Finding the Right Home for Your Retreat in Provence
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Finding the Right Home for Your Retreat in Provence

Written by the Only Provence Team • Last Updated October 23, 2026

Only Provence is an award-winning villa rental company with a collection of more than 200 luxury villas and châteaux throughout the Luberon and Alpilles. Combining deep local expertise with personalized service, we craft exceptional journeys tailored for discerning travelers.

The Property - “the nest” of the retreat

For twenty years, we have been curating a collection of the most beautiful properties in Provence, and that same eye now guides where retreats are held. We have recently chosen the home setting for our Art of Retreat collection, and we also act as trusted stewards for other retreat leaders, guiding them to the right property for theirs and supporting them every step of the way. 

What we’ve learned is that the property is never just the backdrop. It is the setting, the nest, the doorway into something richer. It decides how people wake up, where they drift in the afternoon, and whether a group of near-strangers becomes something closer to friends by the third dinner.

For most of guests, a retreat is one precious, intentional week carved out of a very busy year. We think of ourselves as caretakers of that time, and the property is where we honor it. 

When we began shaping The Art of Retreat, we looked at dozens of properties in our collection, in search of the right combination of important  yet subtle elements. Many were beautiful, but far fewer had that perfect blend.. Here is what we look for, why we chose the property we did for our own retreats, and two others in our collection that could hold a retreat of your own.

What a retreat property needs to bring

Luxury, as we understand it, has never been about the infinity pool or the thread count. It is the luxury of time, the beauty of a place, and the connection people find there. Provence has taught us that a retreat property needs to hold a few key pillars.

Earth. A working landscape of vines, olive trees, a potager, perhaps bees. Land with its own seasons reminds guests that they are somewhere real, and that what surrounds us shapes how we live.

Senses. Light moving across old stone. Thyme underfoot on the path. Nothing to hear but cicadas, and maybe the odd tractor in the fields.. A retreat property should wake people up to the physical pleasures of the world, not insulate them from it.

Table. A long table outdoors, a kitchen generous enough to feed a group, and food with provenance, ideally grown a few steps away. The table is where a group of guests becomes a community.

Connection. To the land, to culture and tradition, to the people around them, and to themselves. Every guest needs a private room and bathroom to return to. Just as important are the in-between places: a bench under a plane tree, a terrace at dusk where two people can talk. And a market, a café, a hilltop village close enough for an afternoon wander.

One more thing no checklist captures. Every property we represent had a life before we arrived at its gate, and it will have one after we leave. A property that holds its own story, and lets guests become part of it for a while, carries a sense of time that slows everyone down.

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Our retreat home base: an 18th-century bastide in the Luberon

For The Art of Retreat, we chose a restored 18th-century bastide set among some 57 acres of its own vineyards in the Luberon Regional Natural Park. When we walked it with fresh eyes, it answered nearly every question on our list. Retreat groups can stay in one of three private villas on the estate, among them Le Mas d’Or and Mas d’Argent, and have full use of the hotel around them: the restaurant, the pools, the spa, the lounges and the gardens. It is a home of your own for the week, with everything a fine small hotel offers a few steps away.

  • It is a living estate. The vines produce the estate’s own wine, a short walk from the bastide. There is a potager, honey from the property, and an herbalist who gathers flowers and herbs for the kitchen. Guests are not visiting the land; they are living inside its season.
  • Ateliers rooted in the land. All around the estate are ateliers and workshops where guests can work alongside the people who keep Provence’s traditions alive: gardening in the potager, arranging flowers, gathering and blending herbs, making wine, and tending bees. Few places offer a retreat this many ways to get its hands into the land, and that is a large part of what makes this estate such a special place to gather.
  • The table comes from the land. The estate restaurant cooks from what grows there and from farmers nearby. Dinner is served in an old stone barn warmed by a large fireplace, or outdoors under a vine-covered arbor lit by lanterns.  When renting one of their villas, you have the chance to have a private dinner there on some nights, and at the restaurant on others.
  • Privacy and togetherness, both. Each guest has a room with its own character, furnished with antiques from local dealers. Small lounges and libraries give people somewhere to read, rest, or simply be still together.
  • Places to exhale. Two pools, one walled in stone and one opening onto the vines. A spa with treatment rooms for massage and restorative care.
  • Care without effort. The estate runs with the ease of a fine small hotel, while still feeling like a family home-either in your villa or in the main hotel bastide.. Breakfast, housekeeping and concierge are simply handled.
  • Walking from the door. Trails lead straight from the property into the Luberon hills, and Ménerbes, Lacoste and Bonnieux are each a few minutes away.

What struck us most was the feeling of time slowing down. Old stone, cypress trees, light moving across the vines in the late afternoon. That is the pace we want our guests to carry home.

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What retreat leaders look for in our collection

Many of the people who reach out to us are not looking to join a retreat. They are leading one. Yoga teachers, writers, chefs, coaches, wine enthusiats, and people gathering a circle of friends or colleagues all come with their own vision, and they need a property that can hold it.

Over the years, the same things draw them to our collection again and again:

  • The whole property is theirs. Exclusive use means no other guests, no shared pool, no strangers at breakfast. The group can settle in and make the place its own for the week.
  • Spaces that can become a studio or a classroom. A library, an orangerie, a covered terrace, a shaded lawn. Leaders look for somewhere to hold a morning practice, a workshop or an evening conversation without rearranging the property.
  • A private room for every guest. Bedrooms with their own bathrooms matter more on a retreat than on a family holiday. Participants who have only just met need their own place to retreat to.
  • The right size. Our properties range from intimate properties for ten or twelve to estates that accommodate over 18+, so a leader can match the property to the group rather than the other way around.
  • Support already in place. Housekeeping, caretakers on the property, and access to private chefs, local guides, wine tastings and market visits. Leaders can focus on their guests while we take care of the rest.
  • Local knowledge. After twenty years here, we know which village market to visit on which day, which winemaker will open the cellar, and which trail leads to the best view at sunset. The people we work with, from winemakers to walking guides, become interpreters of place, and that turns a beautiful week into a meaningful one.

And finding the property is only the beginning. We can help with every detail of a retreat: airport transfers and transport, private chefs and catered meals, winery visits, market mornings, guided walks, wellness practitioners, workshops with local artisans, and the day-by-day planning that ties it all together. Retreat leaders bring the vision. We take care of the rest, so they can be fully present with their guests.

Two properties in our collection come up again and again in these conversations.

Mas de Lacoste: a vineyard estate for a larger group

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Mas de Lacoste sits at the heart of a 120-acre wine estate below the village of Lacoste, with views across the Luberon valley all the way to Mont Ventoux. For a retreat of up to 24 people, it is one of the most complete beautiful properties we know.

  • Space that holds a group, and lets it breathe. Eleven bedrooms and ten bathrooms across a main residence and two annexes. The annex rooms have their own outside entrances, so guests can slip away for an afternoon rest or an early night.
  • One long table. Outdoor dining for 24, a covered terrace that can be heated in cooler months, and a generous kitchen with a Lacanche range. A garden on the property supplies fruit and vegetables daily.
  • The vines next door. The neighboring winery produces Luberon wines, and a private winery tour is included in the stay.
  • Room for stillness and movement. A library, a gym, a large walled pool area with flowers through the seasons, and massage available on request.
  • Care close at hand. A caretaker and housekeeping manager live on the estate in a separate residence, with daily cleaning on weekdays.
  • Walking from the door. Trails start at the property, and the village of Lacoste is about a fifteen-minute walk.

This is the home for a wine-and-food retreat, a milestone gathering, or a group that wants open views and the freedom to spread out.

Mas de Paradis: an Alpilles property for an intimate group

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Mas de Paradis is a historic Mas outside the village of Paradou, at the foot of the Alpilles between Les Baux and Maussane. With seven bedrooms for up to 14 guests, it suits a smaller, closer retreat.

  • Arrival that slows you down. A drive lined with great plane trees leads to a raised terrace running the full length of the mas, looking out over the fields below.
  • Privacy built into the layout. Seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms sit in three separate wings upstairs, so guests share the day and still have real quiet at night.
  • Gathering places indoors and out. Long shaded dining on the terrace, a classic kitchen with a La Cornue range, a second living room, an orangerie, a library and a wine cellar.
  • A garden walk to the water. A pergola garden leads to a heated pool and pool house, with a tennis court just below the terrace.
  • Care that’s already arranged. Daily housekeeping and breakfast are prepared six days a week, and a guardian lives on the property.
  • The Alpilles at your feet. Hiking trails start from the property, Paradou holds its market on Tuesdays, and Saint-Rémy is about 15 km away.

This is the home for a writing or creative retreat, a small wellness group, or friends who want a week of walking, long lunches and early evenings under the plane trees.

Finding the property that fits your retreat

The right property is less about square meters than about how people feel inside it. Does it let a group come together naturally? Does it give each person somewhere to go when they need time alone? Does it tie them to the land, the table and the villages around them?

If you are dreaming of a retreat of your own, for a circle of friends, a family milestone, or a group you lead, we would love to help you find its home. You can join one of our 2027 retreats or start planning your own.

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Jumping the Picket Fence Light Through the Cracks

Only Provence co-founder Lydia Dean writes about their experiences raising a family, building a business in Provence, and later combining the love of travel with giving back in "Jumping the Picket Fence". In 2021, she published "Light Through the Cracks," a continuation of her journey, much of which has been based in Provence. Both books are available Amazon, Amazon.uk, and Amazon.Fr.