Stepping inside Maison des Arts, through a fragrant cloud of jasmine, was like coming home. It’s not often that owners offer to meet you on a bicycle to navigate through the narrowest street in the village (we’re talking remember-to-pull-the-side-mirrors-in narrow), leading to the front door. Well, Sandrine and her husband Dom – whose art studios are part of this hidden hideaway – are just those sorts of welcoming people.
We learnt the next day to find our way to Rue des Amandine by the landmark striped canvas deck chair on a pretty wrought-metal balcony, just up the road from the charming brocante. Chock-full of collectables, it’s in the gentle heart of this ancient little village with an épicerie and boulangerie on the square, where Dom buys fresh bread for breakfast. And while Montaren-et-Saint-Médiers is just a few minutes’ drive from bustling Uzès, famous for its Saturday market, this adorable little spot feels a century behind in pace and soul. A perfect escape after a day spent exploring.
Provençal dreaming
Returning here each day is to lose yourself in the dream, in a village lost in time…
Breakfast begins in the sun-drenched kitchen overlooking the courtyard, a typically French haven of peaceful spots to enjoy breakfast. Tea lovers will discover delicate porcelain cups and pots collected over time, glass jars of dried lemon verbena leaves from the garden jostling with Sandrine’s paintings and ceramics… and to our amazement, rows of the famed glossy black tins of Mariage Frères loose tea, ‘Thé au Sahara’ being a favourite with sweet mint and rose petals. Take a moment to respectfully inhale the fragrance of hand-picked teas from distant lands, especially ‘Thé sur le Nil’ with high notes of citrus, and the extraordinarily smoky ‘Zodiac’.
After breakfast, take a walk past Dom’s studio, up the mysterious staircase leading to the roof. On the left is Sandrine’s creative enclave, but to the right is the pièce-de-résistance: an enormous swimming pool surrounded by ancient stone walls but opening to the secret garden behind, buzzing with cicadas as soon as the sun begins to sizzle. You could spend days here, cocooned in this private sanctuary, but will soon be tempted to get out and explore every inch of this Provençal idyll, starting with Uzès.
Inside, each one of the five en-suite bedrooms is accessed via an ancient circular staircase behind the kitchen. Original art features on every wall, of course, a colourful and ‘live’ gallery. Best of all, if you fall in love, you can buy it. But it’s the loft tower suite that steals hearts, with its own turreted eyrie (journalling here is addictive) above the bedroom, with three windows looking out over the village and garden.
Throw open the shutters every morning and let the rhythm of the church bells welcome the day. Listen to a composer practice his score up the narrow alleyway lined with nodding oleander in every shade of pink and coral imaginable, watch dozens of swallows dart back and forth to catch insects and feed their tweeting young in the eaves. Swim at dawn, swim when the moon comes up, let the evening breeze envelop you on the balcony, still warm with the scent of the fields. Savour a life lived simply, beautifully, creatively.
Reviewed by Michelle Snaddon