A Stone Farmhouse With a Courtyard And a Vineyard In a First-Century Roman Town

About

The Mas des Arcs is a nineteenth-century stone farmhouse, built partly from stones recycled from Roman buildings. In the cellar you can see a whole section of wall built with these stones. The house is built around a small courtyard with a wrought iron gate. Up until the middle of the twentieth century it was the farmhouse for a working farm. There is the base of an old olive oil press in the cellar. In the living room there is a huge working fireplace that the farmers used for their cooking; there are logs to burn in it if the day is cool. The house is set on more than an acre and a half of land, with a small vineyard, a pine grove and a swimming pool. In the winter and early spring there are daffodils and other flowering bulbs, in the summer the fragrance of our lavender. There are fig trees, plumtrees, cherry trees and almond trees on the grounds and muscat grape vines in the courtyard and on a sunny south wall. This means blossoms in the winter and spring and fruit that you can pluck and eat in the summer and fall. We have planted herbs---rosemary, thyme, sage, tarragon and winter savory---that you can use in your cooking along with the leaves of a bay tree that stands outside the kitchen, protected from the winter cold by a huge old Cedar of Lebanon. We spend a lot of time in our house in Vaison, so we have tried to make it as attractive and comfortable as possible. There are antique wooden shop signs and folk art---Haitian, Balinese, Mexican, French and American--on the walls. There are several Persian rugs on the floor that we brought back from Iran; we found one of them in a black tent of the Q'ash Q'ai nomads. There are also some of our own paintings and rugs. We do ask you not to smoke inside the house. Downstairs the house has a large living room/dining room/library with a fireplace, a TV and a radio/ CD/tape player, a lavatory, the sun room and a large kitchen, equipped with five-burner, two-oven stove, a dishwasher, coffee maker, toaster and food processor. There is a clothes washer in the back for laundry. Upstairs there are four double bedrooms---three with two-person beds and one with twin beds---and one single bedroom, so the house can take up to nine people. There is also a crib in case you will be traveling with an infant. There are two bathrooms upstairs, one with a shower and one with a bath and shower. Across the courtyard are the ping-pong room and another lavatory. The house is well supplied with dining, bed and bath linens and is well-heated for the colder months. On the grounds there are several fragments of Roman architecture. There is plenty of room for parking. Outside the kitchen door there is a dining area facing the vineyard, where we have most of our meals during the warmer weather. The house has Wi Fi and renters can have a bottle a day of wine made partly from the vines of our vineyard. The house is set on more than an acre and a half of land, with a small vineyard, a pine grove and a swimming pool. In the winter and early spring there are daffodils and other flowering bulbs, in the summer the fragrance of our lavender. There are fig trees, plum trees, cherry trees and almond trees on the grounds and muscat grape vines in the courtyard and on a sunny south wall. This means blossoms in the winter and spring and fruit that you can pluck and eat in the summer and fall. We have planted herbs---rosemary, thyme, sage, tarragon and winter savory---that you can use in your cooking along with the leaves of a bay tree that stands outside the kitchen, protected from the winter cold by a huge old Cedar of Lebanon. We spend a lot of time in our house in Vaison, so we have tried to make it as attractive and comfortable as possible. There are antique wooden shop signs and folk art---Haitian, Balinese, Mexican, French and American--on the walls. There are several Persian rugs on the floor that we brought back from Iran; we found one of them in a black tent of the Q'ash Q'ai nomads. There are also some of our own paintings and rugs. We do ask you not to smoke inside the house. Downstairs the house has a large living room/dining room/library with a fireplace, a TV and a radio/ CD/tape player, a lavatory, a sun room and a large kitchen, equipped with five-burner, two-oven stove, a dishwasher, coffee maker, toaster and food processor. There is a clothes washer in the back for laundry. Upstairs there are four double bedrooms---three with two-person beds and one with twin beds---and one single bedroom, so the house can take up to nine people. There is also a crib in case you will be traveling with an infant. There are two bathrooms upstairs, one with a shower and one with a bath and shower. Across the courtyard are the ping-pong room and another lavatory. The house is well supplied with dining, bed and bath linens and is well-heated for the colder months. On the grounds there are several fragments of Roman architecture. There is plenty of room for parking. Outside the