A lane leads to the property’s south side, where an unobtrusive gate takes you onto a large entry lane that runs up to the house – a former sheep barn that has been converted into a fine home and extended. The dwelling seems like a solitary retreat, but it is not that far from essential amenities.

This secret sanctuary nestled in greenery emerges beyond one of the property’s two traditional dry-stone huts. Such dry-stone huts – called ‘bories’ in French – are characteristic of rural dwellings in the Luberon area. They are circular in shape with a corbel vault. These old structures have survived remarkably well. The property’s first dry-stone hut dates back to the eighteenth century. It has not been restored. It stands out along the entry lane leading up to the house. The second dry-stone hut is larger and has been renovated masterfully. It has become an integral part of the main building.

The house’s walls are made of exposed jointed stones from the quarries of Ménerbes. This jointed stonework contrasts with the dry stones of the traditional huts and low walls. The windows and doorways have a range of shapes: some are right-angled and others are arched. They are laid out asymmetrically. The roofs are covered with monk-and-nun tiling and have either one or two slopes.

On the east side, there is a swimming pool in line with a cobblestone terrace. The pool forms a junction between the two types of local rural architecture. A traditional dry-stone hut with a characteristic rocky form and a single opening runs along the swimming pool and houses the pool’s control room. From the terrace, you can admire a view of the hilltop village of Ménerbes through a gap in the foliage all year round.

On the west side, local characteristics can also be seen in a low dry-stone wall that encloses the property and separates it from a country lane with restricted use. This low wall stands out for its coping of stone slabs placed in an opus spicatum pattern that is typical of southern France: the slabs are placed on their edges in a slanting position upon the wall like books on a shelf.

The house

The house faces east and has two floors. A section that takes the form of the second dry-stone hut extends its living space to around 190m² of floor area. Beyond some beehives, you reach the entrance by crossing a terrace built around an olive tree and an arrangement of trimmed dwarf box shrubs.

A few outdoor steps lead to an outhouse that is used as a studio apartment. Its structure recalls the stones removed from fields and scattered over the centuries on the surrounding Luberon hills.

Where the walls are not part of the traditional dry-stone huts, they are made of stones laid in an opus incertum pattern with pale pointing. The roofing was recently renovated with old-style monk-and-nun tiling.

The ground floor
Left of the entrance area, which takes the form of a gallery, there is a fitted kitchen, a scullery, a utility room and a dining room with a fireplace. To the right of the entrance area there is a bedroom, a shower room and a lavatory.

At a right angle to the gallery entrance area, beyond the dining room, there is a television room and a vaulted lounge used as a library and reading room. The latter is inside the traditional dry-stone hut, which has been cut vertically and closed off with a glass wall at its east end.

The different windows have been enlarged or transformed to contain modern frames. They look out at the surrounding scrubland and the swimming pool. There are different types of flooring, including travertine slabs, tomette tiles, and large terracotta squares and rectangles. A smooth lime coating covers the walls. Some exposed beams are also lime-coated and others are smoothened or tinted with natural colours.

The first floor
An angular staircase of white polished concrete climbs up along a wall of the television room and leads to the house’s only upper floor via two landings.

The first landing connects to a bedroom with a bathroom, both of which have a sloping attic ceiling. The second landing lies at the top of a few more steps that climb at a right angle up from the first flight of stairs. It leads to a second bedroom with a bathroom that has a sloping attic ceiling, a modern bathtub and a walk-in shower. Large strips of pictorial or foliage-patterned wallpaper adorn some walls. Broad-strip wood flooring brings out the colours of the walls and window frames. And white-coated exposed beams run across the sloping attic ceilings.

Lastly, from the garden, a few old stone steps lead up to a small bedroom that could become that of a teenager or perhaps the secret office of a writer.