apartment in provence?
 

We are going to be in Provence the first 10 days in October, and are interested in staying in a small 1 bedroom apartment for part of that time, in a medium sized village in either the Luberon or Dentelles area. We are hoping to be in village or town with some cafes and shops, surrounded by some beautiful countryside (but not too touristy!). anyone?

Unless someone has a particular recommendation, I'd suggest checking out the Tourist Office websites for the towns you're interested in. Many don't have apartment buildings, but will have small houses.

The tourist offices have listings of properties for rent ("location" in French) and they're all rated as to amenities. It's a good way to start your search.

Patricia

anyone else?

Hi,

My husband and I had the same questions a few months ago as we looked for rentals for a long planned 3 week stay in Provence. We thought we might want to be in a small village or town so that we could walk to a boulangerie in the morning for croissants or even, just walk out at night for dinner if we were lazy and didn't want to cook or drive somewhere. Many others choose a country setting. We decided on the Luberon since we've been there before and love it. It was a difficult decision because we also love the St Remy area as well. In the end, we booked an apartment in Bonnieux for the first 3 weeks of October. Bonnieux is a hill top town, and although it is a poular tourist destination, it is also a living village. The apartment is in an old gendarmarie-a police station and jail and has 7 apartments with a pool.

http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/l...ental/bastide-
marechal-denier/

This is an experiment for us. We travel to France and Italy resonably often now that my husband is retired ( I'm an artist and still teach and paint). He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian, and I'm learning French. We thought that 3 weeks would help my French. In the past, we have always used B&Bs or country inns, but, for this stay, we wanted to integrate into a village. We'll let you all know how it goes.

To find rentals, I searched on the internet and read links on this forum as well as:

www.slowtrav.com

There are many other sites that offer rentals. You might find Bonnieux a bit small. Other towns you might consider are Lourmarin, St Remy, L'isle Sur la Sorgue. Ther are larger towns and smaller cities. Many others on the Forum are more experienced with the area.

The Dentelles are glorious, but, for us, we decided to locate ourselves further south. Ther are many villages in the area.

Good luck. One thint to remeber is that rentals are usally by the week. Also, it is late for an October rental , so try to find something soon.

Let us know what happens,

Margret

One thing -

Hi, We found ours on vrbo.com. It's a 2-bedroom, so this particular apartment (vrbo.com/114683) wouldn't be for you.

We will be there the last week in September, so I have my fingers crossed, but I have never been disappointed in the several vrbo apartments I've rented.

Good luck!

I think Bonnieux is lovely and is a medium size village that offers choices of restaurants,bakeries, etc. but it's not too large. It's also not as small as where we stayed (Menerbes) which had one bakery and 2 restaurants. Depends on what type of experience you want to have.

Margret's apartment looks lovely. Here's the complete URL:

http://tinyurl.com/332pu3

Please report in when your return, Margret.

Our family lived just outside of Bonnieux for six monthys a few years ago. Now we return several times a year. We've rented houses in the countryside and the village and also stayed in B&Bs. Last summer we housesat for friends who live just below the village for six weeks. (We'll be housesitting July/August again this year.) We know Bonnieux really well-- have spent almost a year there over the past four years and have experienced it every month of the year. It feels like "home" and we love it.

You absolutely can't beat the views from Bonnieux out across the Calavon valley. In October it definitely won't be too touristy, and most restaurants will still be open. The village is built into a hillside, so it is steep. The gendarmerie apartments that were mentioned above would be a good location, near several eating places, one of the boulangeries, the butcher, the pharmacy, and the little grocery store. It's a 20 minute drive to Apt, where you'll find anything you could possibly want... the big Leclerc supermarche and the extensive Saturday morning market.

I have photos of Bonnieux posted here: http://www.luberonexperience.com/pho...ieux/index.htm

Our family rented this small house at the top of the village last March for two weeks and it was perfect for us: http://www.slowtrav.com/cl/detail.asp?l=2527

I also had a chance to visit these gites, right in the village off the Place Gambetta (main square): http://www.escalenluberon.com/index.php?page=accueil They are owned by a local woman, recently renovated, simple but very clean. Two have terraces that look across the valley and one has a little courtyard.

Lourmarin (on the other side of the Luberon mountain) is a beautiful village with several options for apartments or small houses. I prefer the north side of the Luberon and the views from Bonnieux, but Lourmarin is flat and does have many restaurants and shops. It will still be very active in October.

Kathy

We rented an apartment in Lacoste in 2001 for about one month - loved it, loved the very small village atmosphere. With a car, it was very easy to drive to other places. I particularly enjoyed my morning 6-mile run through fields of bright orange poppies and along scenic back roads. I am afraid I tossed the name of the place, and the apartment information, but I suppose you could do an internet search...