Within Avignon’s ramparts, a small, pleasant 19th-century residence full of character,
with a garden, swimming pool, separate workshop and guest’s house
with a garden, swimming pool, separate workshop and guest’s house
Avignon,
VAUCLUSE
provence-cote-dazur
84000
FR
Location
This property is to be found in an urban haven, renowned for its tranquillity, near to the Porte-Saint-Roch entrance gate in the district of the same name.
Just a stone’s throw from all amenities (train station, shops, and cultural activities in the immediate vicinity), it extends between two little-used streets, away from the main roads. A postern on the west side provides easy access to the banks of the river Rhone. The city has three hospitals, five secondary schools, a covered market and a host of shops and café terraces. A river shuttle serves the two islands on the Rhône. Avignon is less than 25 km from the Alpilles, 40 km from the Luberon, 60 km from Mont Ventoux and 55 minutes from the seaside via the N572. The city has an airport, two railway stations, including one from which high-speed TGV trains can be taken, meaning Paris can be reached in 2 hours 40 minutes. The main station is 5 minutes on foot from the house.
Description
The property, which is laid out in an east to west direction between two streets, is the result of joining two separate properties together around a botanical paradise in the shade of its two-hundred-year-old plane tree and its poplar trees, home to a multitude of birds.
Under the treetops, this property is set amidst several enclosed verdant areas: one very ornamentally planted with boxwood in the guise of a small priest’s garden that overlooks a workshop converted into an independent studio amidst the greenery, the next, exuding a romantic air with its terrace and its trellis, offers a view of a more spacious and shaded garden and, lastly, a third, a swimming pool, separated by a wall to form an intimate space, resembling an oasis on papal land.
The town side of the house displays a very plain external facade, featuring carefully aligned windows, enhanced with a small alcove, housing a Madonna with Child statuette. It is part of a row of terraced housing constructed on the site of the old Minimes convent. The side of the house facing the courtyard, however, is quite opulent. Its dressed stone facade features a terrasse, with pear-shaped balusters, topped with an arbour. This facade also reveals some old traces of the convent which go hand-in-hand with modern underpinning. The eaves of the gable roof, covered in Roman tiles, are edged with a triple cornice.
The guest house, bordering the street on the opposite side of this verdant haven is the result of a reconstruction on the site of a workshop which extended over large part of the area, now returned to nature. A plain, single-storey building, but – a rarity in Avignon – with the option of an increase in height, it boasts a wide window and a garage door on the street side, as well as a very pleasant garden facade, featuring wide windows and French windows. The asymmetrical gable roof is extended on the garden side by a wisteria-covered trellis.
Under the treetops, this property is set amidst several enclosed verdant areas: one very ornamentally planted with boxwood in the guise of a small priest’s garden that overlooks a workshop converted into an independent studio amidst the greenery, the next, exuding a romantic air with its terrace and its trellis, offers a view of a more spacious and shaded garden and, lastly, a third, a swimming pool, separated by a wall to form an intimate space, resembling an oasis on papal land.
The town side of the house displays a very plain external facade, featuring carefully aligned windows, enhanced with a small alcove, housing a Madonna with Child statuette. It is part of a row of terraced housing constructed on the site of the old Minimes convent. The side of the house facing the courtyard, however, is quite opulent. Its dressed stone facade features a terrasse, with pear-shaped balusters, topped with an arbour. This facade also reveals some old traces of the convent which go hand-in-hand with modern underpinning. The eaves of the gable roof, covered in Roman tiles, are edged with a triple cornice.
The guest house, bordering the street on the opposite side of this verdant haven is the result of a reconstruction on the site of a workshop which extended over large part of the area, now returned to nature. A plain, single-storey building, but – a rarity in Avignon – with the option of an increase in height, it boasts a wide window and a garage door on the street side, as well as a very pleasant garden facade, featuring wide windows and French windows. The asymmetrical gable roof is extended on the garden side by a wisteria-covered trellis.
The orangery artist’s studio
Once a simple shed separating the observatory house from the Miracle Chapel to the north of the house, the Orangerie has recently been converted into an artist’s residential studio with its own lavatory and is completely separate from the other houses. Bordered by the small priest's garden in the shadow of the remains of the former convent, the studio is a haven of coolness in the hot Avignon summer. A closed garden equipment shed is next to it, which could easily be converted into a bathroom or shower room.
Observance House
Facing east over the street bearing the same name, its facade features a front door, and three windows, flanked by shutters: one on the ground floor and two on the first floor, aligned with the openings below. On the west side, looking out over the garden, the external facade features a wide window and another with a French window on the ground floor, topped upstairs with two windows, identical to those on the road side. The house is slightly raised in comparison to the level of the street and even more to that of the garden, such that a terrace, running the full wide of the west facade, is reached from the garden via three steps.
The basement
Although the lower sections of the old convent appear to have disappeared, a single, small oblong cellar takes up the area that stretches out under the terrace. it can be reached from the priest’s garden via a stairway built on the north-facing side.
The ground floor
The house, predominantly laid out in a square shape, takes up a segment of the old cloister, of which it still has the thick walls on the east and west sides. The ground floor comprises three rooms (a double living room and a kitchen), laid out in a fan shape around the stairway, set in the south-east corner of the house. The walls are painted in light and bright colours and the ceilings are enhanced with fine gypsum moulding. The floors are paved with contemporary stone tiles, inlaid with decoration, blending perfectly with the use of old materials such as a wonderful mantel on the wooden fireplace and a variety of numerous 17th and 18th century ceramic tiles.
The first floor
The first floor, with a layout more or less identical to the ground floor, comprises two bedrooms. The first one has a marble fireplace, illuminated via a window overlooking the street; the second facing west overlooking the garden also with a fireplace. A bathroom, with a bath, shower and a separate lavatory is shared by the two bedrooms. The same commitment to clarity and luminosity is evident in the colours that cover the walls, matching the stucco ceilings and light-coloured flooring.
The attic
The layout on the top floor of the house, set out under the rafters, is different from those of the other floors as the sections under a low ceiling have been converted into storage space. A vast room in use as a dormitory extends under the ridge and is illuminated via a window set in the north gable, overlooking the neighbouring rooftops in the direction of the Popes’ Palace. A bathroom, with a lavatory, takes up the south-east corner, the roof of which, fitted with windows, protrudes.
The guest house
Laid out in the same east-west direction as its neighbour, this house looks out more over the garden on the east side since, on the west side, it has but a wide window and a wooden garage door. The external street facade bears witness to its former vocation as a workshop. The house is, in fact, the result of the reconstruction of a vast warehouse, of which it has kept but a small ground surface area. The garden facade features two wide French windows and a door leading to the old garage.
The ground floor
This is, in fact, the one, real level of the house since it takes up three-quarters of the space and the ground surface area of the house. A vast, high-ceilinged, living room, with an open-plan kitchen has been converted directly below the roofing framework, with its truss exposed and its slopes lined with panelling. The walls and the underneath of the roof are painted white and enhanced with the terracotta floor tiles. A shower room, with a separate toilet, takes up the south-west corner of the house, whilst the north side of this level of the building is taken up by an old garage, making it easy to move between the street and the garden.
The upstairs
A stairway in the living room goes up to a long balcony. A door centred under the ridge opens into the only bedroom, illuminated via a skylight.
The three-section garden and the swimming pool
This is a hidden oasis within the city walls, the garden is barely visible from the city, with tall trees rising above the buildings. It extends, in three sections, between the two houses, from east to west, with a slight appendage to the north, the small priest’s garden in front of the orangery, and to the south towards the beginnings of a bamboo grove. To the west, it extends beyond a boundary wall that separates the observatory from the guest's house and can be reached through a wrought-iron gate opening onto a lush, enclosed garden with a semi-buried swimming pool at its centre. As a result, the garden offers appreciable independence whether you are on the terrace of the observatory, in the small orangery or in the guest's house.
Our opinion
Despite the toponymy of the site being somewhat deceiving, it is possible here to observe a miracle that is said to have occurred beyond the walls. From these sacred events, the residence has preserved, for more than seven centuries, a sacred, peaceful and relaxing character, in a place that is a sanctuary for the soul. The hustle and bustle of the city suddenly seems far away. All the guests who have stayed here since it opened its doors to passing travellers or festivalgoers in search of contemplation are unanimous: the contrast between the hustle and bustle of Avignon's inner city and the soothing power of this centuries-old garden is striking. The presence of a swimming pool hidden from view further emphasises this oxymoron. As Marguerite Duras would have written: ‘And suddenly, here is the countryside’.
Reference 950250
| Land registry surface area | 693 m2 |
| Main building surface area | 260 m2 |
| Number of bedrooms | 4 |
| Outbuilding surface area | 23 m2 |
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NB: The above information is not only the result of our visit to the property; it is also based on information provided by the current owner. It is by no means comprehensive or strictly accurate especially where surface areas and construction dates are concerned. We cannot, therefore, be held liable for any misrepresentation.
