Interview Summer in France
The actor Richard E. Grant likes to take his family to a pigeonnier in Provence. Cheryl Markosky finds out what draws him back there every year
How did you find your French house? Twenty-two years ago, I made five films in one year and was advised by my accountant to put some of my earnings into pension and health plans. I thought I was too young to start thinking about a pension and wanted to buy a house instead, preferably in the sunshine. I read about an estate agent in Provence who was prepared to pick you up at Nice airport and take you around 30 prop- erties in the area. After seeing 29 of them, most of which were too big or isolated, we ended up buying the last place we saw, a 15th-century pigeonnier in the Var.
Did you have to do much renovation? I' m ashamed to say we did very little for 15 years, and then, seven years ago, we gutted the interior, but managed to keep all the period details. When you go inside, it looks as if it' s always been like that.
If the weather' s hot, nowhere beats his Provence retreat for Richard E. Grant
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WAZILAND-born British actor, screenwriter and director Richard E. Grant is best known for his role as the perpetually inebriated
Withnail in the cult film Withnail and I
Ð despite being teetotal. Over the past 20 years, he' s appeared in many films, includ- ing The Player, L. A. Story, Gosford Park, Dracula, The Portrait of a Lady, Jack and Sarah and The Age of Innocence. He wrote and directed the film Wah-Wah, loosely based on his African childhood, and the chronicle of his seven-year film- making experience was published in the book The Wah-Wah Diaries. Mr Grant, 54, lives in Richmond, south-west
London, with his Scottish wife, Joan. They spend every summer with their daughter, Olivia, in a much-loved converted pigeon- nier one hour north of Saint-Tropez. He recently appeared in the BBC2 drama
series The Crimson Petal and The White, a psychological thriller set in the world of Victorian prostitution, and will play Michael Heseltine to Meryl Streep's Mar- garet Thatcher in the film The Iron Lady, to be released at the end of the year.
82 Country Life International, Summer 2011
How often do you use the house? We use it for six weeks in the summer, and try and get down there for the odd long week- end from spring onwards, until it' s shuttered up for the winter. When we bought it, I was at pains to point out to my wife that, for the cost of maintaining a second home in a foreign country, we could have taken an exotic holi- day in a different country every year instead. When she was growing up in Aberdeen, her parents owned a seaside cottage that was the mainstay of her childhood and she insisted that our daughter would benefit from going to the same holiday house every year. Which has proved true beyond measure. And it' s been a guaranteed six weeks of full parental attention away from the pressures of work and a more stressful urban existence.
Are you tempted to spend longer there? Yes, now that our daughter is at university and we' re no longer bound by school holidays. However, I don' t like the cold very much, and although the walls are two feet thick and we have central heating, I' ve never been tempted to stay there in winter. However, my wife has other ideas and is working on that!
Do you have any favourite local haunts? Worth travelling 90 minutes to is La Petite Maison restaurant, just behind the Opera House in Nice, which has historically good food. They have a truffle baguette that is certifiably ` last meal on Earth' w orthy.
Have you discovered any markets? Aladin magazine has detailed listings
Visit L' Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for the most ` spectacular' brocante of all
www.countrylife.co.uk/international
of all the brocantes [second-hand] and antiques fairs held throughout France, and there is always one worth visiting every week during the summer. The most spec- tacular brocante is held mid August in L' Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, whose canals make it the Venice of Provence. Pretty much everything in our house has been accumu- lated from brocante markets.
Are you a fluent French speaker? Regrettably not, but my wife is fluent, which makes me very lazy. The invention of the iPad and Google translation have proved a godsend when trying to find the right words and expressions when marooned in a DIY shop.
What' s your favourite spot? Sitting on the terrace by the pool in the evening, eating dinner with friends and family and talking non-stop.
What activities do you do? Eat, swim, eat, play tennis, eat, cook, eat, walk, eat. We have an annual badminton competition, as it can be played by all ages and there is something innately comical about people running around trying to hit a feathered shuttlecock. We have a winner' s cup and runner' s-up plate, and every guest' s nationality is represented by a flag and bunting. Down the years, it has proved to be the perfect way to integrate every- one from different tribes.
Owen Franken/Corbis
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