AU PERIER

A tiny village – that is what it is, a tiny, very relaxed, luxurious design village with 4 houses, its own square, spots to have picnics, a big swimming pool with lounge chairs, a ‘salle de fete’ for our meet and greet dinner on Monday and its own vegetable garden for its own temporary inhabitants. And that is exactly what you are in our tiny village; a very welcome temporary inhabitant.

We, Annemieke den Uijl and Nick White, had been to the Dordogne so often for our holidays that we could safely conclude we liked this area. Why not look for a house, we thought in January 2011. It seemed anyway a nice way to spend a winter holiday, getting some more insight. Luck came from all sides it seemed that week. Within 3 days we found the house of our, no not dreams. We were not dreaming. It was a miserable day, a beautiful though run down house from 1794, but above all a marvellous space that immediately felt right, something I had never before believed in. The offer we made was accepted within that same week and suddenly we were the owners of this great place with a house and three extra buildings.

Three extra buildings, what to do with it? I had been running my own restaurant in Amsterdam for 14 years, putting all my energy and creativity in it, and Nick had a busy international job. But THREE extra buildings… You need to do something with it. And that is what we did.

It is just like a tiny village, Joris van Grinsven, the interior architect who was involved with the renovation and decoration right from the start, said. And indeed that is what it is, a tiny, very relaxed village with its own houses. We created its own square, spots to have picnics, a swimming pool, a ‘Salle des fêtes’ and a vegetable garden for its own temporary inhabitants. And that is exactly what you are going to be in our tiny but luxurious design village; a very welcome temporary inhabitant.