Your contact:	Sophie Lottefier
Email:	Click here to contact La Vigne Vierge

La Vigne Vierge is a traditional four-bedroom Provençal house with a swimming pool, situated in extensive grounds planted with herbs and fruit trees. It can accommodate up to eight guests in four bedrooms.

The property has great views, surrounded on one side by green rolling hills and vineyards, and on the other side by the spectacular Cévennes National Park. This is a perfect get-away spot for families who appreciate a relaxed pace in a lush green setting. It is also an excellent place from which to discover the medieval cities and cultural events of Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence.

Guests enjoy plenty of privacy: an iron gate leads into the enclosed grounds, where the big garden and the salt water swimming pool surround the house.

La Vigne Vierge is a perfect specimen of the local style, with a terracotta roof, lavender shutters, ceramic tile floors, white interior walls and romantic wooden furniture. The interior is full of sunlight, which pours in through large windows overlooking the garden.

The house has two floors. The ground floor has two large bedrooms, a shower room, and a summer kitchenette which opens onto the patio.

Upstairs are two more large bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living room with an open fire, a dining room, and a kitchen which opens onto a balcony, giving an attractive view over the garden, the swimming pool, and the surrounding hills and vineyards.

The house is ideal for outdoor dining. There is a table and eight chairs on the patio overlooking the swimming pool and garden, and a small fridge and sink located in the playroom next to the patio. It's a perfect spot to cook a barbecue in the shade of the trees during the warm evenings.

Special features:	• Pool on the property • Bilingual assistance available on site • Maid, Cook and Driver can be arranged on request
Swimming pool:	Private blue mosaic tiled salt-water pool (9.5m x 4.5m)

The nearby village of Saint-Jean-du-Pin has a population of 1,200. The local boulangerie bakes excellent bread, and also sells delicious local fruits and vegetables. The town also has a pharmacy. There are a few tennis courts in the village; visitors just need to book a court from the local Mairie (Town Hall). There is a good range of shops in the town of Alès, five kilometres away. Saint-Jean-du-Pin is on the southern fringe of the Cévennes mountain range, which rises not far from the Mediterranean Sea and carries on to the volcanic mountains of the Massif Central. The area is wooded and green, with rivers and streams, small plots of arable land and vineyards. The wildlife is beautiful and varied, with red squirrels, badgers, foxes, wild boar, bats, owls, birds of prey, lizards, toads, frogs and a wide variety of colourful insects, plus different species of fish in the local rivers.

The Cévennes is a hidden, unspoilt area of Southern France, and is regarded by the French as an area of outstanding national beauty. The emblem of the Cévennol countryside is the chestnut tree, also called the "bread tree". It shares the scenery with green oak trees that are as common in the area. The Gorges du Tarn, a great canyon and one of Europe's most spectacular areas of natural beauty, flow through the Cévennes National Park. Vultures nesting in the cliffs of the Gorges soar majestically above the austere beauty of immense limestone plateaus, the Causses. The Causses are crowned by sublimely beautiful cornices, which plunge towards the green waters of the Tarn and offer innumerable viewpoints from the cliff paths. The limestone landscape has also created a world of subterranean marvels: the caves of Aven Armand, Dargilan and the abîme (abyss) of Bramabiau.

There are many local markets, featuring delicious local produce as well as pottery and crafts. At some point between June and September, almost all the local villages host a fête votive - a local celebration, complete with music, dance, food, drink, stalls, and entertainment for all generations lasting to the small hours. There are lots of things to see, do, and explore in this area: there are caves and spectacular grottos, a mini Grand Canyon called the Cirque de Navacelles, a steam train, and activities including canoeing and white water rafting, potholing, mountain climbing, fishing, and many great walks and bicycle rides.

The Languedoc-Roussillon region has a great wealth of history. Roman monuments, Greek ruins, medieval castles and ancient villages are set amidst a patchwork of vineyards, farmlands, mountains and plateaus.

The region is full of citadels, fortresses, and former Cathar castles, perched high atop cliffs and rocky mountains - reminders of the turbulent era of the Cathar heresy, which brought great conflict to this region.

There are many interesting places to visit on a day trip, such as the nearby town of Nîmes, which is built around a Roman amphitheatre; the walled medieval city of Carcassonne, with its towers, dungeons, moats and drawbridges; Montpellier, a lively and radiant university town with squares, gardens and mansions; and the Château de Peyrepertuse, which provides a breathtaking panoramic view from dizzying heights.

Provençal cuisine is characterized by garlic and olive oil, with delicious sausages and smoked hams. The region produces exquisite pastries and sweetmeats made from almond paste and flavored with aniseed, pistachio and orange-flower water. Fish is popular along the coast, and there are excellent seafood restaurants in Marseilles. Wines include the reds of Corbières, Minervois, and the sweet Banyuls and Muscat. The vineyards here have two thousand years of history, but are earning a new reputation for excellence.

The meticulous work of blending select grape varieties and refining the wine making process has resulted in the wines of Languedoc-Roussillon being among the best in the world, according to expert oenologists. From the vineyards of Roussillon, the Languedoc and the Rhône Valley, there are more than thirty appellations with labels of controlled origin (AOC). There is a wonderful selection of Vin de pays, as well as vins de cépage, varietal table wines, organic wines, and apéritif wines, completing the splendid array of one of the largest vineyards of the world.

The house and garden	The house and pool
The salt water pool	The living room
The children's bedroom	The Gorges du Tarn
The Palais des Papes in Avignon

Thank you so much for a wonderful holiday... We loved your house, there was a wonderful atmosphere which you usually dont get from a rental property; so homey and cosy and so well equipped...Of course as other have said in your visitors’ book, the pool is the pièce de résistance, and we loved sitting in the terrace among the trees.
Rosemary F - Ireland