The inland villages of Provence offer a quieter, more wholesome experience than the opulence of the French Riviera. British holidayers and expatriates have been coming here for years in search of the good life, snapping up the traditional “mas” farmhouses and filling them with Provençal pottery, local lavender and wine. Karen Tait, editor of French Property News, says: “Buyers come here for something a bit cheaper than the coast but also for that picturesque French idyll. It’s less swelteringly hot, full of beautiful buildings and the crime rate is low. Plus, you’ve a bigger chance of actually spending time with French people.”

Var, which stretches from the Côte d’Azur and is one of the most densely forested regions in France, continues to attract the most determined British buyers in spite of the weak pound. Average house prices have dropped just 6 per cent over the past year, local agents say, although compared with the national drop of 2.5 per cent this is high, suggesting that an influx of British buyers led to inflated prices.

You will get more for your euro the farther inland you go. In Var, you may have a view of the Med, but the average property price is €464,000 (£415,000). In Vaucluse, farther north and home to Avignon, a former papal residence, and Gordes, an extraordinarily beautiful hilltop village popular with weekending Parisians, the average property price is €250,200. EJC French Property has a two-bedroom stone cottage with wine cellars, near the small inland town of Lorgues for €254,000, from where Nice airport is an hour’s drive.

Only four miles from the famous bridge at Avignon, a development of 24 flats overlooking the Luberon valley will be the first of three “fractional ownership” (see panel, right) resorts run by The Provence Club when it is completed next year. It will include two and three-bedroom flats in the grounds of a luxury hotel, Le Prieuré, with a Michelin-starred restaurant and, soon, a L’Occitane spa. The sum of €180,000 will buy you a share — plus six weeks’ stay a year — in a two-bedroom flat, which you can then swap for weeks in other resorts run by The Registry Collection. A service fee will cover security, so you won’t have to worry about the property while you are away.

CONTACTS

pkempf@dcpllc.com

www.theregistrycollection.com

www.ejcfrenchproperty.com

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