Buying in France:Tempted to try a year in Provençe? An 18th century house by lavender fields is for sale for €1.48m, writes Kate McMorrow.
An 18th century house in a hamlet near Ménerbes in the Luberon has the perfect ingredients for a trophy second home.
This is the region made famous by British expat Peter Mayle in A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence. It's on the edge of lavender fields, one of France's most beautiful sights, and within motoring reach of Marseilles and Nice airports.
The house will set you back €1.48 million through the Irish representative of agent Emile Garcin. Impeccably restored and with plenty of room for a family, there is about 300sq m (3,300sq ft) of space in the four-bedroom main house, plus a cute one-bedroom guest cottage in the courtyard garden.
You enter the house through a gate in the wall to a courtyard formally planted with box topiary and evergreens.
Another terraced garden at the back is crammed with luxuriant planting, with a fountain and flagged terrace for outdoor dining.
Steps climb to the rooftop pool, where the views over the countryside are unspoiled as far as the eye can see.
This is not a place for anyone looking for acres of parkland, but the pretty terraced gardens would be a doddle to maintain from a distance.
The owner is an interior designer, who took pride in maintaining the Provençal character of the house. There is a small sittingroom, big country kitchen/diningroom, pantry and toilet on the ground floor and another larger beamed sittingroom with old fireplace and fanlit French doors to the garden.
Upstairs, a third sittingroom opens to an upper terrace and there are two bedrooms, one en suite, and the main bathroom.
Two further bedrooms are at the top of the house, one leading onto a terrace. A shower room and full bathroom are also at this level.
A sittingroom with corner kitchen, bedroom, shower and toilet make up the 50sq m (538sq ft) guest cottage. There is also a garage, oil central heating in the main house, an alarm system and both mains and well water - a bonus in this rain-starved part of Provence. Menerbes is under half an hour from the A7 and an hour's drive from Marseilles and Avignon.
Emile Garcin 01 6636363
