Before the villas, there was Mémé

September 23, 2026

In Eygalières, there’s one landmark everyone recognises instantly: the Saint-Sixte chapel, standing alone on its hill, watching over the plain for centuries. A few hundred metres from there, in that part of the village, there once stood a mas. You won’t find it on any map under that name today — it was called the Mas des Goudets. That’s where the great-grandmother of a family we know well in Eygalières lived — the one everyone called Mémé.

A story that isn’t ours, but one we love to tell

We often tell a place through what it offers today: its addresses, its food, its landscapes. Sometimes we prefer to tell it differently — through the stories that truly run through it, even when they aren’t our own.

Mémé lived at the Mas des Goudets through the war years, then those that followed. It wasn’t a place chosen for its beauty or for entertaining — it was simply home, in a Provence that had nothing of a postcard about it at the time. The years 39-45 and those that followed left little room for carefree living. What we know is that people lived there, held on, and gradually found a lighter way of living again as the years passed.

That rediscovered lightness is what her daughter and brother experienced firsthand, as children, in the 1950s and 60s — summers at the Mas des Goudets that had nothing to do with the war years anymore. You simply went there on holiday, the way children that age do. It’s perhaps this generation, more than the one before, that taught the mas to become a place of easy living again rather than a place of holding on.

The mas itself eventually changed shape — it has since been converted into two separate homes, and the name Mas des Goudets has fallen out of use. Yet a very real trace remains: a stone, still in place today, with the name carved into it. You can still see it, at the exact spot where Mémé’s mas once stood.

What this story reminds us

This story isn’t ours, but it tells us something we recognise in every place we choose to represent. When a piece of land carries several generations of the same family, long before there was any question of tourism or holiday rentals, you no longer quite look at it as a backdrop. You know what the land has been through, what it has given, and how long it took to give again.

Perhaps that’s why Lou Mas never tells Provence as a fantasy. We prefer to tell it as a place that has been lived in — with its hard seasons and its easy ones, with the patience it takes to truly inhabit it.

Not far from there — a few hundred metres away, not quite the same spot — stands Domaine des Sens today, one of the villas in our collection. It has, of course, no architectural link to Mémé’s mas. But it shares that same stretch of countryside, under the same chapel, in that same stillness that hasn’t changed much since.

Eygalières, then and now

The village hasn’t changed much in its layout since Mémé’s time — the same lanes climbing toward the old town, the same chapel still watching over the plain from its hill. What has changed, however, is what Eygalières has become.

Long just another farming village among the Alpilles, Eygalières is now one of the most sought-after in the region. People come today as much for its food as for its authenticity: Maison Marshall, run by Michel Marshall and Céline Wahid, is one of its most in-demand addresses — entirely homemade, seasonal cooking, built on local produce. The village has managed to attract a discerning clientele without losing what made it what it truly is.

This dual identity shows up even in its calendar. Every year, the Fête de la Saint-Laurent brings the whole village together around its Provençal traditions — a warm, popular gathering that hasn’t lost any of its authenticity despite Eygalières’ growing fame. Perhaps that mix is what best defines the village today: an intact historical imprint, and a very real appeal, neither one ever erasing the other.

This is the continuity we try to preserve in every villa we choose here. Not a Provence frozen in an image, nor a Provence turned into a product — a Provence that remains, despite everything it has been through and everything it has become, true to itself.

Our villas in Eygalières

Domaine des Sens — surrounded by olive and almond trees, a large pool and open views over the Alpilles. 8 guests.

Mas Oli — what we consider the finest view in our entire collection: a mirror pool facing the Alpilles ridge. 10 guests.

Maison Fontinelle — 600 metres from the village, an olive grove garden and a heated 9-metre pool. 8 guests.

Mas du Minot — a large, peaceful Provençal mas, made for gathering with family or friends. 12 guests.

Discover all our addresses in Eygalières on our dedicated page. Discover our Provence villas

Our villas in Eygalières are available to rent. Write to us directly to check availability.