Get in Touch with Your Inner Gypsy

Deep in the heart of the Luberon, one of Provence's loveliest regions, you'll find a hotel that rivals the finest auberges and inns worldwide. Created in and around an 18th-century farmhouse, La Bastide de Marie is snuggled within its own 18-acre vineyard, with 14 guest rooms (all with views of the vines), one freestanding villa, two swimming pools, an elegant indoor/outdoor restaurant and stunning scenery. Once you announce yourself and amble through the heavy swinging gates, you're cocooned in total luxury. French Country antiques abound, enormous vases overflow with fresh-cut flowers, Picassos hang on the walls.  Owners Jocelyn and Jean-Louis Sibuet (who also operate hotels in Paris, Megeve, Lyon and Ramatuelle/St. Tropez) and their lovely staff cater to your every whim. Keep your windows open and you’ll be lulled to sleep by chirping cigalles, the sweet background music that signals summer in Provence. 

And now there's another reason to visit La Bastide de Marie: a brand-new one-bedroom green-and-white Gypsy-style caravan (or roulotte), fitted out in complete luxury and available by the night. The caravan is being officially unveiled this month. 

The 17-square-meter (183-square-foot) roulotte was designed, Jocelyn says, as a rural boudoir. "From the outside you'd never guess what it holds," she told me.  "This room for wanderers has been especially laid out to recreate the fairytale atmosphere of gypsy nights. It’s a little wooden dwelling that inspires thoughts of travel, a bit of Bohemian chic in the heart of the vineyard!”

The caravan sleeps two. The rate of 450€ per night (490€ in high season) includes breakfast, afternoon tea and lunch or dinner with wine from the adjacent Domaine de Marie vineyard.

For info on La Bastide de Marie and the caravan, click here. 

For info on other Sibuet Hotels, click here.

Photos (click to enlarge): The Gypsy-style caravan at La Bastide de Marie welcomes its first guests this month. Caravan interior. Setting up for lunch. One of 14 guestrooms in the main building. Bastide de Marie and its surrounding vineyards. Photos: La Bastide de Marie / Rights reserved.