A restored Provençal house with a swimming pool and outbuildings, tucked away in the countryside in the west of France's Var department, 20 minutes fr
A restored Provençal house with a swimming pool and outbuildings, tucked away in the countryside in the west of France's Var department, 20 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea.
The property lies to the north-west of the city of Toulon, on the edge of the Saint-Baume regional nature park where you find the most authentic unspoilt countryside of Provence and one of France's most beautiful villages. This enchanting environment inspired the literary works of the Provençal writer Marcel Pagnol. The house is set back in the middle of the countryside. It enjoys absolute privacy and calm in a backd-rop of age-old olive trees and vineyards with the Bandol protected designation of origin accreditation. Yet the delightful beaches of Sanary and Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer are only around 20 minutes away. You can easily reach a nearby motorway in less than 10 minutes. Major rail links can also be reached from the high-speed train stations in Toulon and Marseille in 30 and 50 minutes respectively. Toulon and Marseille airports also offer flights to Paris and abroad.
You reach the Provençal house via a small country lane and then a 100-metre-long earthen track that also leads to two other properties. There is a parking area, sheltered with vegetation, and then a stone annexe. This space marks the start of a gravelled drive into the property. The house dates back to the 19th century. The south-facing edifice is edged with a travertine terrace. It leads out onto a vast, flat space just above a swimming pool. Its stone elevations without pointing rise up to a gabled roof of barrel tiles, underlined with a double-row génoise cornice. The main building has a ground floor and a first floor. It has an elevation with four rectangular windows upstairs and three glazed doors downstairs. The stone surrounds of these openings are typical of the south of France. A first studio apartment adjoins the edifice's east side and leads out to a terrace via a glazed double door. Its flat roof serves as a terrace and as an entrance, via backstairs, to a second studio apartment, which is bigger. In front of the terrace, which is demarcated by a low dry-stone wall and two mulberry trees framing a few steps, there is a gravelled and grassy surface where you can admire a sweeping view of vineyards in the undulating landscape that surrounds the property. At one end of the plot, among age-old olive trees, there are two looseboxes that have been converted into unique summer dwellings. On the west side, slightly lower down from the swimming pool, there is a kitchen garden and an orchard, which are provided with water from a well down here.
The Provençal houseThe Provençal house was entirely renovated in 2022. It offers a 120m² floor area. It has been transformed somewhat.
The garden-level floor
You enter the ground floor via a terrace and a glazed door beneath a timber lintel in the middle of the house. On one side, there is a lounge with a fireplace and an open-plan kitchen. On the other side, there is a dining room. Both spaces lead outside, on the south side, via French windows that offer views of vineyards and hills in the background. There is also a window on the north side where the kitchen lies. At the back, the kitchen connects to a utility room and then to a lavatory, which you can also reach from the dining room. The floors are terracotta-tiled and the walls plastered in a grey-beige tone, like the colour of the exposed beams that run across the ceiling.
The upstairs
Opposite the entrance door, there is a staircase, which also has terracotta tiles. It leads up to the first-floor landing. There used to be four bedrooms up here, but now there are only two. The main bedroom offers a 20m² floor area. Two south-facing windows fill it with natural light. An in-built wardrobe takes up the west wall. The sloping attic ceiling is ...
