After living abroad for twenty years, we decided to come back to France. At the end of 2011, we started to visit properties around Apt and Forcalquier in the Luberon in order to understand the market and with a view to creating a guest house. We already had a small house there. It is a preserved place, even in there summer, where the mountain meets the countryside to produce incredible landscapes. We discovered the sheepfold at nightfall after an exhausting day of visiting houses. When we arrived, we could hardly even see it. But once inside, we were head over heels. The three-hundred-year-old sheepfold had been completely renovated a few years earlier in a very contemporary style featuring large, bright spaces where concrete and glass mingled with wooden beams and stones. We knew straight away that our collection of contemporary furniture would fit perfectly and it was the place we had been looking for. We came back four times to see the house at different times of the day and each time cemented our first impression. We turned all of our plans upside down and made an offer that was accepted.
The sheepfold is a typical construction of the peasant architecture around the Lure mountain. As was often the case in the pre-Alps region, pastoral activity was so important here that the farm became an independent sheepfold whose volume was calculated according to the number of animals it housed. The Jas du Bœuf, whose construction dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, is an imposing sheepfold-tunnel. The central building is a rectangle more than ten meters wide and twenty meters long, made up of two parallel walls closed by gable walls at each end. At regular intervals in the centre, stone columns support an entire intersection of oak beams which left space for the animal fodder to be stored under the roof. To the south, the building opens onto an enclosed courtyard and additions such as housing for the shepherd, a dovecote and a stable were built along the eastern façade over the years. Having been abandoned for almost half a century, the Jas was first restored in the 1980s and then again in the early 2000s. This second restoration gave it its current appearance and included the addition of large windows, resin on the ground and an infinity pool with two pavilions in glass and wood. Today, the Jas is a harmonious blend of traditional peasant architecture and contemporary elegance.
In 1690, Michel Gaubert (known as “Bœuf”) acquired land in Cruis. A few years later, in 1718, he was the subject of legal proceedings for having used three oaks cut in Augès, the neighbouring parish, during a construction. As he had cut the oaks in Augès, where he also owned a property, he was only permitted to use them within the jurisdiction of the parish and certainly not in Cruis. Jas remained in the hands Michel Gaubert's descendants until the 1980s, but had not been used since 1905. It was in poor condition, with a tree even growing inside, when a couple bought the property with a view to create a place of meditation and carried out restoration work to save it from ruin. Without running water, they spent the first few months looking for the source they had been told about and luckily, unlike in Pagnol's diptych, they ended up finding it buried in the middle of a huge bramble tree. At the turn of the century, the Jas was eventually bought by photographer Luc Béziat who gave it its current appearance by adding large windows, pouring resin floors and digging an infinity pool surrounded by two contemporary cabins. The property subsequently became a guest house and a shooting spot.
An immersion in nature. The house is surrounded by hectares of scrubland and woods. Located at an altitude of 800 meters, on the southern slope of the Lure mountain, it is a true haven of peace. With only four bedrooms and a capacity of up to eight people, everything is designed to preserve tranquility. The view is an incredible panorama with the Alps to the east, the Luberon to the west and the Sainte-Victoire mountain just opposite, to the south. The infinity pool is heated and UV treated. With an ideal location, the house is a perfect base for exploring the Gorges du Verdon just forty-five minutes away and the hilltop villages of the Luberon.
We have three favourite restaurants! L'Esperluette in Forcalquier, a wine bar which offers very good market cuisine; Cocotte in Pierrerue, a country bistro with exotic cuisine; and Table de Panturle in Banon which serves sophisticated cuisine in a pretty, little courtyard with an olive tree at the centre. Château La Coste in Puy-Sainte-Reparade is a wonderful place to explore. It is just an hour by car and brings art, architecture and oenology together. Closer by is the Ganagobie plateau where you can visit an abbey with rich Roman mosaics. Forcalquier is also worth a visit for the narrow streets, the priory of Salagon and its extraordinary garden, and l'Abondance (a wine cellar and an amazing creamery). In Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, Jérôme Galvin, a remarkable ceramist, reinvents decorations on earthenware.
The four bedrooms each have their own bathroom and are completely independent with direct access from the outside. Two are located in the 18th century sheepfold and each have a private terrace. The other two are in the contemporary cabins by the infinity pool. A summer kitchen is available for guests to prepare meals.
ref 838815
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