Season has started

Since the beginning of May the first guests have been enjoying Villa Dæsch. As always there was a lot to do to get the house ready for the season. The usual Big Clean, for instance, which means cleaning and airing all the rooms and checking the inventory to see that our guests have all they might need for a perfect hassle-free stay.

This year brought extra pressure as we renovated part of the old building and created a loft space for 2 persons. And although it looked as though we would run out of time, we made it with great help from dear friends:  Reinout who takes the lead when it comes to gardening and Olivier who is a sparring partner in many activities as he knows the house so well. There’s more to tell about their reason for being in France and I will surely write about that in a forthcoming blog.

preparing the garden

Once again I had the pleasure of designing a space to my own taste. The challenge to make the old meet the contemporary and still be appreciated by guests is wonderful. I try to create an environment where people feel at home. Being on holiday is pampering yourself with the good things of life. Staying in a nice place is a very important ingredient: at least that’s the way I see it.

So “le loft”, as we call the new space, is ready for boarding and has taken off with the first guests. They were very happy and complimented me on the new space. Even the pouring rain during their first 2 days couldn’t dampen their enthusiasm.

 The website is up to date again and I’m now focusing on the marketing part of the business.  I cross my fingers it will be a successful season. Being a Libra means having a lot of doubts!

I’m a bit sorry that for the next few months I’m not able to shop around anymore to find matching items for le loft. That’s enormous fun for me. Driving from brocante (second hand outlets) to design shops gives me great pleasure. Mixing and matching, looking for bargains but also falling in love with that much too expensive cushion.

So the summer season is here and guests are gradually making their way to this beautiful part of the world.

A bientôt
www.villadaesch.com

What is Provençal?

This week we started some major works at Villa Dæsch. Fixing the roof in the old house where we had some leaks. But I’m very much looking forward to the renovation of the studio. We’re installing a kitchen so it will become a loft space where guests can enjoy Provence. Villa Dæsch has enough possibilities to challenge my skills as an interior designer.

It’s my goal to create an encounter of medieval-built walls and contemporary design. Not the Provençal look that has become fashionable over the last years.

Looking back I learned that the Provence was one of the poorest regions in France. A countryside where peasants tried to survive in hot summers and cold winters, growing vegetables, fruits and olives and rearing some goats.  There was absolutely no chance for those inhabitants to care about interior decorating. For them the house should be a practical place. So blue shutters were installed to scare off the flies.  Small windows created a barrier from the mistral and the burning sun. Lavender was a weapon against scorpions.  Food was cooked on or next to the open fireplace.  My neighbour who landed in this region in the late fifties always refers to the Provençal style as no style at all. However this style seems to appeal to many people.

Knowing this makes me smile when I visit the numerous shops selling ‘Provençal’ decoration. Tourists think they are bringing home the lifestyle of Provence, but what they are actually bringing back is clever marketing! Tourism is a major industry.

So Villa Dæsch tries to bring together comfort and contemporary style within its walls of medieval stone.  Adding pieces of design that could be the antiques of the future.  It’s a décor in which we feel comfortable.  Where an old wash- basin meets Rietveld and Starck and still blends in with the ‘couleur locale’. Last week I bought the lamp Trash Me, made of paper, which will fit perfectly in the new loft.

A bientôt!

www.villadaesch.com

The world in a hamlet, the hamlet is the world.

The world in a hamlet, the hamlet is the world.

Little by little I’m starting to get used to writing this blog. I’m still searching for the best way of reflecting on my life in France but there’s only one way to find out, just do it!

As I decided to write this blog in English, I immediately knew this would be a handicap as it isn’t my mother tongue. But I wanted to share the news with as many people as possible. The solution was found in a “ghost reader”, who is preventing me from making too many mistakes. A lovely person I’ve not met (yet) but who was a guest at Villa Dæsch last season. Thanks to her, you’re able to read this in proper English. Susan, I thank you for doing this for me.

Living in Gordes is living with the tourist season, crowded in summer and calm in winter. Our little hamlet, however, is tucked away from such popular hot spots as Fontaine de Vaucluse, Gordes and Oppède le Vieux and is cherished by its inhabitants and guests. It’s a small world in Les Martins with the honey -producing family, who has been living in the hamlet for centuries, and the international community coming from Britain, Belgium, Canada, Germany and the United States and of course us coming from The Netherlands.  Some of them are making their living in France, others are using the house for holidays and receiving friends. We’re sort of balancing in between. We’re using Villa Dæsch to welcome friends and family throughout the year. But we’re also renting the place out to those who want to get to know this part of the world.

In the past years we have welcomed guests from all over the world. Reading the accounts of their experiences and remarks in our guestbook always makes me smile. They are describing the exact feelings I had when I first visited this beautiful part of the world.

So whether we are different in skin or language, we share and have in common the pleasure of the beauty of life in a French hamlet, where there’s time to close the gate and avoid the rat race for a while.

Check us out on www.villadaesch.com or Facebook, and like us!

A bientôt!

Gordes at the end of the afternoon, the perfect moment.

Trying to cope with a cold winter!

Trying to cope with a cold winter!

After a long short story in my last blog, I hope it will be clear that it’s my purpose to update you on life in France and, to be more precise, my life in France. This blog is my way of showing the beauty of it all. It will be filled with memories of how it all began, but it will also be a peek into the day-to-day life of a Dutchman who is keen on settling down in the ‘golden triangle’ of Gordes, Menerbes and Bonnieux.

Many books have been written about this region and I cannot even guess the number of photos that are taken of its many attractions.  So what I want is to share my thoughts in a simple blog, and maybe if I look deep inside myself it’s also a way of satisfying me that we were right to choose to live here. And if with a bit of luck others take an interest, that’s a bonus.

Villa Dæsch is just recovering from a very cold period.  Winter took an interest in bringing us the lowest temperatures in years. How funny it is that we still have guests who blithely think the outdoor life goes on all year long. When winter strikes and the mistral blows in cold air from the Alps, life can be hard. And the last couple of weeks have made me realize that we have to live with the seasons. Looking for shade in the summer is one thing, but protecting the house from freezing is quite another task in winter.

However when I took this photo in a deserted Lourmarin, I knew that winter also has its beauty.  A stylist would work for days to create a décor like this!

A visit to the DIY shop in Cavaillon confirmed that I’m not the only one who’s protecting their house. Four men in a row behind me at the check-out had their arms full of insulation for their plumbing.

Even Villa Dæsch was confronted with frozen pipes and the moment the sun began heating up our hamlet, the neighbours saw water running under our large sturdy gate. Imagine, just a few hours after I had left for a trip to Holland, we got a text message saying  ‘après Edvard le deluge’!

We’re so lucky with our neighbours who take care of Villa Dæsch when I’m not there. By now the plumbing is fixed and I’m preparing the construction of an extra studio. So within a few weeks we shall have a loft where we can host 2 persons.

The temperature is rising and so is my hope for a warm springtime. It might be a matter of days before the first blossom can be admired. The rental calendar is starting to fill up. Time to get the house ready for guests. Goodbye winter!

A bientôt!

My first blog

My first blog.

13 February 2012

How it al started.

Dear readers, My first words as a blogger are a fact. The 21^st century allows us to share our deepest thoughts with those we barely know. So this is for all of you who are interested in getting to know me, our little hamlet in the Luberon and most of all those who feel connected with France.

It must have been some 8 or 9 years ago that we got the itch. We, that is my husband Andrew and I, Edvard, nice to meet you some day.

Owing to the passing away of both our mothers within the short time frame of a year and a half we suddenly realized that life too is short. So much to do and so little time in which to do it. Whilst we were both very busy running our own company in The Hague, Holland (you know tulips, Van Gogh and all that) the loss of our mothers meant we had to synchronize watches and adjust our concept of time. There should be more to life than work, a career is okay but certainly not my destiny in life.

So we sat down and counted our blessings and shared our dreams. Having a house in Provence seemed to be a high priority for us both. Until that moment this had looked like a future plan and not something to be pursued at this point in our lives. But then imagining my dream and how it could come true started a fire in me. After having watched all those TV shows where people were brave enough to leave everything behind, I suddenly realized that this dream had become a plan we could go for.

What followed was the selling of our house in The Hague which meant we had the money to buy a property in France. And then the search for THE ideal hide away. We must have visited at least 100 houses we visited. Andrew patiently following my never- ending quest to see even more houses. But 100 houses, a few real estate agents and 2 years later we found and fell in love with Villa Dæsch on a warm afternoon in July.

A bientôt!