Large and luxurious Provencal village house with secluded garden and pool

As you step onto the flagstone floors of this 400 year old ‘Maison de Maitre’ you’re immediately aware of history and luxury. 

From the vaulted hall you enter into a stylish living/dining room which is separated by an archway from the very large and well-equipped kitchen. 

Both have access to the charming courtyard (great for outdoor eating and use of the barbecue) which leads into the walled garden. In this oasis of relative calm you sunbathe on the terrace, find shade under the fig or apricot tree or take a dip in the roman-basin style pool. 

Throughout the house, the décor is simple and stylish with the original features having been carefully restored with local materials in authentic Provencal style. 

Each of the five double bedrooms is very light and airy, and has its own private bathroom with power shower, solid brass fittings and hand made basins (by the master potter next door). Each of the rooms can be made up with single or super-king-sized double beds. Air-conditioning is fitted to the two front bedrooms where the sun is it's most intense all day long.

The kitchen on the ground floor has been designed with communal cooking in mind … it has six meters of work surface, two spanish-stone sinks, and a ‘La Canche’ five burner piano style gas cooker. 

There are two terraces ... one just outside the kitchen, the other at the end of the garden. Clients normally eat all their meals outside; at breakfast the air is beautifully fresh (before the Mediterranean sun becomes intense) and the evenings are wonderfully long and balmy. There is a fig and apricot tree in the garden which offer good shade for those that seek it, and delicious fruit when the season is right. There are six luxury loungers around the pool. 

The house is situated on the main ‘Place’, at the very heart of this small but active and very authentically French village. Across from the house is the local boulangerie, boucherie, bar, corner shop and restaurant. Five minutes walk away is a pharmacy, boules and tennis court, and park with a dedicated children’s play area. 

Resident:
I am resident at 'La Maison du Faiencier' (with Duke the dog) all year round.  We live in a self-contained apartment, out of sight and sound of our clients.
 
This is a large house and we have renovated it in such a way as to allow us to have a separate unseen internal staircase leading off the garage to our apartment which comprises of a salon, double bedroom and two bathrooms.  
 
This means we all share the main outer entrance door, but once in the entrance hall, our clients have their own inner entrance door which takes them through, at ground floor level, to the main part of the house, the garden with pool and to the central stairs with their five bedrooms and en suite bathrooms on the first and second floors.  
 
During the client's stay I like, with their permission, to water the garden and clean the pool on a regular basis. This way both stay fresh and inviting. This can be done at any convenient time. However, after brief discussion at the beginning of their stay, it often works out that this little bit of maintenance is done early in the morning before anyone is about. 
 
Being ‘sur place’ also means of course, that I am available should they ever need any help or advice.

Area:

Parking is plentiful and free just around the corner from the property.

They say in the tourist offices here that the area is 'blest' with sunshine 300 days a year. It’s not true. It’s more than that. 

The village of Varages (famous for it’s production of ‘Faiencier’ i.e. fine pottery) is in the middle of the diverse attractions of this part of Provence. Go north for 20 minutes and you find the ‘Gorges du Verdon’ ... Europe’s Grand Canyon: 25 kilometers of lakes and rivers. Go south and you have the sophistication of the Cote D’Azur … St Tropez, Cassie, Cannes etc. Out west is Aix-en-Provence, said to be the most beautiful city in Europe and all around the village are endless olive groves and vineyards dotted with lost-in-time medieval villages.

Communications are great. The village is just twenty minutes north of the A8 motorway which runs across the south of France from northern Italy to Spain. And within 60 minutes drive there are two international airports and the TGV rail line to Paris.

On our YouTube channel, ‘LaMaisonduFaiencier’ you can see and hear what eleven of our previous international client groups (most with children) thought of the property and area, plus a 3 minute photo montage of the house, garden and pool.