Renovation of a bastide in Aix-en-Provence by the Bérengère Leroy architecture practice

The building, with a floor area of approximately 1,200 m², set on 150 hectares in Aix-en-Provence has no character and has been damaged by successive owners who made incoherent additions. However, the setting and site are exceptional, making a prestigious restoration entirely fitting.

The brief for Bérengère Leroy Architecture Practice is to restore its character and conceive the aesthetic vision for its architecture, gardens and interior design so that the building lives up to the scale of its grounds.

To give the building distinction, the architect in Provence, Bérengère Leroy will create an 18th-century-style cour d’honneur, bring the façades into alignment and design all the window surrounds, a large oeil-de-boeuf window, ashlar stone staircases, pediments, double gates, entrance railings and traditional wrought-iron glazed openings.

Bérengère Leroy Architecture Practice will give structure and distinction to the gardens, bringing them into keeping with the house by creating paths and walkways, with fountains and bird baths, more intimate relaxation areas screened by hedges, and a superb ashlar stone pavilion of love in the centre of the pool, which will be the centrepiece of the estate.

Now that the house has the proud appearance of a pure 18th-century jewel, with gardens to match, the interior design must live up to it, so that visitors continue to be enchanted as they enter.

Interior designer in Provence, Bérengère Leroy has therefore opted for a pared-back interior that allows the proportions and the pure beauty of the materials to take centre stage: 18th-century cabochon floors and Versailles parquet, traditional aged-oak roof timbers, antique 18th-century fireplaces, precious chandeliers, perfectly curved stair rails and balconies with original designs created especially for the property, and a perspective of aligned oak doors with medallions for the reception rooms.

The Bérengère Leroy Architecture Practice has also designed several exceptional, generously sized upholstered pieces to sit elegantly in the spaces, without excess or superfluity, alongside a number of magnificent objects by leading interior design brands.

The Atelier BERENGERE LEROY will make several immense sofas and chaise longues in silk velvet for the reception rooms, with superb double rows of bronze studs and silk piping, original armchairs in matching finishes created especially for the owner, and exceptionally tall curtains made bespoke and finished with embroidered braid and discreet precious embroidery bearing the estate’s name.

For the bedrooms, the Atelier Bérengère Leroy will make headboards and king-size bed-end stools to match the curtains, also made bespoke.

An exceptional place calls for the challenging coordination of three areas of expertise—architecture, landscape design and interior design—to ensure that all three remain in balance and the overall aesthetic is impeccable.

Bérengère Leroy Architecture Practice
3 avenue Albert Schweitzer
13210 Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Tel: 09 53 69 45 03