All About our Apartment
Our Bonnieux home is located in an ideal spot in the village, in the lower part of the village near most of the shops, restaurants and cafes, artist galleries, the post office and ATM, and the wonderful Friday morning market. There are several easy options for free parking less than five minutes from our front door.
Our 1,300 square-foot apartment is set on two floors of a distinctive 250-year old building located between the main street of the village (one lane for one-way traffic) and a narrow pedestrian street heading up a gentle hill to the market square. We have our own front door off the pedestrian street. Our terrace looks down the main street with a view of the Petit Luberon mountain beyond. We’re often treated to a beautiful sunset.
Our apartment is bright and full of light, a happy and relaxing place to be. We’ve decorated our home in a style that is comfortable and authentic, a mix of antiques and modern pieces, with lots of local art. We’ve used our experience staying in more than 50 vacation rentals all over Europe to provide everything we think will enhance your stay in Provence. We love Provence and this is our part-time home, so you’ll find many special touches that aren’t typical in a vacation rental. You can see more photos of the interior and exterior of our apartment here.
Entranceway
The entranceway has an original tile floor. There are pegs to hang coats and a place to leave dirty hiking boots. We provide straw market baskets and reusable shopping bags for your use during your stay.
Our new bedroom suite (with ensuite bathroom) is located off the entranceway. The other two bedrooms, a second bathroom, the living room, kitchen and terrace are located upstairs.
Downstairs Bedroom Suite
Our newly-decorated, spacious bedroom suite is about 300 square feet and offers a private area for one or two guests. It has a beautiful, original tile floor and lots of light from the two tall windows.
The suite has a queen bed and includes a wardrobe, dresser, bed tables with lamps, a chest with extra blankets, and luggage racks. We recently added a comfortable easy chair. The room has its own heating and air conditioning system.
The Downstairs Suite has its own bathroom: a toilet and tiny sink in one room and a big shower with the larger sink/vanity and wall mirror in a separate room. A hairdryer, magnifying swivel mirror, and plenty of towels are provided. There is ample storage for your personal items.
Off the main bedroom is a “coffee nook,” a separate sunny area with a cafe table and two chairs, sink, cabinets, Tassimo coffee maker, and hot water kettle… perfect for a morning beverage before joining the rest of the group upstairs. We just added a small refrigerator so guests in this room can now chill a bottle of wine and milk for their coffee. Off the coffee nook is a little balcony with a table and two chairs, overlooking the main street.
If you don’t need this additional space, we can lock off the Downstairs Suite from the rest of the apartment and offer a discount on the weekly rate. (See our Rental Rates for more information.)
Upstairs
The rest of the apartment is up a flight of steps from the front door and entrance. There are about 20 stairs (not steep), and we do have a handrail. The upstairs part of the apartment extends across two adjoining buildings, and there are a few stairs on this level.
The flooring is earthenware tiles, with area rugs in several places.
Living Room
A broad hallway with an antique chest and lots of art leads to the cozy and colorful living room. This room has a tall window overlooking the pedestrian street below and includes a comfortable couch and three armchairs, a coffee table, two antique chests, and several lamps. Our bookcase is filled with novels, books about Provence, guidebooks, maps, and tourist literature. The living room is decorated with colorful rugs from our trip to Morocco.
For entertainment, we have a wide screen television with a DVD player and lots of movies. We also have a CD player with an Ipod/Iphone docking station, music CDs, and several games. We don’t have cable service, but we do have excellent WIFI! (You should be able to access your Netflix account to watch English-language movies on the French Netflix.)
Kitchen and Terrace
The kitchen is a large and bright room with a high, beamed ceiling. There are modern appliances and cabinets, lots of counter space, a big round table with five chairs, and a cupboard filled with colorful pottery and glassware. The kitchen includes a four-burner cooktop, oven, full-size refrigerator and freezer, dishwasher, microwave, and Tassimo coffeemaker. We also have an electric kettle, toaster, and immersion blender. An extensive array of herbs and spices and other staples are available for your use. And if you need inspiration, we have a small library of cookbooks.
The clothes washing machine is also in the kitchen. Clothes dry quickly on our drying rack, and there’s a clothes line on one side of the terrace. The iron and ironing board are in the kitchen storage cupboard.
Kathy loves to cook and we entertain friends when we’re here, so a very well-equipped kitchen is a priority for us. We know you’ll love preparing and enjoying some meals here. The boulangeries, butcher shop, small grocery store, and Friday market are two minutes from our front door. There are also wonderful markets in neighboring villages every day of the week. You can buy local wine at reasonable prices in the village, at the Bonnieux Cave Coooperative, or from one of the nearby wineries.
Double doors open from the kitchen out to the covered terrace, which also has a table and four chairs. From the terrace you can look down the narrow main street to the Petit Luberon mountain, with a glimpse of the nearby village of Lacoste.
Poppy Room
The two upstairs bedrooms are of a similar size. The Poppy Room opens off the hallway between the living room and the kitchen. We call this room the Poppy Room because of its red wall and because much of the artwork features poppies.
The Poppy Room has a tall window that looks out across the village and the countryside. One interior wall is wall-to-wall closets, much of which is available for your storage. The Poppy Room also includes bed tables, good reading lights, a chest with extra blankets, and a small chest.
Blue Room
The Blue Room has a beautiful view of the countryside, and you can also look down the street to see the church. Some of the artwork features our photos of Provençal windows and doors. This room has twin beds with headboards made of Provençal shutters. There’s an armoire for clothes storage, bed table, reading lamps, chair, and luggage rack.
This room opens off the living room, so the two upstairs bedrooms both have lots of privacy.
Upstairs Bathroom
The upstairs bathroom is located on a separate level so it’s very private, up eight steps from the main level. There are handrails and nightlights. The tiled bathroom is compact but has lots of natural light from a high window (even a little view!), with a toilet, shower, sink and plenty of storage space for personal items. Our newest addition is a heated towel rack. A hairdryer, magnifying swivel mirror, and towels are provided.
Cooling and Heating
Bonnieux is a year-round village, and our apartment is equipped for year-round living. In the warmer months, our tall windows allow a breeze and some cross ventilation, and the shutters help control the sun and heat during the mid-day. We have air conditioning on both levels, which quickly cools the apartment during the summer. We also have electric fans in all three bedrooms.
In winter the double glazed windows, electric heat in all rooms, and extra blankets will keep you warm. Our air conditioning system also provides heat in the winter, and we use a space heater to quickly warm up the kitchen in the morning.
Parking
Two large village lots with free parking are less than a five-minute walk from our apartment.
See more of our apartment in this slide show