L’Escritoire is in the centre of the vieux village of St Siffret, a cluster of charming restored houses, courtyards, narrow streets and alleyways. Some of the houses (like the owner’s) have been partly hewn out of the rock and contain evidence of prehistoric dwellings.
Little is known about Saint Siffret himself, but his statue, holding a stirrup, stands guard outside the eleventh-century church on the east side of the village. The sixteenth-century château, a hundred metres from L’Escritoire, dominates the north-west corner.
Sitting on a hill surrounded by woods, vineyards, asparagus and wheat fields and scrubland (garrigue) with spectacular views over the surrounding countryside, St Siffret is the nearest village to the spectacular, medieval city of Uzès. Just four kilometres away, it is possible to walk to there in about 40 minutes.
Just outside the old village is a small supermarket that also sells fresh bread, milk, newspapers and magazines. In the same complex is the medical and physiotherapist centre. Further along, in the neighbouring village of St Maximin, is a post office.
St Siffret has a good, popular restaurant (‘L’Authentic’), its own cooperative wine cellar, and an independent wine-maker at the Domaine Reynaud. It is strongly recommended that guests have a car. Although no private parking is available, street parking throughout the village is free.
L’Escritoire is ideally situated for those who wish to take advantage of the open-air theatre, opera and concerts provided at the Roman amphitheatre in Orange, La Roque d’Anteron, and of the festivals at Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. Uzès has its own musical festival in July, the Nuits Musicales. It also ideal for anyone who, like its owners, wishes to spend time relaxing, reading, thinking and, as its name suggests, writing.
Uzès – Half a century ago the medieval city of Uzès to the south of the Cévennes hills slumbered, forgotten. Today, thanks to local initiative and support from successive governments’ cultural policies, it is one of the most colourful and vibrant towns in the South of France. During the summer its population increases threefold with tourists and owners of second homes arriving by air (Nîmes, Montpellier, Avignon), by train (Avignon and Nîmes) and by car, with motorway access only a few kilometres away. On Saturdays and Wednesdays the local market attracts hundreds, virtually turning the centre of the town into a pedestrian area. Cafés and restaurants spill out onto the pavements. Foreign languages – Dutch, German, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and … English – are almost as common as French. Surrounding its medieval castle and contained within its circular boulevard, Uzès offers a maze of narrow, tiny streets and squares with beautifully restored houses. Most of these date from the seventeenth century and were built on the medieval arcades that sheltered a variety of specialist markets, but everywhere traces remain of the town that had been here for a thousand years already. Culturally Uzès is increasingly active. In addition to the local museums are small art galleries offering a range of exhibitions (pottery, painting, jewellery, furniture), a cinema which shows, among the latest films, Opera from New York’s Metropolitan, and the Nuits Musicales. In the same month Uzès welcomes one of the major antiques fairs of the region and in August hosts a wine festival.
Within easy distance are the towns that were jewels of the Roman Empire and of the high Middle Ages – Nîmes, Orange and Arles (second only to Rome) and Avignon. Only a little further is Aix-en-Provence and just a dozen kilometres away is one of the wonders of the Roman world and one of the engineering feats of all time, the 2000 year old aqueduct, the Pont du Gard.
As a base from which to explore the many villages that make up the Uzège, Uzès is ideal. Some of these villages, like Saint Quentin with its many potteries, have become important centres in their own right; others, like Lussan enjoy extraordinarily picturesque situations, but all have features waiting to be discovered—tiny churches, ornate doorways, remnants of castles, lavoirs, wells, cellars…. Nor should wine be forgotten. Close by are the renowned areas of the Costières de Nîmes to the south and the villages of the Côtes du Rhône to the east, but throughout the Uzège impressive and ever improving wines of all styles are enthusiastically promoted by their makers.