A 1962 "Californian" villa, with a garden, patios and swimming pool, facing Mt Ventoux, the Lubéron and the Alpilles, 15 min from Avignon's TGV statio
A 1962 "Californian" villa, with a garden, patios and swimming pool, facing Mt Ventoux, the Lubéron and the Alpilles, 15 min from Avignon's TGV station.
Sitting atop a plateau, where one of the most sought-out towns in the Avignon conurbation area is located, the property features breath-taking views of the remarkable surrounding natural heritage, which includes the "Rhône Aval" Natura 2000 site, four natural areas of ecological, faunal and floristic interest as well as several regional natural parks, such as the Lubéron, Mount Ventoux with its Dentelles de Montmirail foothills and the Alpilles, which overlook the city of Avignon.
As for this town, with 9,000 inhabitants and boasting a rolling topography, it is only ten minutes from the former Papal City's downtown area with its many shops, upper and lower secondary schools, university, hospitals, as well as regional and high-speed rail stations, while the A9 and A7 motorways are 5 and 15 minutes away, respectively. In addition, Arles can be reached in 35 minutes and the Marseille-Provence international airport is accessible in one hour and 15 minutes by car.
At the top of a steep street that winds its way through the residential town of Les Angles, a contemporary metal gate and its two concrete pilasters proudly display the villa's auspicious name: "The Horizon", which is anything but hyperbole.
Once open, the gate reveals a fantastical horizon, made up of some of the most famous mountain ranges in Provence, which provide a breath-taking backd-rop for Avignon's architectural gem: the Papal Palace, while these splendid views can be enjoyed from both inside and outside this three-storey edifice designed with a brutalist and, yet, playful and humorous style.
From the property's western entrance, the building presents visitors not with a monumental exterior, but a painted wooden garage door next to a small wood and wrought-iron door typical of the 1960s: a clever ruse that might lead one to believe that this property only contains a simple cottage.
However, the majority of the dwelling is concealed on its garden side, amidst the splendour of the rising sun, where its exterior features a much more explicit modernist style. This is one of those small "California-style" villas that flourished in Provence in the 1960s, specifically along the Mediterranean coast, and of which very few examples still remain today.
A quintessential specimen of modest 20th-century housing, often unfairly criticised, these villas have now become iconic with their generally simple, sunny, minimalist and chic-looking architecture, ideal for a cosy family home, while the different shades of their wooden details, combined with bright white plaster and concrete, often sculpted into rock-like shapes and highlighted by painted lines, reflect the dazzling sunlight, which is, in turn, showcased by the breath-taking natural landscapes that these edifices so often face. That is certainly the case here, to the delight of all who set foot on this property.
The "Californian-Style" VillaBuilt to compensate for the series of changes in the property's elevation, which sculpt this residential hillside, the villa, designed as a parallelepiped structure placed perpendicular to the slope, is anything but ordinary.
Indeed, this is a dwelling in which one descends as they advance through the building rather than ascend, while its understated front door, next to the garage, does not open on to a cottage, but a landing that provides access to the garage as well as a staircase, which descends to the sun-drenched lower level, whose main rooms gradually come into view as one's eye become accustomed to the dazzling luminescence.
Although none of the three bedrooms on the villa's two lower floors are necessarily large, they give off an impression of plenty of space, undoubtedly due to the fact that they are ...
