From the Vineyards to the Mediterranean

The six nights of the journey revolve around an old mas among the vineyards. Some guests stay here with us; others choose accommodation nearby and join the shared rhythm of each day.

The group is limited to 6 guests, or two families with children.

The house becomes our point of return: morning coffee, a day on the road, then dinner and conversation in the evening.

With few of us, we can change the pace, linger where something captures our interest and give more time to whatever feels right that day.

Natacha has worked with vintage pieces and antiques for more than twenty years. Her eye is visible throughout the house, from the objects in each room to the tables she sets for dinner. At the brocante, she shows you where to look and how to read hallmarks, patina, quality, restoration and value. She can help you negotiate, begin a collection or find the right piece to add to one you already have.

Gradually, the market stops looking like a mass of objects and becomes a language of periods, materials and details. Natacha remains close whenever you want a second opinion, an appraisal or help speaking with a seller.

Slava is a restaurateur and an instinctive host. For him, gastronomy begins with the pleasure of finding an exceptional ingredient, recognising the season, opening the right wine and sharing it all over dinner with guests.

At the market, we taste, talk and choose the best of the day and season: oysters, meat from local breeds of bull, cheeses, fruit, unusual olives and, of course, wines from the family estates we know and love.

A gathering at a family wine estate, truffle hunting behind our house, the grape harvest and a taste of the first pressing, collecting oysters with fishermen, picking olives and visiting the mill: the season decides which parts of local life we can share with you.

We leave one day in the middle of the week open. Walk through the vineyards to the neighbouring wine estate, spend time by the pool, light the barbecue, read, make something, talk for hours or enjoy the quiet. Or decide with us that morning where the mood should take us.

Unplanned time is part of the journey: this is how the South of France finds its natural pace.

We live in an extraordinary place between mountains and sea. One day begins among medieval walls and pink salt marshes, then the landscape gradually opens into the meeting of land and water: white Camargue horses and black bulls, flamingos, water, salt and a vast stretch of wild coast, one of Europe’s largest beaches, where an old black lighthouse first lit in 1869 stands among the dunes.

This is where you want to slow down and have a picnic among the dunes. Or perhaps ride along the sea at sunset.

One day we head to a port town and its fishermen’s market. We taste, choose, watch seafood being cooked right in front of us, and step into Mediterranean food culture as it exists here every day.

We have lunch right there among the stalls and the people coming for the fresh catch. If you wish, we can continue on the water, taking a catamaran into the coastal lagoon to see the oyster farms.

Or join the fishermen in gathering oysters, then share the catch with them over a glass of wine.

Morning coffee and breakfast made beautiful. Roads through tunnels of plane trees and vineyards. Conversations about everything. A wine estate that tempts us to stop on the way. Candlelit dinners, time by the pool, the beginning of a family collection, and the freedom to change the plan because today calls for something else.

That is FRANCE INSIDE.

Our mas is more than two hundred years old. Stone walls, old beams, linen, vintage furniture, fireplaces and a salt-water pool. It is a living home where our family actually lives.

A mas is a traditional stone house or country estate in the South of France.

We can host up to six guests or two families with children, so the journey stays personal: we can change the rhythm, linger where it is interesting, and shape the day around the mood of your party. Staying in the house is optional: you can sleep nearby and join us for breakfast and dinner.

After a few days the house becomes your point of return. You already know where to have morning coffee, which wine to open in the evening, and who will continue yesterday’s conversation, French film or board game with you.

Your hosts are Natacha and Slava, together with their children.

Natacha is an art historian with a restless creative eye. She has spent more than twenty years working with vintage pieces and antiques, seeing origin, quality, restoration and history where others may simply see a beautiful old object.

Slava is a restaurateur. He loves cooking, markets, local produce, wine, and the pleasure of bringing guests together for dinner.

Together, we share the France we actually live in, and we genuinely enjoy welcoming people into it. The rest of our stories are best told over dinner.

It is a week in which someone else has thought through every practical detail.

We meet you, drive, cook and shape the route with local knowledge. Roads, parking, reservations and the choice of places are already woven into the week.

Its greatest value lies in the people who let you experience a place as a local does. By the end of the week, you know which wine you loved and who made it, what to notice at a brocante, what an ordinary Sunday at a family wine estate feels like, and why the South of France reveals itself best when you have time to live in it.