Story

Le Pavillon de Galon, in the foothills of the Luberon mountains, 700 metres from the charming village of Cucuron, is a practically intact example of a country residence, fronted by an ornamental garden.

It has successively been, a Roman villa, a farm and towards the end of the 18th Century a hunting lodge, built for a rich Ship-owner from Marseille.

This gentleman built some water pools, and used the olympic Roman pool for agriculture. All of those are still fed by underground sources.

Passionate about plants, he introduced various rare species: magnolia, holly, box, cypress etc., as planted in 1720, they are now in their third century.

Bordering the terrace, are three plane-trees, certainly amongst the largest to be seen in Provence.

We took over the house in a poor state in 1999, restoring the main part using traditional techniques, replanting and redesigning the gardens, creating an heritage orchard, a kitchen-garden, fig and olive groves, as well as bringing the vines "back to life".

We have worked hard to preserve this site, so that it can continue to show how simplicity and beauty of the natural world, while both classic and timeless, are truly modern.

Prehistory

About twenty million years ago, the land was under the sea. Ebbing away, it left behind a thick molasse-like substance, a rich limestone, trapping life-forms such as sea-shells scallops and oysters etc.

It was hot.

The sea covered the land for 10 million years, during which the Luberon mountain range slowly arose from the sea-bed. On the plain, wild animals from the savannah lived (gazelles, deers, tigers, rhinoceros and elephants etc.), fossils of which have been found in Cucuron as well as the nearby village of Vaugines.

Here, the very walls, built with these fossils, hark back to the very distant past.