B&B

L’Aube Safran

LE BARROUX – NEAR MONT VENTOUX

450 Chemin du Patifiage
84330 Le Barroux04 90 36 39 91
www.aube-safran.com
PRICE RANGE – UPPER END OF MODERATE

Lost in the woods near Le Barroux is one of the smartest B&Bs in Provence – and one of the most interesting, too. Leaving Paris two decades ago, architect Francois Pillet and his wife Marie, a decorator and cook, roamed across the south of France looking for the spark to ignite a new life. Eventually they ended up close to Mont Ventoux, creating a magnificent guest house and a saffron farm.

Featured in endless magazines and television programmes, L’Aube Safran is cool and stylish, with the clean lines and restrained putty tones that have become so typical of modern Provençal interiors. (Marie also decorated Le Dolium in Beaumes-de-Venise.) In spacious common areas and five unusually large bedrooms, natural fabrics, bleached wood, stone, tadelakt and limewash give an organic feel which ties in with the organically grown saffron outside, and indeed with the organic ingredients in Marie’s carefully prepared breakfasts.

Add a fine pool, super mountain views and Les Safranades, a range of saffron-based preserves to buy and take home, and you have the basis for a memorable stay. Saffron-infused table d’hôte dinners are on offer at certain times.

More information about the Mont Ventoux area: www.provenceguide.co.uk