Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

A House in Provence

Plain trees

 

A house in Provencee with a pathway lined with majestic trees.

Dreamy.

I love this style of house….

 

Bastide

 

A simple solid stone structure. Four outer walls, three stories high, old clay tiled roof, facing south with blue grey shutters.

 

A house in provence

 

A house in Provence that has stone columns with an iron gate,

 

Ivy filled urn

 

and old stone urns, that appear in the garden, here and there, with overgrown ivy spilling out.

 

Tree lined

Of course a house such as this overlooking the sea would be next to perfect.

And if it were filled with family and friends, and a nearby brocante and bakery…

Dreamy.

What kind of house (other than your own) or place do you dream about?

Comments

44 responses to “A House in Provence”

  1. Mélanie Aussandon

    I think I have the same dream as you . I would love to add view of the sea( somewhere around la ciotat).

    Reply
  2. Marie-Noëlle

    That house of your dreams looks/sounds great.
    I would love a house with many balconies and terraces of various sizes and at various heights – Especially one terrace straight outside my bedroom on which I could have my breakfast beverage.
    I can very well do without a brocante place nearby…! But I cannot possibly do without water. (We have a river running at the back of our garden). In the house of my dreams, there MUST be a stream or a brook… or a lake … a big pool … (or the sea ?!?)- No pond though.
    Not too big a house, but spacy enough to have friends and family around…

    Reply
  3. Zosia

    If I could, I would take the house from your photos. If I had to stay in Poland, I would like a small house in the country with a garden, somewhere by a lake. Kind of like an English cottage.

    Reply
  4. Julie M ~ The Little Red Shop

    I think your lovely photos say it all!
    : )
    Julie M.

    Reply
  5. Terri

    I am getting so old! After this huge old place, I want a brick town home…somewhere in the south (I’ve had enough of these Yankee winters! LOL) It must be brick and must have fireplaces. I want a small garden in the back.
    I think a larger college town would be great, so we could enjoy a movie, a concert or a play whenever we felt the urge without having to drive for miles and miles. I would like to be able to walk to the market and to church.
    Joe loves the ocean, so it could be near the sea, but I love lakes and mountains (no sharks or jelly fish in a mountain lake!) so that aspect would be up for debate.
    Sigh…I can see it all now…..

    Reply
  6. Jann

    I would love to have a house in the mountains
    along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Carolinas,
    with a big front porch where I could sit and
    look at the beautiful views, and a big fireplace
    to sit by when the weather is chilly.
    Also, a small yard where I could plant lots of
    roses.
    Jann

    Reply
  7. Jeanne

    Happy is any home where love resides and family are in it often and friends…………
    She lives on love street
    lingers there on love street………..
    Love Street by the Doors
    Our house is a very very very fine house…….
    With 2 cats in the yard
    Life used to be so hard
    No everything is easy because of you……..
    Our House by Crosby Stills Nash and Young

    Reply
  8. Denise Moulun-pasek

    Exactly the same as you Corey except that mine would be an L shaped two story with the smaller wing for frequent house guests. Oh, and there would be a very long table outside by the pool, under the shade of the platanes for long dinners for 12 or so people…

    Reply
  9. Ellen at American Homestead

    A little colonial house, like the ones in Williamsburg Virginia. Rob & I will see things and say “that will be great for the little colonial house.” We have said it so many times that “little” house will have to be huge!

    Reply
  10. Villas in Provence

    These photos are incredible! You have such a talent!

    Reply
  11. lindamarcov

    I will take the one you featured, a few doors down from you.. even a mimi and I mean mimi version would be fine with me…

    Reply
  12. marlis

    I’d take that house… or one in santa fe, overlooking the town, in the pecos national forest, with a stream near by for fly fishing, a green chile patch, and a bit of snow now and then!

    Reply
  13. Lauren Slavin

    old southern house with 50 acres. black wooden fence. my dream house is painted white with a green tin roof, and black shutters. wrap around porch with a swing in the front. and horses in the fields. blissful 🙂

    Reply
  14. Sam

    A cozy house surrounded by woods and the ocean; and a vegetable garden outside of the kitchen. Of course it wouldn’t be complete w/o friends and family. I wouldn’t mind a bakery nearby either, one with fancy pastries.

    Reply
  15. BailiwickDesigns

    My dream house pretty much matches yours. Just add a lovely English garden on one side and a potager on the other and it would be pure bliss! ::Jill

    Reply
  16. Brother Mathew

    A MyStyle that I could relocate anywhere anytime.

    Reply
  17. Patt

    The one you pictured is perfect for me.

    Reply
  18. martina

    A sturdy little Spanish or Victorian style farmhouse on the California coast built to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis with a view of the beach and ocean. A guesthouse next door with lots of room for friends and family and their pets. The housesitter could stay there when I went to Europe to visit friends and brocante shop. A small two acre plot of land in the back, with two burros, some chickens, maybe a horse and some barn cats. That isn’t dreaming too much,is it?!Of course the one you dream of would be pretty wonderful too.

    Reply
  19. Kiki

    Oh Corey, I’m gonna shatter your dreams… This house – although beautifully located and equally beautifully photographed – is in need of a lot of TLC, it has wet rot, the walls are humid, the roof needs to be replaced…. So sorry!
    I have lived in various houses in various states of needing care and renovation; I am now no longer looking for MORE but less work and my dream house should have a garden of managable size or smaller…, high rooms with large windows (preferably to walk out into the garden or onto a terrace or balcony), it must be close-by the water because the lake is what I miss most here in my paradise. And if it’s not asked too much; it should have a little ‘conservatory/verrière/veranda/winter garden’ (choose your term, it’s always the same) which gives me unending hours of deep satisfaction joy and energy. Mine contains banana plants (without fruits), a camellia, small stuff, a table for 2-4 and old wicker fauteuils (armchairs).
    But mainly, I would like to spend the rest of my life with my hero husband, wherever that is – because that’s where I feel at home and happy.
    Love, Kiki

    Reply
  20. Amy Kortuem

    I’m of two very different minds right now:
    1. totally downsizing and selling my house and moving into an apartment that will fit my 3 cats, 4 harps, Jadeite collection and me
    2. a stone farmhouse in the French countryside where I can expand to add two HUGE black dogs and some serious produce gardening
    It’s hard to be me right now…

    Reply
  21. Kathleen (in Oregon)

    The house you pictured is perfect, so beautiful and peaceful. Right now what I’m dreaming of is sunshine. This endless winter has taken it’s toll on me. So any shack would do as long as family was nearby and the sun was shining. Best not to have a bakery too close though.

    Reply
  22. Alan from Chicago

    I would like to have house similar in style as Claude Monet’s with its bright airy rooms with beautiful gardens and lily pond as in Giverny

    Reply
  23. Candace

    A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright would be just right.

    Reply
  24. Monica

    Gaaawww … you really know how to make a girl whine and pout! Of course there could hardly be an abode much better than the one you’ve pictured so beautifully here, but a few other options might be … Frances Mayes’ house ‘Bramasole’ in ‘Under the Tusacan Sun’ … you know the one that came with an iron bed decorated with a Madonna painted headboard, or how about the one in ‘Practical Magic’ … remember … with that divine kitchen and the solarium where mysterious plants entwine and grow through the rafters and windows, or the romantic old villa in ‘Like Water for Chocolate’. However, nothing in my estimation compares to my wee stone cottage that sits smack dab on the edge of Roaringwater Bay in County Cork, where a peat-scented fire warms your fingers and toes in the dusky, stormy gloamin’, and the battered scrubbed-pine table in the kitchen holds a pickle jar full of drooping wild fuchsia, gorse and Queen Anne’s lace gathered from beside the winding, grassy path leading down to the water … did I mention there’s a castle tower visible from my window, on a bit of an island that belongs to Jeremy Irons, and miles and miles of higgeldy-piggeldy mossed draped stone walls meandering across the lush green countryside … I can go on, but … well, I just might cry for the missing of it all, and for Maudie Blanche, my sheepish, wooly lawn mower.

    Reply
  25. lynne

    mmmmm…a little bit of heaven

    Reply
  26. Sue

    When I first read your question my mind went totally blank. I guess I have been living in our little Japanese apartment for so long that my brain couldn’t even conjure up a good image of a house!
    After thinking on it a bit, I thought of our little 80 year old cabin by the sea. It’s still standing, because it’s on high ground, but much of the village around it is reduced to rubble. I haven’t felt such a desire to go up there and check on our little place and see our garden since the earthquake until this moment!
    Truth be told, though, I am not nearly as enamored with the idea of an ocean view as I used to be, as you can probably imagine, and something a bit newer and requiring less work actually sounds quite nice! An airy and sturdy cottage with a modest garden, and a toilet that never gets backed up, please!

    Reply
  27. momof5

    Monica, You created a lovely picture of your wee stone cottage and I esp. loved your wooly lawn mower. It sounds like my dream home.

    Reply
  28. carol

    That’s pretty perfect. But I would also take a cabin in a small cove, at the foot of a small mountain. Ahhhhh……

    Reply
  29. Rhonda P.

    Uh, a house in Provence, hello?
    Of course, it would be in your neighborhood, so I could bother you.

    Reply
  30. Picnics in Provence

    Pretty much exactly what you have described Corey! I am also lucky enough to have come across a dreamy interior designers house in secluded south west France. Quite simply heaven on a stick!

    Reply
  31. Julie

    Hi Corey, that’s such a lovely classic Provencale home! One day I’ll get there! Meanwhile, I like my smaller version of it…much smaller….

    Reply
  32. Whitney

    Somewhere in the French quarter in New Orleans with a gardern courtyard.

    Reply
  33. Gracie

    Exactly when you’re living right now! Provence is my husband retirement dream!

    Reply
  34. debra

    c – the house you pictured is my dream! How did you know? Going to the bakery and brocante with you would make the dream over the top! meanwhile, I am forging on trying to make it happen!
    xo

    Reply
  35. Gypsy Threads

    Why? Why must you ask such brain-draining, heart wrenching questions? Do we give the answer that is obvious? You know, any place where my loved ones are? The ever popular, the one you showed is the one I would choose?
    I am going with one that is paid for, in an environment of peace, with loved ones who come to visit and all the necessities of life (good food, wine, interesting neighbors, that little bakery and market, and brocantes galore). Oh,wait that is YOUR life! Thank you for the dream!
    Well, there is my answer…no answer at all!

    Reply
  36. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    Before even considering your question, I must comment on the softness of the colors in these photos, as contrasted with the sharp vivid colors in Chelsea’s guest post. (I’m reading backwards in time today.)

    Reply
  37. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    Kathleen, I’m your neighbor to the north in western Washington, and I certainly know what you mean about dreaming of sun! Maybe we need some weeks in Provence…

    Reply
  38. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    There are a couple of old houses in my own very town, overlooking the harbor, that I’ve coveted for quite a while. In my imaginary ownership they’d be well insulated, have modern conveniences/heat/thermostat while maintaining all that outward charm.
    And then, of course there’s the cottage in Provence for part of each year… just far enough from the bakery that the walk would counterbalance all those croissants.

    Reply
  39. Alison Murray Whittington

    I’ll say!

    Reply
  40. Brenda DeLaune Brown

    I dream of a second home to get away, near water, and all of my primitive items would be there, leaving my more traditional style at home. Anyone can prop their feet upon an old rugged primitive piece used as a coffee table! A place where all can gather!

    Reply
  41. jackie

    Your house in France, lol:)

    Reply
  42. Irina

    my dream house 🙂

    Reply
  43. Juliette

    I am still dreaming about the villa Marie-Magdeleine, so sweet in my memories…

    Reply
  44. Alison Murray Whittington

    I agree that this house is lovely, and I would gladly move in, given the chance!
    I also dream of a house in the Sierra Nevadas, overlooking Lake Tahoe, because the crisp, clear early morning Lake Tahoe air in the summer is one of my favorite things to breathe in, and in the winter, I’d happily cocoon myself with books and hot chocolate and red wine by the fire.

    Reply

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