La Valette›About The hosts

Jan-Willem & Fleur

Two hosts who fell in love with the Gard region and continue discovering it with every visit. The property is being prepared for its first guests.

Hosts at La Valette Boutique

Sanilhac-Sagriès, Gard · Netherlands

Our story

How we found La Valette

We are not from the South of France. We live in the Netherlands, and like many Dutch people who have spent time in this part of the country, we kept returning. The Gard has a particular quality — the light, the stone, the way a Saturday morning at the Uzès market feels genuinely different from anywhere else in France. At a certain point, returning was no longer enough.

We purchased La Valette Boutique in March 2026. The house had been through an exceptional restoration by its previous owner, which meant the bones were right: metre-thick limestone walls, original oak beams, vaulted alcoves, a proportioned kitchen, bathrooms that worked. What remained for us was to furnish it in a way that matched what the building already was — understated, honest, well-made.

The property is being prepared for its first guests. The months between purchase and opening have been spent understanding the house more carefully, and continuing to discover the region that made us buy it.

The location

Why we chose Sanilhac-Sagriès

We considered staying in Uzès itself. The old town is beautiful and convenient. But after several visits, we found that staying in the centre is a different experience from what we were looking for — and from what most guests who come to this region are actually looking for.

The villages around Uzès offer genuine quiet. Not rural isolation, but the pace of a small limestone settlement not oriented around tourism. Sanilhac-Sagriès is five minutes from the Saturday market by car. It is also, at 11pm, completely silent. That combination — proximity without noise, countryside without distance — is what we were trying to find.

Fifteen minutes east brings you to the Pont du Gard. Thirty minutes south to Nîmes. Forty-five minutes west to Avignon. The house sits at the centre of a triangle of some of the finest Roman heritage in France, with access to a coastline, a wine region and mountains all within a reasonable drive.

We have written about this decision in more detail: Why we chose Sanilhac-Sagriès →

The region

What keeps drawing us back

We come to the Gard for three things, and they are the same three things every time.

Gastronomy. The Saturday market on the Place aux Herbes in Uzès is one of the reasons we kept returning before we ever considered buying a house here. It is a genuine producers’ market — cheese from the Cévennes, olive oil pressed in the valley below Uzès, honey, charcuterie, vegetables picked that morning. The restaurants in Uzès extend that logic into the evening.

Nature. The garrigue — limestone scrubland of aromatic plants — starts at the edge of the village. You can walk into it in five minutes. The Gardon river, in summer, is swimmable: clear, cold, fast. Collias, ten minutes away, has swimming spots that feel nothing like a beach resort.

Wine. The Duché d’Uzès AOC covers the hills around the town. The appellation is young but the vignerons have been working these soils for generations. Tavel and Lirac are within half an hour. We continue to make our way through the local producers.

Our favourites

Places we return to

Place aux Herbes, Uzès — The central square with medieval arcades. On a Saturday morning during the market, it is one of the most genuinely beautiful public spaces in the south of France.
Pont du Gard — Fifteen minutes from the house. The scale of it, seen from the riverbank, continues to be surprising. Official site: pontdugard.fr.
Saint-Quentin-la-Potière — A village fifteen minutes north of Uzès, built around a ceramics tradition dating to the medieval period. Charlotte Casanas, whose work is in this house, works here.
Collias — The village on the Gardon river with the best accessible swimming. Arrive early in July and August.
Anduze — The gateway to the Cévennes, thirty minutes north. Different register from the limestone country around Uzès — more wooded, more dramatic, cooler in summer.
Barjac — A small village with a weekly market that has the feel of a town that has not made too many concessions to the visitor economy.

How we host

Our approach to hosting

We are not professional hoteliers. We are two people who love this region and wanted to create conditions for others to experience it well. The house is finished to a standard we would be comfortable staying in ourselves. The recommendations we make are based on our own experience of the place.

We are based in the Netherlands and visit regularly. All messages are answered within twenty-four hours. For anything requiring a physical presence at the property, we work with Conciergerie Provence & Compagnie — Charlotte Casanas — who manages the house during our absences.

Get in touch

Contact us directly

We handle all bookings directly, without platform intermediaries. Direct booking gives guests the best rate and gives us the ability to be genuinely helpful before and during a stay.

Email — bonjour@lavaletteboutique.com · We respond within 24 hours.

On-site — Conciergerie Provence & Compagnie (Charlotte Casanas) · +33 7 86 78 23 76

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