holiday homes – findingtimetowrite

Friday Fun: Virtual Holiday Homes

Looks like the safest form of holiday planning this summer will be virtually – so here are some perfect holiday homes to dream about!

Tunisian villa, from Bonnefoy Michel website.

Villa in the Peloponnese, from Pretty Greek Villas site.

Villa in Egypt, from Katameya Real Estate.

For the fastidious and more luxury end of the market – Bali villa from MyMove.com

However, I have a hankering for this more traditional (and certainly not downmarket) villa, also in Bali, from Smart Travel Asia.

Friday Fun: Summery Dream Homes

Summertime… and the reading and writing would be easy in any of these houses … and glamorous. Whether permanent fixtures, or perhaps holiday homes, who could resist any of these?

Garden glory, from Zsazsa Bellagio on Tumblr.

Typical French villa with garden, from Pinterest.

Breakfast on the balcony, anyone? From Pinterest.

Another french beauty, in Grasse, from Ladresse.com

For those in desperate need of additional space, here is a conservatory to consider. From Pinterest.

Meanwhile, for those happy with a smaller conservatory, from satisfyingplace.blog.net

Friday Fun: Literary Villas in France

It’s been roughly a century since the French riviera and countryside were discovered by foreign writers. Here are a few of their villas and chateaux for your envious gazes…

Chateau de Charry, patrimoines. midipyrennes.fr

After his separation from Angelica Bell, Bunny Garnett (former lover of Angelica’s father Duncan Grant) spent the rest of his days at this chateau in the south-west of France.

La Bergere, Cassis. Painting by Vanessa Bell.

Vanessa and her family spent every summer in Cassis in the south of France. Virginia Woolf also visited them there.

Somerset Maugham lived in this spectacular villa near Cap Ferrat for over thirty years, until his death in 1965. It was remodelled and renovated for him by American architect Barry Dierks. Everyone who was anyone visited Maugham here: writers such as T.S. Eliot, Noel Coward, Ian Fleming but also political figures, including Winston Churchill. It is now a boutique hotel.

The villa where F. Scott Fitzgerald allegedly wrote ‘The Great Gatsby’ was up for sale in 2012. Although the Fitzgeralds moved in and out of several villas on the Mediterranean, the “price upon request” (read: an arm, a leg, and your first born) property in Cap d’Antibes boasts those delightful unnecessaries found in 19th-century homes: staff accommodations, pool terraces, a sauna, portholes, and “immaculate” gardens.

Above, the kind of hotel Rosemary might have stopped at on the French Riviera in the first part of Tender Is the Night.

And finally, this little treasure below. I could not establish any literary connections for it, but it’s in Provence near Avignon, it looks fabulous and it’s available for rent. When I have my next $9000 or so to ~~throw away~~ spend, I will stay a night or two there, invite all of you writer friends over and then it will have us as its literary connection!