Availability and prices: Please check http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/ property FR2845.
Location
The villa is located about 20 minutes drive from Nice International airport. For your daily baguettes and croissants, charming Biot village is 10 minute walk away (along the road or stream if you have a few extra minutes). It is a mediaeval village with picturesque cafes around the two village squares, many galleries, craft shops, and its famous Verrerie where the Biot glassware is made. Lively Antibes, with markets, museums, restaurants and nightlife is 10 minutes away, while Nice and Cannes are 25 minutes each away. For art buffs the area has museums celebrating the art of Picasso, Fernand Leger, Matisse, Chagall as well as the modern collection at the wonderful Fondation Maeght.
The villa is located about 20 minutes drive from Nice International airport. For your daily baguettes and croissants, charming Biot village is 10 minute walk away (along the road or stream if you have a few extra minutes). It is a mediaeval village with picturesque cafes around the two village squares, many galleries, craft shops, and its famous Verrerie where the Biot glassware is made. Lively Antibes, with markets, museums, restaurants and nightlife is 10 minutes away, while Nice and Cannes are 25 minutes each away. For art buffs the area has museums celebrating the art of Picasso, Fernand Leger, Matisse, Chagall as well as the modern collection at the wonderful Fondation Maeght.
There are beaches within 10 minutes, and an abundance of excellent golf courses in the area. The nearest Carrefour supermarket is 8 minutes away by car.
For exact location see http://www.multimap.com/maps/#map=43.63519,7.09272154&loc=FR:43.63519:7.09272:17Chemin%20du%20Baou,%20BiotChemin%20du%20Baou,%2006410,%20Biot,%20Alpes-Maritimes
The villa
People often spend years looking for the right house in the South of France. We looked for just a day. When we saw our villa, only the fourth we had looked at, we immediately fell in love with it. Three months later it was ours. We live there during the school year (Max goes to the local international school), and return to England for the summer.
Designed by local architect Alain Semmel in 1975, it was his first house, commissioned by his parents when he was just 25. He poured all his youthful creativity into it. It is highly unusual for the area, modernist, built of pink brick (more usually found in Toulouse than on the Riviera), steel and glass, it nonetheless nestles as naturally as a provencal villa amongst the trees in its small valley. Above it a hill covered in large cacti, below it on two sides, a stream which provides an alternative footpath, or should I say scramble, leading to the mediaeval village of Biot.
The garden and the house are a riot of inventive design, none of it gratuitous, and all of it coming together to create an at the same time inspiring and peaceful place to be.
The garden
The garden, of about an acre, is formally planted to the south of the house with mature hedges, a magnolia, a fig, cypresses and several small lawns around the pool. By the house is a pergola with a large table for outdoor eating. The pool is large (6x12m), with at the shallow end a submerged seating area where you can keep cool while you sip your rosé. At the other a small tunnel beckons you to swim in and leads to a brick igloo with a sky light, offering a place to rest out of the sun, the water lapping around you. On the north side of house is the garage area with enough parking for 6-8 cars, two under cover. The rest of the garden is wooded and on the north and east side drops down to the stream where, when it has rained, the children like to play among the rocks and water dappled in sunlight.
In the garden you will find a pingpong table, a trampoline (with safety net) and a petanque to play boules.
The house
The house has few rectangles or flat ceilings - there are no boxrooms. Each room has its unique character. The living space, on two levels, extends to 75sq ms and has two distinct areas. The double height atrium, full of light, has the dining table at the lower level and in the upper mezzanine the corner where the children can go watch a film on the large flat screen TV. The lower level is sheltered from the sun, and contains a large sofa in front of the fire place, as well as our Verner Panton 'Tower', which the children love to play and read on (clean bare feet only please).
On the upper level a glass corridor, reminiscent of the Finnish architect, Aalto, travels the north side of the house, with wonderful views of the trees and the hillside behind, leading to the library where you can browse the modern literature, sipping a scotch on the rocks in the art nouveau leather chair.
There are four main bedrooms (two are doubles, the other two can be set out as doubles or as twin beds) all on different levels and quite separate from each other, each with its independent bathroom or shower room, each with access either to the garden or the large first floor terrace overlooking the pool. Each bedroom is individually decorated.
In addition there are two other bedrooms, one room next to one of the double rooms for one or two single beds, and another double room (twin bedded only) accessed via the library.
The villa
People often spend years looking for the right house in the South of France. We looked for just a day. When we saw our villa, only the fourth we had looked at, we immediately fell in love with it. Three months later it was ours. We live there during the school year (Max goes to the local international school), and return to England for the summer.
Designed by local architect Alain Semmel in 1975, it was his first house, commissioned by his parents when he was just 25. He poured all his youthful creativity into it. It is highly unusual for the area, modernist, built of pink brick (more usually found in Toulouse than on the Riviera), steel and glass, it nonetheless nestles as naturally as a provencal villa amongst the trees in its small valley. Above it a hill covered in large cacti, below it on two sides, a stream which provides an alternative footpath, or should I say scramble, leading to the mediaeval village of Biot.
The garden and the house are a riot of inventive design, none of it gratuitous, and all of it coming together to create an at the same time inspiring and peaceful place to be.
The garden
The garden, of about an acre, is formally planted to the south of the house with mature hedges, a magnolia, a fig, cypresses and several small lawns around the pool. By the house is a pergola with a large table for outdoor eating. The pool is large (6x12m), with at the shallow end a submerged seating area where you can keep cool while you sip your rosé. At the other a small tunnel beckons you to swim in and leads to a brick igloo with a sky light, offering a place to rest out of the sun, the water lapping around you. On the north side of house is the garage area with enough parking for 6-8 cars, two under cover. The rest of the garden is wooded and on the north and east side drops down to the stream where, when it has rained, the children like to play among the rocks and water dappled in sunlight.
In the garden you will find a pingpong table, a trampoline (with safety net) and a petanque to play boules.
The house
The house has few rectangles or flat ceilings - there are no boxrooms. Each room has its unique character. The living space, on two levels, extends to 75sq ms and has two distinct areas. The double height atrium, full of light, has the dining table at the lower level and in the upper mezzanine the corner where the children can go watch a film on the large flat screen TV. The lower level is sheltered from the sun, and contains a large sofa in front of the fire place, as well as our Verner Panton 'Tower', which the children love to play and read on (clean bare feet only please).
On the upper level a glass corridor, reminiscent of the Finnish architect, Aalto, travels the north side of the house, with wonderful views of the trees and the hillside behind, leading to the library where you can browse the modern literature, sipping a scotch on the rocks in the art nouveau leather chair.
There are four main bedrooms (two are doubles, the other two can be set out as doubles or as twin beds) all on different levels and quite separate from each other, each with its independent bathroom or shower room, each with access either to the garden or the large first floor terrace overlooking the pool. Each bedroom is individually decorated.
In addition there are two other bedrooms, one room next to one of the double rooms for one or two single beds, and another double room (twin bedded only) accessed via the library.
