Bastide and mas in Provence
Architecture, character and sales

The mas — Latin mansum, the field — is above all a peasant building. It is born of the needs of the Provencal farm and grows by successive additions, over generations and needs: a stable here, a barn there, a vaulted cellar below. His plan does not obey any symmetry imposed — It follows the logic of the terrain, the orientation to the sun and the protection against the mistral.

Its walls are thick, built of limestone stone bellows bound to lime, often coated with an ochre or broken white padigeon that absorbs the heat of the day and restores it at night. The roof is on a low slope, covered with Roman tiles canal with curves patinated by time. Openings are rare and small north side — to protect oneself from the mistral — and more generous south side, facing the light and garden.

The authentic mas has no orderly facade or doorpost. He turns his back to the road and organizes around an inner courtyard or work area. It's a building built to last, not to appear — and it is precisely this assumed sobriety that today makes its value in the eyes of the most knowledgeable purchasers.

Bastide is a completely different object. It was born in the 17th and 18th centuries as a country house for bourgeois and noble families in Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Avignon and Arles. These wealthy families — traders, parliamentarians, dress officers — wish to escape the heat of the city in summer while showing their social success in the rural landscape.

The bastide is therefore conceived from the beginning as a residence, not like a work building. Its plan is symmetrical, its facade ordered with a concern for representation which brings it, at its provincial level, closer to the master houses of northern France. It is preceded by an alley planted — cypresses, plane trees, micocouliers — which announces the arrival from the road and stages the visitor's approach. A French or Italian garden, sometimes decorated with a pond or fountain, occupies the back of the building.

Its materials are the same as those of the mas — limestone, Roman tiles, lime coated — but their implementation is more careful, the proportions more controlled, the openings more regular. The bastide does not hide its ambitions: it displays them with the discreet elegance that characterizes the Provencal taste of the eighteenth century.

The two typologies share a territory, materials and an era — But they differ on the essentials. This table makes it possible to distinguish them at first glance, before even knowing the story.

As with the private hotel or the farmhouse, the terms "mas" and "bastide" are now applied to property that does not possess history or architectural features. This confusion serves the owners of real property, whose specific value deserves to be defended with precision.

Provence attracts a large and diverse international clientele. But selling a bastide or a mas of character implies understanding precisely who the potential buyers are, what they value — and what can cause them to give up.

• An international and demanding clientele — British, Belgian, Dutch, Swiss, Americans and Scandinavians make up a significant part of the buyers of bastides and mas of character in Provence. These profiles are often familiar with the market, have visited many goods and know how to distinguish authentic from reconstructed ones. They pay the quality of the original materials, not imitation.
• Preserving the authenticity of materials — A bastide whose wooden shutters were replaced by PVC, whose tomette floors were covered with modern tile or whose exposed beams disappeared under a false ceiling, lost an irremediable part of its character value. Rehabilitation works compatible with the old building — lime, stone, wood, tomette — value infinitely better than a renovation that "modernizes" to excess.
• The DPE and stone walls — The thick limestone walls of old mas and bastides have a natural thermal inertia that conventional DPE does not always accurately capture. Unflattering labels can hold back misinformed buyers. Anticipate this topic with factual technical arguments — and, where appropriate, carry out insulation work compatible with the frame — is an effective valuation strategy.
• The land, outbuildings and swimming pool — In Provence, the terrain is a leading argument. A farmhouse with centuries-old olive trees, a bastide with a path of plane trees or an estate with a pine forest make you dream where a bare land generates only a cold land value. Dependencies — sheepfold, cellar, cabin, pool house — increase the number of possible projects and broaden the profile of potential buyers.
• A pricing rooted in local references — The Provencal market is well documented but very heterogeneous according to the sectors: the Luberon, the Alpilles, the country of Aix and the Inner Var do not behave in the same way. One rigorous estimation by a professional who knows about recent transactions in your specific sector is the condition for effective marketing from day one.
• Discretion and the off-market network — The best bastides and the most sought after mas do not go through the public portals. They travel between professionals who know their buyers and know to whom to present property even before it is officially on sale. Access to this circuit is entirely based on the quality of the agency's network.

Properties Clovis intervenes in Provence thanks to a network of partners selected for their knowledge of the territory and its heritage typologies. Luberon, Alpilles, Aix, Var interior — Each sector has its specific market references and purchasers, which we know and know how to reach.

Owners of a bastide or mas, we realizeestimate of your property by crossing the architectural characteristics of the building, the state of conservation of original materials, the quality of the land and dependencies, and the real market conditions in your area. This objective analysis is the foundation of a sales strategy that protects your property and defends its fair value.

Our accompaniment is based on three principles that we do not compromise: discretion at each stage, rigorous selection of presented buyers, and respect for the character of the property you entrust to us.