Stay at Provence's Most Charming 18th-Century Farmhouse

Thirty years ago, Jocelyne opened La Bastide de Marie, a small hotel in the Provençal region called Ménerbes. She bought somewhere to live nearby, an old 18th-century farmhouse, where a farmer had been living in just two of the rooms. He used to park his tractor in what is now the living room and kept his chickens in the dining room.

Jocelyne thought the house would be too big for her and her family, so she divided it in two, gutted it and lovingly restored it. One half is the Villa Grenache, which has five bedrooms and a pool and has always been rented out as part of her property portfolio. The other half is hers, the Villa Syrah, which is now available to rent, for just two months a year. Both Syrah and Grenache are the names of local varieties of grape.

The house has two upstairs bedrooms and two on the ground floor. Like all 11 of the elegant houses and hotels in their collection, from St Barts to the Alps – Villa Syrah has been decorated with chic objects and furnishings, sourced by Jocelyne from local markets and antique sellers around the world.

You can choose whether to sit in the sun, eat in the shade, or lounge on the glass veranda, which is actually the entrance to the house and brings some much-needed light into this traditional Provençal farmhouse. Beyond the garden, there are acres of vineyards, which yield red and rosé wine and which are produced under Sibuet’s label.

The villas are very close to the nearby hotel, La Bastide de Marie, which means that if you really don’t feel like cooking or you just want to have some afternoon tea, known as goûter, then it’s a piece of cake – literally. In the evening, the hotel’s restaurant is only a short walk away.

Contact Expérience Sibuet for more details on how to hire Villa Syrah, Villa Grenache or any other accommodation in their portfolio.