Bonjour, Hello, Guten Tag and Welcome to the page dedicated to our guesthouse Le Cellier des Amis.
A few words to introduce ourselves: we are Hélène, French and social worker, and Kerstin, German and a sports and tennis teacher. After 20 years of a busy life in London, we decided to settle in Provence.
Life in London has fullfilled us in many ways, especially with its openness, diversity and tolerance. We were lucky to meet many friends from all over the world, who will remain our 'London family'.
The Brexit referendum gave us the impetus to leave the UK and change our lives. So since September 2018, we have settled in a charming village in the heart of Provence, in a quieter, sunnier setting, offering a more serene life.
We decided to open a 'gite' to share our little oasis of tranquility and to have the chance to meet people from all walks of life who want to discover this magnificent region.
Our gite 'Le Cellier des Amis' is located in St Etienne Les Orgues, in a village in the Alpes de Haute Provence - ideally located, between the sea and the mountains, at the foot of the Montagne de Lure and at the gates of the Luberon.
St Etienne les Orgues is a place perfect for hiking, cycling, running and multiple activities… We are 1h from Aix en Provence (nearest station for Eurostar or TGV), 1h30 from Marseille airport.
The gite is a 5 min walk from the village and its charming weekly market, its bakery, cheese shop, supermarket, its organic store, its pizzeria ... and its 3 tennis courts).
The pretty town of Forcalquier with its famous weekly market is a 15-minute drive away. The golf course in Niozelles is less than 25 minutes away. Nearby are some picturesque hilltop villages like Banon and its famous cheese, Lurs, Dauphin, Mane just to mention a few. There is also Saint Michel l'Observatoire (with its astronomy center), Salagon (and its ethnobotanical garden), the Ganagobie Abbey and the Valensole plateau (and its famous lavender), Colorado Provençal, the Gorges du Verdon, the Lac de St Croix and Esparron… etc.
The Lure station (15 minutes by car), in the heart of the UNESCO biosphere reserve, offers multiple activities and is an ideal place to recharge your batteries in the great outdoors.
'Make your life a dream and the dream a reality' Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
