Artist's house in Provençal Hamlet

La Maison des Peintres is a typical village house at the top of a hamlet at the foot of the Géant de Provence, the Mont Ventoux. It looks unimposing from the outside but as soon as you enter it is warm and light-filled, painted in rich Provençal colours. The ground floor is divided into three areas - kitchen, dining and living. This leads onto a sunny terrace that overlooks one of the most beautiful views in the area with a patchwork of cherry orchards, vines and poplars. This view is particularly dramatic in the autumn. The kitchen is well stocked. It is important for us that you have good coffee making facilities and proper glasses for drinking the fine wine of the region as you watch the sun go down. Each bedroom is large with top quality mattresses, pillows, duvets and linens. Towels are fluffy. Everywhere there hang paintings by your host and other painters who have visited. For winter guests, there is an original Godin stove and an open fireplace which keep the place toasty. One of the bedrooms also has a working fireplace. All rooms have electric heaters. There is wifi available throughout and an ipod/phone sound dock in each bedroom. This is one of the most magical areas of the Vaucluse and indeed Provence. Because you are at the foot of the mountain you only have to walk out of the door and you are on the 'Grand Randonée 91', a walking trail that circles the Ventoux. There, in summer, the oak, pine and moss paths (the 'Garrigue') will provide delicious shady walks. Right in front of the house there are cherry orchards, vineyards and poplars. In every season it is heavenly, from the white blossom through the wild irises and scented broome of spring to the scarlet explosion of autumn. In winter the snow can turn everything into a winter wonderland or you can be eating outside on the terrace. The hamlet consists of a few houses and an average pizzeria which is a great place to hang out to have an apéro. Bedoin is two kilometers away. Bedoin is a pretty and lively place not just for tourists like so many of the villages around. It has a school, a lovely municipal pool, a supermarket, an organic butcher and three bakeries (two of which are good). On Mondays it hosts one of the regions fine Provençal markets and on Saturday evenings between May and September there is a farmer's market where you can get the freshest seasonal produce from Ventoux lamb through goats cheese and asparagus. You are in the best cycling and walking country (the Mont Ventoux is famous for the regular visits by the Tour de France). You are twenty or so minutes from the lavender capital of Provence - Sault - and from the famous Côtes du Rhône villages of Seguret, Vacqueyras, Gigondas where you can spend hours pottering through the vineyards and tasting some of the world's best wine. Meanwhile, if you are in need of some city bustle, the luminescent papal city of Avignon is just 30 minutes away.