Renting a house in Provence for a month: what nobody tells you
Notes from a stone village west of Apt — by a journalist who finally tried it.
The fantasy is well documented. The actual logistics — septic tanks, lavender pollen, scorpions in the bathtub — less so. We rented a four-bedroom mas in the Luberon last May and learned more about French rural infrastructure than in twenty years of Paris bylines.
Bring a real suitcase, not a weekend bag. Rent a car you will not be precious about — the village roads will scuff it. Befriend the boulangère within 48 hours; she runs the village.
And do not over-plan. The point of a month is not to see things. It is to stop seeing things and start noticing them. The lavender, by the way, is mostly a July phenomenon. In May the fields are simply green, and that, somehow, is better.
Further Reading
Forty-eight hours in Lyon, France's quietest great city
Two rivers, two hills, three Michelin stars and not a single tour bus in sight.
Edinburgh, in the rain, is the best Edinburgh
Why the city's worst weather makes for its most honest postcards.
The Côte d'Azur in October: half the people, double the light
Nice, Antibes, Menton — the Riviera at its most lived-in.