With 300 days of sunshine here a year, who can resist the south? Blessed with blissfully balmy days and simply the prettiest of villages – all of which seem miraculously unchanged over the years – a holiday here is a welcome tonic, a chance to savour life on a country farm in the Lubéron.
Maison Parpaille, just south of the hillside village of Cucuron (between the trendy village of Lourmarin and characterful Ansouis), is run by a mum-and-daughter team. Eve Obert is a chef, and her daughter Léa (herself a young mum) speaks good English. Eve’s childhood was spent here as her parents owned the property since the 60s and so the tradition of welcoming babies, children and even well-behaved dogs into the bosom of the family farmhouse has continued – a rarity these days.
Today, a remarkable restoration has revealed a home that’s styled to perfection with everything from linen-and-hemp sheets to a signature scent for each suite. Each one is a soothing balm in the summer heat – all of them generous, and each with different views through the shutters over the gardens or pools. Bay trees, cypress, olives, pomegranates and lavender all nodding in the breeze… it’s just magical.
It has to be said, upfront, that Eve’s food is delicious. She’s a night owl: don’t be surprised if the scent of cherry clafoutis wafts upstairs overnight, or the unmistakable buttery-ness of baking croissants greets you in the wee hours. Eve’s sanctuary is the kitchen – once lined with stone feeding troughs and where the animals slept on the lower floor of the Mas, it’s now a sun-drenched haven in the mornings and a quiet retreat from guests in the evenings.
Eve’s food style is exactly what makes a stay here so personal and memorable… so, when she pops jam in tiny glass bowls on your table at breakfast, you know that it’s been lovingly made right here. And that every cheese on the platter has a story, that every celebration held here on the farm is a very special affair.
A touch bohemian, but effortlessly romantic
Remember being captivated by little French villages and the chateau in A Good Year? Even if you found Russel Crowe’s romance just a tad too predictable, we bet it made you pine for Provence. Non? It turns out that the scene around the historic ‘bassin’ or beautiful pool of water under the plane trees – where Max and Fanny (Marion Cotillard) watched the movie on their first date – was filmed just up the road from Maison Parpaille in rural Cucuron. Based on Peter Mayle’s novel, it encapsulates the classic scenery of the Luberon region. And honestly, even today, it feels pretty much unchanged.
The location was actually the beautiful Chateau la Canorgue, under the hilltop village of Bonnieux, halfway between Gordes and Lourmarin – where Peter Mayle lived at the time, not far from Cucuron. And when home today, Sir Ridley Scott – who most recently directed Napoleon – still spends most of his time at his family’s estate just outside the medieval hilltop village of Oppède-le-Vieux in the Lubéron. But, despite the recent increasing celeb presence, it’s deliberately low-key here and studiously ignored by locals. As the French are wont to do. There’s good reason why it has such charm – the little back roads and villages are still irresistible. Thankfully, the art of living the slow life has real appeal.
Reviewed by Michelle Snaddon