Callemant D’Autane By Boutique

A Redesigned Hotel Particulier in Provence

A noble residence from the 17th century in a Provençal village, this chateau has been refreshed and reimagined by Paris-based, Peruvian architectural designer Diego Delgado-Elias, named to Architectural Digest's AD100 in 2023. Rather than impose a signature on the house, he restored its existing layers, preserving the original frescoes, carved woodwork, terracotta floors, and grand staircase. Known in France as a hotel particulier, or noble town mansion, the eight-bedroom house holds period furnishings and rare antiques behind Venetian-plaster walls, and hides a fourth-century Roman road in its enclosed garden.

Delgado-Elias worked to restore the chateau rather than redecorate it. The walls bear Venetian plaster in shifting, near-rainbow tones,the ceilings carry original frescoes, and the woodwork is intricately carved. The home’s old-world bones remain firmly intact.

A grand entrance hall and ornate staircase open onto the common rooms: a sconce-lit banquet hall with a long mahogany table, a library lined with gilded spines, a formal drawing room hung with floor-to-ceiling tapestries, and a newly equipped chef's kitchen with a large island. Rare antiques, sconces, and chandeliers carry the period feeling through the plush, linen-dressed bedrooms and baths.

Out back, a swimming pool and lounge chairs sit in an enclosed garden of citrus trees and fragrant shrubs, planted 17th-century urns, and, exceptionally, a fourth-century Roman cobbled pathway that runs through the grounds. Terraces and balconies open to views of Mont Ventoux, a front courtyard bears orange trees, and a stone lion stands at the door.

Layout

This vacation home for rent in Visan, Provence, sleeps up to 16 guests in eight bedrooms. The upper floors hold double and twin rooms, several with village or church views, plus a corner room with windows on every side. A separate children's wing gives younger guests and their nannies two twin rooms of their own. The tower bedroom, reached by a spiral staircase, has its own terrace. Six bathrooms serve the house, and a ground-floor garden room opens to the outside.

• Bedroom 1: Twin (two singles), en suite, garden access

• Bedroom 2: Double, shared bath (with Bedroom 3)

• Bedroom 3: Twin (two singles), shared bath (with Bedroom 2)

• Bedroom 4: Twin (two singles), private shower, shared WC, church view

• Bedroom 5: Queen, private shower, shared WC, corner room

• Bedroom 6: Twin (two singles), children's wing, shared bath

• Bedroom 7: Twin (two singles), children's wing, shared bath

• Bedroom 8: King, en suite, private terrace, air conditioning, tower room

• Baby crib (first floor)

Experiences

Through the concierge, at additional cost, the house may arrange a private chef, guided truffle hunts, Côtes du Rhône wine tours, and antique-hunting trips through the brocantes of the Enclave des Papes and beyond. Daily cleaning is available on request.

Good to know

The house is family-friendly, with a baby crib, children's wing, and nanny rooms. Parking is in two lots roughly 30 and 100 meters away. Do not park in front of the building, as it blocks the public fountain. Photo shoots and events are allowed by prior arrangement; pets and smoking are not.

Amenities & services

Swimming pool, landscaped garden with lounge chairs and day beds, front courtyard with outdoor dining, rooftop terrace with view, BBQ, professional kitchen with gas and French oven, service kitchen, French cookware and cooking ingredients, high-end china and French lace table linens, stocked cocktail bar, wine fridge, ice machine, industrial refrigeration, breakfast room, Aesop soaps, French towels and linens, washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, heating and radiators, fireplaces, air conditioning (tower room), reading library, television with PS5, board games and puzzles, fitness room with 10 exercise machines, two children's bikes, one adult bike, and helmets, scooters and trottinettes, baby crib, children's loft stocked with games, safe, electronics charging, wi-fi (lounge area), on-site parking (two lots, 30m and 100m), daily cleaning on request, concierge (private chef, truffle hunting, wine tours, antique hunting)

Around

Set in the Provencal village of Visan, the property is what’s known in France as a “hotel particulier,” or noble mansion. Visan is located in a sub region of the Vaucluse called the Enclave des Papes, an area made up of four villages and the surrounding countryside that was historically a Knight of Templars command and is characterized by its fertile Mediterranean landscape, wine and agricultural production. The vineyards of the storied Côtes du Rhône wine region cover area hillsides, truffles are foraged in local woods, and lavender and wheat fields quilt the lowlands, along with fruit orchards and prized olive groves.

Visan itself is known for its AOC wine appellation, Côtes du Rhône Villages, that encompasses 16 surrounding, wine-producing communes. Farming has been the region’s mainstay since Gallo-Roman times, and the town was the private territory of a local lord by the Middle Ages. Fortified, with a storybook chateau within its walls, Visan’s Rue des Nobles is aptly named for its luxurious mansions, once the homes of regional nobility and bourgeoisie that have remained well preserved and manicured, with additions dating from the Renaissance to more modern times. Covered passageways, fountained squares, sculptural ancient walls and city gates all add to the town’s aristocratic allure.

Chapels in and around Visan—even one set amid the rows of grapes—are historically-classified monuments, and neighboring villages in the papal enclave make for great side trips: Richerenches for its famed truffle market; Grignan for its chateau, and Séguret, Valréas, Suze la Rousse, and Grillon for postcard perfect Provence. Outdoorsy types can trek or bike the rocky pathways of Mont Ventoux or discover the unique geological formation known as les Dentelles de Montmirail, a jutting outcrop of sawtoothed limestone with some 600 paths for serious backpackers/hikers, rock climbers, and experienced mountain bikers.