Things I like. Now with Search button (and links have moved right to the bottom)
Oh but, before I scoot off - look. This house belongs to friends and is loooooovely and in an amazing spot - irritatingly, the pictures (link to more of them below) really don't do it justice. What I should really do is rent it myself and write my book in it, but anyway. You can rent it instead, and given the comedy prices of holiday rentals in that neck of the woods, I think you should - it really is extremely nice. It's worth saying that it's their own house - they didn't buy it to rent, I mean - so it's *properly* nice rather than quite-nice-for-a-rental (also, properly equipped). Owners' info cut and pasted below; more info/availability details: lacostehouse@gmail.com. At time of writing, 22 July-25 August already booked.
WHAT AND WHERE: Our 4-bedroom holiday home with pool on the edge of the village of Lacoste (once owned by the Marquis de Sade) in the Luberon, about an hour north of Marseille and ten minutes from the villages of Bonnieux and Menerbes, (immortalised in Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence). The countryside is gorgeous, there are fruit trees, vines, markets and old stone village perches. Avignon is 40 minutes, St Remy 45 minutes, Aix-en-Provence and beaches an hour. It is great walking country, great eating country and great flopping country. LOCATION: The house is, unlike the rest of the golden stone-built village of Lacoste, a 1960 pinky orange box, but we’ve made it pretty. It has ravishing views of Bonnieux, is a 3-5-minute walk to boulangerie and cafe, but sufficiently on the outskirts of Lacoste to have a garden and pool and to avoid evening noisiness. ACCOMMODATION AND SIZE: There are four bedrooms, three doubles (one super king with en suite shower room, one standard double, one room currently with bunk beds which will have a queen-size by Easter) and one twin-bedded room. Perfect for a family with children, and perhaps grandparents, or a couple -- or three. Two families of four might find it a bit of a squeeze unless the children were quite small. STYLE AND EXTRA STUFF: It is simply, but we think stylishly, decorated, and because we’ve now entered grumpy middle age, there are good mattresses and pillows, a well-equipped kitchen, a good library and collection of DVDs, games, wireless internet broadband and an IPOD player. There’s also a gated swimming pool (8mx4m), a terrace for eating out, several quiet balconies, and a charming mature garden with shady trees around the house. It’s not luxurious; it is a comfortable, well-thought through holiday home in a very beautiful place. It has some of the limitations of houses in the area: plumbing is not to New York standards, the upstairs windows can be a bit temperamental to close. VITAL STATISTICS: 4 bedrooms (one king-size double with en suite shower; one standard double, room currently with bunks will have a queen-size double by easter, one twin); 1 bathroom, 2 showers with WC; one WC; entrance/sitting room with TV; kitchen/dining room; storeroom; terrace; swimming pool (8x4 unheated); garden; parking. Wireless broadband, I-pod player, TV and DVD players (for DVDs only); electric fans; central heating; washing machine; dishwasher; travel cot. HOW TO GET THERE: Flights to Marseille, (1hr drive) Nimes (11/2 hrs), and Avignon (several regional airports fly there including Southampton, Exeter, Birmingham, Leeds -- 40 minutes drive). Train to Avignon (direct from King’s X in summer or 21/2 hours from Paris). 10 hours drive from Calais. PRICE: £1500 per week. Some negotiation possible off-season (ie when pool closed). AVAILABILITY: Now to November. (31 May to 7 June is currently taken.) SEE MORE PICTURES: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnl2009/
I write books, and things for The Sunday Times. But I wanted a place to stick other stuff I like, and Posterous is unbelievably easy to set up. So here we are. Yet another work-avoidance strategy by me. You can follow me on Twitter, too - I'm @indiaknight. I know, right? The interwebs: where the fun never ends.
I write books, and things for The Sunday Times. But I wanted a place to stick other stuff I like, and Posterous is unbelievably easy to set up. So here we are. Yet another work-avoidance strategy by me. You can follow me on Twitter, too - I'm @indiaknight. I know, right? The interwebs: where the fun never ends.
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