Domaine St Marc des Omedes - Self-catering house in Var

The bastide is a handsome sight with pretty white shutters and colourful pot plants at the door. You get the whole of the ground floor with terrace, garden and pool, the owners' live upstairs but your entrance and outlook are facing the other way. It's a pleasure to lounge by the pool with a glass of the estate's wine, and to barbecue on a shady terrace overlooking the woods and fields of the Var. But the real gem is the living room. Where once there were animal stalls and mangers, now there are exquisite pieces: Louis XVI gilt clocks, marble dressers, oil portraits, an Italian cabinet, a dining table handmade to Lindsay's design. Modern white sofas with red and orange cushions add a bright spark, as does the fireplace with piles of logs ready to light. White linen flows over French windows opening out to a table on the terrace. The kitchen is in keeping with the rustic Provençal style of the rest of the house, as are simple beamed bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor. You're two miles from the market town of Lorgues, 40 minutes from the Côte d'Azur, and Lindsay is only too happy to take you on a boat trip in the Gulf of St Tropez.