Bastide Neuve: A Provençal Country House Linked to Marcel Pagnol
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- House
On this page7 sections
History
Bastide Neuve is a Provençal country house in France, located above the hamlet of Les Bellons in Allauch, near the Garlaban massif and the edge of La Treille. The house became associated with Marcel Pagnol’s family holidays and with the childhood landscapes that shaped his semi-autobiographical writing.
The Pagnol family residence
In 1904, Joseph Pagnol rented Bastide Neuve with his brother-in-law Jules because Augustine Pagnol, Marcel’s mother, had fragile health. The family used the house as a holiday residence. Its rural setting placed them among the hills and open Mediterranean landscape around Les Bellons and Garlaban.
Marcel Pagnol later presented Bastide Neuve, La Treille, and the surrounding hills as the setting of some of his happiest childhood experiences. His memories include his brother Paul Pagnol and his close friend Lili des Bellons, whose name links him to the nearby hamlet.
A literary place of memory
Pagnol described Bastide Neuve as an old farm that had previously stood in ruins before being restored about thirty years earlier by a man from the city. The house became widely associated with his childhood through La Gloire de mon père and Le Château de ma mère, both published in 1957.
Marcel Pagnol also filmed numerous scenes in the surrounding hills, which are linked to a dedicated Pagnol trail. He and most members of the Pagnol family are buried in the cemetery at La Treille, further connecting the house and its landscape with the memory of the family and the writer’s work.
Remains
The country house and its setting
Interior arrangement
Bastide Neuve is a Provençal bastide, meaning a country house or rural estate associated with domestic and agricultural use. The ground floor contained a kitchen with water delivered to a sink from a cistern attached to the house, together with a dining room measuring about five metres by four metres. A staircase led to the upper floor, where four bedrooms were arranged.
The interior dining room had a fireplace, providing a central domestic feature within the house. These rooms formed the household setting remembered in Pagnol’s accounts of family holidays.
Outdoor dining area
Outside, a large fig tree formed a trellis over the dining area. A storm lantern lit the space in the evening, adding a practical element to the outdoor arrangement described around the house.
The property stood beside open garrigue, a Mediterranean landscape of rocky ground and low, drought-resistant shrubs, extending from Aubagne toward Aix. Its physical setting remained closely associated with the hills around Garlaban and the edge of La Treille.
