most services
Orgon: About 8 km. Intermarché, fuel and the sector collège
Cavaillon: About 14 km, around 20 minutes. Hospital, emergency department and lycée
Avignon TGV: About 32 km, 35 to 40 minutes, with fast trains to Paris
Marseille Provence airport: About 65 km, under an hour
Drive times are typical, outside peak traffic.
Choosing your house in Eygalières
Two decisions shape life here more than any other: which part of the village, and village or countryside.
Lower village or old quarter
The lower village, along rue de la République, is where daily life happens, and where the market and the fête come to your door. The old quarter above is quieter, largely residential, and has the views. Spend a morning in each before you decide.
Village house or countryside
A village house puts everything on foot: the bakery, the café, Friday's market. Look for parking, because a garage or private space is worth more here than its size suggests. A house in the countryside gives you privacy, views and land, often with olive trees, and a short drive into the village. Both are the real Eygalières, just lived in different ways.
If the house will let
Géraldine Pic, our Director of Property Sales, gives buyers the same advice from the letting side. Being able to walk to the village is one of the most appealing things a house can offer guests. A countryside house needs to match it with privacy, views and generous outdoor space. Bedrooms that genuinely sleep the numbers, good parking and outdoor space that works for a group all matter more to a letting house than to one you simply live in.
If you want the house to earn
Most agencies will simply sell you a house in Provence. We have been letting them here for ten years, which puts us in an unusual position on both sides of the purchase. Before you buy, we can show you what a house we let has actually earned: the real weeks, from our own booking records, rather than a number somebody has modelled. After you buy, if you want the house to let, we will manage it for you, so you are never handing it to a stranger. It also means we will tell you plainly how a house is likely to let, a conversation most agencies have no reason to have with you.
The secret is planning. The summer weeks let best, so most owners decide early which months they keep and which they let, and set aside a locked space for their own things. A house kept to letting standard is also, as it happens, a house in very good order. We will talk you through all of it before you buy.
Questions buyers ask us about buying in Eygalières
Is Eygalières lively in winter?
Yes. The bakery, the butcher and six restaurants and cafés are open all year, and the Friday market runs every week.
Is there a crèche?
Yes. Crèche Li Petouset is in the village and takes children under three.
Where do children go to school?
The village primary until eleven, then Collège Mont Sauvy in Orgon and the lycée in Cavaillon or Salon-de-Provence. The mairie confirms the current sector.
Is there an international school nearby?
There are three options between 30 minutes and an hour away, in Avignon, near Nîmes and near Aix-en-Provence.
Where is the nearest hospital?
Cavaillon, around 20 minutes by car. There are GPs, dentists and a pharmacy in the village.
Is there fibre?
Yes, 99% of premises in the commune can be connected. Check the specific address on the national coverage map.
Where do I park in summer?
Residents use the public car park around the centre and walk in. A village house with a garage or private parking is a real advantage.
Do I need a car?
Yes. The nearest regular bus runs from Orgon, so day to day life here is built around driving.
Property spotlight in Eygalières
In the village: Maison Eygalières
PPS-0342 · €2,450,000 · 3 bedrooms · 163 m² · 1,014 m² of garden
Built in 2020 in the heart of the village, a few steps from the shops, bars and restaurants, with views of the old village. Three en suite bedrooms, one on the ground floor, a fireplace in the living room, and a heated pool with a pool house in an enclosed, landscaped garden. Two private parking spaces, which in Eygalières is worth knowing. This is the house for someone who wants Friday's market on foot.
The Mas des Magnans: a renovated farmhouse with views of the Alpilles
PPS-0377 · €3,750,000 · 6 bedrooms · 340 m² · 7,000 m² of grounds
The Mas des Magnans dates from the eighteenth century and was completely renovated in 2024. It sits between Eygalières and Saint-Rémy, not overlooked, in two connected wings with six bedrooms. Outside, a summer kitchen beside the heated pool, a pétanque court, olive trees and lawns with views of the Alpilles. We are the only agency offering it.
Among the olive groves: Les Jardins Blancs
PPS-0456 · €6,600,000 · 6 suites · 635 m² · 2.08 hectares
A contemporary villa on just over two hectares with no immediate neighbours, facing the Alpilles and surrounded by vineyards and some 350 olive trees, which give 200 to 300 litres of oil a year. The main house has six suites behind floor to ceiling glass, and a 200 m² annex holds the leisure and wellness spaces. Outside, a 15 metre heated pool with an adjustable floor, a pool house, a padel court, and a Balinese gazebo on a pond, placed for the sunset.
From the crèche on rue de la République to the olive groves on the plain, Eygalières is a village that works as well on a Tuesday in January as it does in August. Lots of restaurants and cafés stay open all winter, the Friday market runs every week of the year, and the calendar is full, from the burning of the Caramantran in March to the Saint-Laurent bulls in August and a Christmas parade the whole village pays for. Whether you see yourself in a village house or among the olive trees, living here all year or letting the house while you are away, it is a place that rewards you for choosing it. We hope this guide has given you a real sense of life in Eygalières, beyond the holiday postcard. When you are ready to see it for yourself, we would love to show you around.
À bientôt,
