La Campagne Saint Charles, Cotignac, France

La Campagne Saint Charles was originally a farm, built at the start of the french revolution. The animals lived on the ground floor, the family lived on the first floor and silk worms were raised on the top floor. Today, it is 3 storey home filled with all the luxuries needed for a very enjoyable vacation home to rest and party.

Cotignac is a charming village believed to have its origins in a Celtic-Ligurian settlement. The Roman empire brought christianity here. A jewish community settled here in the 5th century. The caves above town brought refuge for villagers from the maurading Saracens and the Saracen Towers(shown in one of the pictures and just behind the house above the village) were defence or watchtowers that date from the 12th or 13th century.

Today we went to town early for cafe creme and enjoyed the village. We bought amazing croissants and bagettes from the boulangerie and climbed the steep rocky path back home by 10 a.m. We went to Carces to shop for groceries and the Super Marche, lots of vin rose and vin rouge. We particularly enjoy Chateau Saint Janet Rose from a Cotignac vineyard no more than 1 km from the house. It was 2.86 Euro a bottle. The afternoon we spent by the pool, over 30C and very sunny. Hapy hour came and we enjoyed a large selection of local cheeses, olives and pate.
Dinner was devine! local lamb chops on a charcoal grill in the outdoor kitcen along with fingerling potatoes, carrots, asparagus and haricots vert blanched crisply and served with lemon garlic Aioli. A beautiful green saled accompanied the meal with heirloom tomatoes and avacado. Man the produce here is ripe, large and sooo flavourful.