does anyone have good ideas for reputable agencies through which to rent a house in provence in august? or does anyone know of a house?

You might see if www.barclayweb.com handles properties there.

I rented in fall of 2000 from www.coquelicot.com and was pleased. Houses are not generally luxurious but well-priced, all in the Luberon area.

They just did an excellent series of articles on renting villas/houses in Europea in last Sunday's (3/8) Washington Post travel section. You should go look it up online at www.washingtonpost.com, go to Travel section, and get all the articles which are freely available at this time. They had one on the best places to stay in various countries, what to look for in an agency, a list of agencies, etc. Here is the URL for the subsection on Eur. rental agencies:<BR>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002Mar8.html

correction -- it was Sunday, March 10th -- that URL seems to have the 8th on it, DK why

Hello,<BR><BR>I have good friends that have two bedroom two bath home in the medieval village of Cotignac. We've spent time with them and the village is charming, about 45 minutes from the Cote d'Azur, 18 fountains, and a beautiful little tree lined square, typical of Provence.<BR><BR>His brother also has a gite at their family home in St. Canat just outside of Aix. <BR><BR>If you're interested, email me and I will send you their website and you can visit yourself.<BR><BR>Whatever you decide, I think renting a place of your own is a great idea, and staying at least a week so you can really get the feel of a small village in Provence.<BR><BR>Have a wonderful stay.<BR><BR>Ciao,<BR><BR>RJSmith

The Washington Post omitted two agencies which we have used very successfully: www.vfbholidays.co.uk and www.susanparadise.co.uk

We've used www.francehomestyle.com<BR>for both Paris and Avignon and the properties were very nice.

Provence West handles a nice variety of homes in Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rh&ocirc;ne. Unlike some other US agencies, who almost double the local (French) rental rate, their rates look decent.<BR>www.provencewest.com

<BR>Undoubtedly one of the best agencies for France is &quot;www.francevillas.com&quot; -<BR>thye are first class and have a huge selection houses, all with pool , all over France, in all price ranges.<BR><BR>However it seldom is warranted to rent a house unless there are a minimum of 4 or more people . Good Luck

We have a house in the Vaucluse - see details at http://www.ozramp.net.au/~gyeaman<BR>This question is asked quite often and a search of past posts will probably give you a wide range of responses.