A quite rare object today: a bastide located next to Cannes up in the hills with sea views. Details in english are available on the estate agent’s website.

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a new page was added => link above – next to the home and about sections – with maps of the region. Relevant regional maps will be added peu à peu.

7,000 SqF, including a chapel and an orangery, the bastide is built on a huge planted ground. Saignon is the nearest village, perched at the top of a hill behind a large rock which dominates the valley. Blue sky included most of the time…

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PS: If you prefer green shutters higher in the mountains…

A panetière or breadbin is a wooden piece of furniture dedicated to the storage of the bread.  The summit of sophistication was reached during the 19th century in Provence, when the panetière started to be hanged up the wall, decorated with small columns, and sculpted traditional patterns.

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If you try to understand the ”bourgeois” way of life in Provence, you should visit the surroundings of Aix-en-Provence, where huge bastides can be found. The bigger ones would be called castles anywhere else : they were both holiday and agricultural domains, and where occuped in the summer time by wealthy families from Aix and Marseille, when the heat became oppressive…

[picture: château de la Pioline, hotel] 

A few bastides have become famous and have contributed to the international popularity of Provence and its way of life.

Among them, the Château la Canorgue [picture below] in Bonnieux,  main setting of the film A Good Year (2006) by Ridley Scott and the Bastide Neuve in La Treille, setting of the novel La Gloire de mon Père (1957) that belonged to its author Marcel Pagnol.

Proof of the wealthiness of its owners, the bastide is often decorated with typical architectural elements. One of the most characteristic ones is the so-called “génoise”, a double roof in cooked tiles that appears at the roofs border. The trend dates back the middle of the 17th century and came originally from Italy.

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This amazing property has all the characteristics of the classical bastide. Built during the 18th and 19th century, the house is set in a park, and boasts wonderful reception rooms. The property is sold by its owner.

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A bastide is a local name for a manor house in Provence, in the south of France, located in the countryside or in a village, and originally occupied by a wealthy farmer. It was larger and more elegant than a mas.

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