The collection, side by side
Which house is right for you
Seven houses, all within the ramparts of old Antibes, all restored by the same hands. They are not variations of one another: a garden at street level is a different holiday from a rooftop above the roofs. Nor is the biggest house reserved for the biggest party — a good number of our guests take three bedrooms for two people, on purpose. Here is everything side by side, and then the answers to the questions people actually ask us on the telephone.
The questions people actually ask
Nobody rings us to ask about square metres. They ask these.
Just the two of us
All seven work for two. More of our guests than you would think take the largest houses as a couple — three bedrooms for two people is not a mistake, it is the point. Choose by what you want to walk into in the morning, not by how many beds you will use.
With children
Six of the seven take families; only BenEstre, with its single bedroom, does not. What changes a holiday with children is rarely the number of beds — it is having somewhere they can be loud, or outside, without anyone minding. A rooftop, a garden at street level, a games room that is not the living room.
Six of us, two or three couples
Only two houses sleep six, and in both every bedroom is a suite — which is what decides whether six people travelling together stay friends.
One detail worth knowing before six of you share a house: at Pantai, one of the three bedrooms has its own bathroom but not its own lavatory — there is a separate one a level above.
Two couples travelling together
Every bedroom in every house is a suite — that is the whole point of sharing a house rather than taking two hotel rooms. Six of the seven sleep four or more.
Two houses have one detail worth knowing when you share: at Pantai one bedroom has its bathroom but not its lavatory, and at VistaMar two do — in both cases there are separate lavatories elsewhere in the house. Nobody has ever mentioned it to us, but you may prefer to know.
Living on one level
Old Antibes is a vertical town: almost every house here asks something of your knees. These are the ones that do not.
One level is not the same as step-free, and none of these 17th-century buildings has a lift — so here are the numbers rather than a reassurance. BenEstre: one step up from the street, then flat throughout. Marina: three steps up from the street, and three more between the living space and the bedrooms. If steps decide your holiday, write to us and we will send photographs before you book.
A month or a season, not a week
For a long stay the question stops being the view and becomes the laundry, the kitchen and somewhere to put things down. These houses are equipped to be lived in rather than visited.
