The building is divided into several sections, flanked to the north and south by two square towers bearing pennant weathervanes on hip roofs, covered with old Roman tiles. The towers are accessed via an interior spiral stairway, dating from the 14th century, and by an 18th century stairway, laid with age-old traditional terracotta tiles.
One section of the existing building was probably constructed in the 14th century on the ruins of a fortified castle built earlier by one of the first Orange-Nassau princes. Although its successive owners have greatly modified its appearance, it still bears traces of all these occupations.
Remodelled in 1763 after a partial collapse, then in 1850 when it was “modernised” and lastly in the 1970s, it has undergone numerous works which, now, do not help identify the original accesses or the initial vocation of the rooms.
The south facade, overlooking the street, does not exude a spectacular character and willingly reflects a certain soberness. A Virgin, installed on one corner in the 17th century and a robust oak wood door, sculpted in a diamond pattern, dating from the late 18th century, barely manage to lighten the austerity, reinforced by an anonymous ochre-coloured rendering that conceals a much older facade.
If local legend is to be believed, the building was home to troubadour, Raimbaut of Orange (1140-1173), the oldest of Provence’s troubadours, who established his “courts of love” there, where he died at the age of 33 years. The sign of the “heart on fire”, a sign of passion sculpted in the stone, the wrought ironwork, the glazing as well as the frieze, with its lyre, above the main entrance, all bear witness to this poetical, if hypothetical occupation.
The garden, hanging above the patio and the terraces, preserves an ethereal atmosphere enclosed by protective walls, providing absolute tranquillity. And lastly, a short distance away, a vegetable garden is concealed behind a barn.

The house

This house is laid out over two floors under attic space which could be converted into about 15 rooms, looking out over the street, the patio and the hanging garden.
Some outstanding features have been preserved, such as a spiral stairway, dating from the late 14th century and composed of white shellstone, incrusted with fossils from tertiary seas, as well as mullioned windows and a variety of arched, gothic and basket-handle frames, almost all decorated with two-tone stained-glass windows.
Although renovated in the 1970s, as demonstrated by the splendid bathroom and toilet facilities, it still exudes the atmosphere of 19th century houses, while a few rarities indicate the period from which they came, like the cast-iron radiators, with their acanthus-leaf decoration, corridors reserved for the help concealed behind alcoves and ancient wallpaper.

The ground floor
The door, featuring a glazed fanlight and marked by hearts, gives access to a vestibule which leads to a dining room, on the right-hand side, and a kitchen, on the left-hand side. Directly in front, another door opens on to the interior patio, enhanced with a venerable stone table, no doubt in place for numerous centuries, under the protection of the most impressive of the house’s two square towers, reached via an outside and an inside stairway. On its left-hand side, the patio gives access to a storeroom, adjoining the kitchen, a series of stairways going down to the cellars and a door leading to the utility rooms, the barrel vault of which bears traces of an oratory probably dating from before the 14th century, and to the 4-car garage which can also be accessed from outside the house. On the right-hand side, it opens into a lounge, with wide, arched windows and on to a stairway lined with hexagonal terracotta tiles, the colour of cochineal carmine (a symbol of both love and anger), dating from the early 18th century.
The first floor
This level extends the full length of the main building, flanked by the two towers adjoining the south and north facades. It features an amusingly irregular row of rooms and bedrooms, often accompanied by bathroom and toilet facilities typical of the 1970’s. Interior corridors, resulting from the 18th century utility passageways, have been ingeniously preserved behind almost the bedrooms, with their alcoves and their doors topped with fanlights. Second Empire or early century wallpapers, evoking paintings by Vuillard, catch the eye. Old parquet flooring laid on floor joists, local flamed terracotta tiles, small terracotta tiles from Salernes and glazed tiles, like those from the Popes’ Palace in Avignon, rival one another as floor coverings depending on whether they are in bedrooms or lounges, in an original anthology of shapes and colours. Several low, gothic doors open directly on to the hanging garden. And lastly, a studio flat, made independent by its entrance all on a level with the outside and separated from the rest of the floor by a load-bearing wall, extends the structure of this extravagant level, both floor opening on to the patio and house overlooking the garden.
The second floor
Taking up the central section of the building and a section of the north square tower, a French billiard room, a study and a library on a mezzanine under the French ceilings, the main larch wood beams of which are often more than a metre thick, make up the top floor. The joist system, running throughout the house, is made from the same wood. The bedrooms, almost all of which are unoverlooked, have a dominant view of the church bell-tower, the street, almost the entire village, the surrounding countryside, its vineyards and, directly in line, Mount Ventoux. A significant surface area of attic space, which could be converted, completes this extendable house, full of past and future resources. And lastly, the lantern on the north tower, with its eight windows, laid out in twos facing all four directions of the compass, likes to act as a belvedere, a lookout or an astronomical observatory, authorising a methodical survey of the starry sky, cleared by the mistral wind.

Annexes and outbuildings

Spanning a surface area of approx. 141 m², these are divided into three areas: adjoining the main house on the west side, the garage, under which are four cellars, and opposite, separated from the house by the old village wall-walk, an additional garage enclosed by fencing.
This latter section can be reached via the road. It is closed on the east side by a little vegetable garden, also totally enclosed. Not currently planted, it is but waiting to provide produce for the house once more.

The basement
Given the difference in levels between the house and its hanging garden, one of the cellars finds itself under the first floor and not under the ground floor. All have relatively low barrel-vault ceilings, built from roughly hewn stone. It is possible to think that they were once part of tunnels used during times of conflict, sealed up as of the 13th and 14th centuries. Legend has it that in the Middle-Ages one of them was a tunnel that led directly to the Orange palace belonging to the Orange-Nassau princes. The high, four-sectioned vault tends to indicate the existence of a fragment of a seigneurial oratory or chapel, saved from the collapse of the medieval castle at the end of the 18th century. These cellars form a surprising maze currently used, in part, for storage purposes and, in part, as a boiler room, with an oil-fired boiler and a geothermal heat pump still awaiting connection.
The street-level floor
Opposite the south facade of the house, on the higher village road leading to the double carriage doors in the garage belonging to the house, a group of two outbuildings, open on to the street, traces of old barns no doubt. These are currently used as extra garage space for three cars, enclosed by fencing covered in vegetation. An overgrown vegetable garden extends the outbuildings on the east side. The countryside is never very far away.