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.

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.

[picture via]

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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