An adventurous road takes you to a beautiful and fully equipped house in midst of a big lush garden with a compact swimming pool and a stunning view on the bay of Antibes and the valley of the Var. We’ve stayed in the Villa Aurabelle for three weeks in July with our family with two young teenagers and a dog.
The house was very clean and has a tasteful interior. The beds are good. There is no air conditioner, nor fans in the house, which is a small issue if the temperature is over 30 degrees. The service delivered around the house is efficient and responding quickly. With one bathroom connected to the master bedroom, 1 WC and the two other bedrooms connected to each other the house doesn’t offer too much privacy which is for our family not really an issue, but for others this could be.
The garden is really beautiful and has fruits for every month, varying from prunes to figs and walnuts. We made a homemade cake with some help from the apricot tree. The view over the hills is beautiful and you can choose many perspectives. Either watching rock formations from the pool, looking at the lights over the valleys and watching the boats in the sea. Privacy is guaranteed. The pool is not too big.
The other side of privacy is living in the wild. The thought of wild boars kept outside with an electrical fence was funny for us. The number of mosquitos and wasps around the house was another issue. This appeared to be an issue not only related to the house, but to the whole region, looking at the large amounts of anti-repellents being sold at an average pharmacy in Vence. For sleeping the house offers a classical but very effective protection against them: mosquito nets, which also gives a romantic taste to life.
Vence is a few minutes by car, Nice is 30 minutes, Saint Paul de Vence 20 minutes.
Disadvantages:
• The bumpy road up here makes you not to drink too much wine before driving up
• Privacy inside the house suits a family, but not larger groups
• The lack of an air conditioner in combination with many mosquitos
Advantages:
• Tasteful and fully equipped house for family with two or three kids
• Beautiful garden, privacy, private pool and stunning views over the Mediterranean
• The area with e.g. nearby Vence with all its services, restaurants and Nuits du Sud
For us the price/quality ratio for this house was very good and we would love to come back again.