The Writer Who Spies on Provence So You Don't Have To

Hello! I’m Jenny Austria, the creator and writer of The Luberon Spy.

This piece kicks off Luberon Profiles, a series of articles that features interviews and conversations with small businesses and local entrepreneurs. You’ll discover where to eat, stay, shop, explore, and even meet the locals worth hiring when you’re here.

Before I ask fellow Luberon locals to share their stories, it’s only fair I go first. After all, if I’m going to poke around in people’s lives and businesses, you should know a bit about mine. Here goes…

Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and what brought you to the Luberon?

Okay, so, hi! I’m Jenny and I created The Luberon Spy. I write travel guides, offer custom trip planning, and will soon launch a newsletter that shows the good, the bad, the interesting, and the true about this place.

A woman (The Luberon Spy writer) in a tan jumpsuit smiles while standing in front of a rustic wooden door set in an old stone building with weathered architectural details. — Blending in at Chateau de Mille, the Luberon’s oldest wine estate.

I’m a French citizen now, but I am 100% born and raised Filipino. I’ve been living abroad since 2010 and later on, I moved to France with my husband. We lived in Paris (pretty but exhausting), Normandy (homey but too rural), and somehow ended up in Provence.

The Luberon was never part of our plan. After our house hunt in Normandy fell apart in the weirdest way, a friend in Provence invited us to visit. As luck would have it, we found a house in a tiny Luberon village, and voilà, here we are.

What’s the backstory about your business? Spill the details, please!

Honestly? I owe The Luberon Spy to a bad mood. I got tired of seeing the Internet romanticizing Provence. To. Death.

I remember thinking, “Why isn’t anyone talking about ugly but real things?” So I made the site I wished existed—something helpful, honest, and deliberately imperfect.

If you’re a francophile, fine, I get it. But if you’re a blogger who breezed through for a few days and declared everything “fairytale” and “breathtaking” without mentioning the messy bits of visiting a touristy place? Or worse, if you actually live here and only ever show the rosy side? That doesn’t help anyone.

I remember thinking, “Why isn’t anyone talking about ugly but real things?” If something is a waste of time or money, I’d want someone to tell me. If there’s advice that makes moving to Provence smoother, I’d want that, too.

So I made the site I wished existed—something helpful, honest, and deliberately imperfect.

The writer wearing a sunhat and orange dress and smiles brightly while standing in front of a blooming lavender field under a clear blue sky.

The writer is dressed in bright orange fire gear helps operate a hydrant, surrounded by a group of similarly dressed volunteers near a wooded area.

Everyone loves Provence for its lavender fields. But few realize wildfires are a real threat during summer.
Locals like me volunteer with the Les Comités Communaux des Feux de Forêt (CCFF), patrolling the forests to help keep Provence safe.

I realized tourists aren’t the only ones reading my blog. There are also Luberon frequent visitors who want to see beyond the tourist sites, and future retirees asking what Luberon life is like.

I named the blog The Luberon Spy, because I’ve always been obsessed with spies. Like if Jason Bourne and a Michelin inspector had a baby, kind of spy.

Right now, my site runs mostly on affiliate commissions. I also do custom travel planning for those who value their time more than most people. And when I say custom, I mean really custom—tell me your hyper-specific wish list, and I’ll find it. I’ve been quiet about this service so far, but I’ll be offering it more officially in 2026.

Were you in this line of work before? If not, what did you do prior?

My background is in market research and public relations. I worked for big agencies and global brands, living on deadlines and adrenaline in my 20s. I loved it and thought I’d do it until I became the CEO. I was so wrong.

In 2009, my father died and that changed me. It forced me to ask, What do I really want? I wanted freedom to do whatever I want.

So I gave myself a few more years to save up and plan my exit. In 2015, I quit corporate life for good and became a freelance copywriter, which lets me work from anywhere in the world.

Imagine you’re in an elevator. You’ve got 30 seconds. How do you describe your business to a stranger?

Think of The Luberon Spy as your well-traveled friend who tells you what’s great, what’s meh, and what sucks. I live here and I pay for my own food and experiences, which means I don’t owe anyone a glowing review.

A woman wearing a red cap, green t-shirt, and jeans with a denim jacket tied around her waist stands smiling on a rocky hilltop with green shrubs and a partly cloudy sky in the background. — Impromptu mini-hike after lunch on the Lourmarin hills.

What part of your business makes you happy? How about what worries or challenges you?

I love that my job is wandering around villages and writing about it. That’s what I’d be doing anyway, so earning from it is a bonus. But there are three things that bother me:

1) Time – I wish I could write faster and more often. I’m not exactly the most disciplined human. I travel abroad a lot, and I have other projects pulling me away. So sometimes, this site doesn’t get as much love as it should.

2) Escalating heat waves – It gets hotter each year, and it makes me wonder what the Luberon will be like in 20 years.

3) Perspective fatigue – Truth is—and I think you’ll agree with me—the more you see, the harder it is to be impressed. Lavender fields seldom wow me anymore. Hilltop villages? Pretty, but I’ve seen others in Europe that outshine them.

It’s like New York for me. I love Broadway, the subway, the grit of the city. But if you live there, you’re probably over it and dreaming of lavender fields instead. I think we’re wired to crave what we don’t have, so we look for variety, contrast, a nice change of pace.

So I love it when friends and family visit. Their excitement reminds me how magical the Luberon is when you’re seeing it for the first time. Meeting new people does the same thing. It keeps me curious and yanks me out of my own bubble.

Collage of a woman (the writer) at three locations: the fiery Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan, Bhutan’s cliffside Tiger’s Nest Monastery, and Mauritania’s vast Richat Structure, also called the Eye of the Sahara. — Perspective fatigue is real. Each time I return from an adventure travel, Provence can feel a little vanilla by comparison. That’s just me, though, and the feeling doesn’t last long. Here’s me at the Darvaza Crater in Turkmenistan, Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan, and the Eye of the Sahara in Mauritania.

Do you remember your very first customer? How did that feel?

Yes, I recall the first reader who emailed me to say my “Provence Without a Car” article was the most useful thing he’d found online. That simple thank-you made me realize, okay, maybe what I’m writing actually matters.

Have you ever had a strange or unexpected request from a client?

Not a request, but unexpected feedback. I feel honored when readers update me on their travels or plans because honestly, they don’t have to. One man told me about his dream to retire in France, and a year later he emailed again to say he’d done it. That kind of follow-up makes me feel like I get to be part of someone’s story, and it’s amazing.

When you started out, what did you imagine running a business in Provence would be like… and how did the reality compare?

Since I’ve been working remotely for the past 10 years, it feels the same no matter where I am.

What makes the Luberon different from my former homes in France is the balance. In Paris, there were endless things to write about but tons of competition. Normandy has D-Day, cheese, and apples, but no year-long events to talk about.

The Luberon hits the sweet spot. Just enough variety to keep things interesting without being overwhelming. And because daily life here naturally involves exploring, writing about it doesn’t feel forced.

Outside of work, what’s ONE thing you’re most proud of and why?

I’m proud of the freedom lifestyle I’ve built. I left corporate life in 2015 because I wanted to travel, live in different countries, and spend time on my own terms. While I had bosses I loved, I couldn’t imagine devoting more years to building other people’s dreams instead of my own.

The best thing to come out of this life experiment? I met my husband on a remote island, under a tree (true story!). But that’s for another time.

A woman (the writer) walks alone on a narrow sandbar with limestone cliffs and a sailboat in the distance under a partly cloudy sky. — From Kuala Lumpur, I moved to Palawan, Philippines to be with my husband. Our tiny beach bungalow didn’t even have an address. I didn’t wear shoes the first three months. Super exciting!

What’s one unconventional or surprising or brave choice you’ve made that shaped where you are today?

The writer and her husband are smiling under a tree with the hilltop village of Gordes, France, in the sunlit background.

It takes guts to quit your job for a man you met under a tree, though to be fair, he wasn’t the only reason I left cubicle life. I was braver then. I’m proud of that younger me who knew exactly what she wanted.

That bold leap set the tone for my life after: working for myself, traveling the world, and living on the beach and later in France (Paris, Normandy, and Provence). Now, I’m a 40-something who cannot–for the life of me–tolerate anyone telling me what to do. So it’s a good thing I don’t have a boss.

What’s something you wished you knew about living in the Luberon before coming here?

I come from a tropical country, so I pay attention to the cold. I was surprised that winters in the Luberon are colder than in Normandy, which is usually the one known for being wet and rainy. Provence may boast ‘300 days of sunshine,’ but don’t forget, winter here can both be blue-skied and biting cold.

What do you love most about living in the Luberon? And what’s one thing you wish you could change?

I love walking my dog in different landscapes—vineyards, olive groves, cherry fields, villages, or riverside. I feel relaxed and at peace. It’s also when my best ideas come.

A small dog walks down a grassy path lined with blooming cherry trees in the Luberon. — Doesn’t he look like a bear cub in the cherry field?

What I wish I could change is how some people care for their pets. I’ve seen so many loose dogs wandering around, often not even chipped. My dog has been attacked three times by unleashed dogs, and when you report it, the town hall or police say they can’t do anything. In France, the law only applies when a person is bitten, not when it’s dog versus dog.

I spend plenty of time in Normandy and never deal with this. Why it’s more common in the south of France is a mystery.

If you could take your favorite person to just ONE village/site/attraction in the Luberon, where would it be and why?

I would take that person to a secret spot in Buoux where the views are insane. You can’t find this on Google Maps.

A woman (the writer) in athletic wear stands at the edge of a rocky cliff in Buoux, gazing out over a lush green valley and dramatic limestone cliffs under soft evening light.

What’s your favorite restaurant/cafe in the Luberon? What do you love to eat, drink, or do there?

Ugh, so hard to choose! But if we’re counting repeat visits, it’s Le Comptoir in Lourmarin. Nothing fancy. It’s a simple, affordable bistro with good food and friendly owners.

I love having lunch there with a glass of wine at my favorite table, which doubles as my people-watching spot. My dog loves it, too. We’re both just soaking it all in.

Thanks for reading! Want the real scoop on traveling and living in the Luberon? Subscribe to my newsletter, and I’ll send the good stuff straight to your inbox.