127 rue de l'Église, Gard
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In French, a traveller who is de passage is only passing through. The word belongs to station hotels and roadside inns, and it promises a night, perhaps a second, before the road calls again. Martignargues lies some twenty kilometres west of Uzès, where the land starts to rise towards the Cévennes. Most people only drive through it on their way to the hills. La Maison du Passage, a guest house of five rooms on its square, carries the word in its name. It then devotes itself, quite openly, to making the word untrue.
The house occupies stone buildings that go back to the thirteenth century, and it wears them lightly. Thick walls frame modern furniture and a well-judged mix of objects. What slows a guest down first, though, is the welcome. Hervé and François greet new arrivals like old acquaintances, and the two house cats are no less friendly. By the next day nobody behaves like a stranger. Children are not admitted, so the calm comes by policy rather than by luck.
Only five rooms means each can be treated as the best one. They differ from one another, and their names recall the house's past as a lookout. One is called Le Repos du Guerrier, the warrior's rest. Most open onto a balcony or terrace, and all are air-conditioned against the Gard summer. Two of them have a private tub outdoors, and those are the hardest of all to leave.
Breakfast, with jams François makes himself, is large enough to delay any plan, and the first morning rarely gets further than the terrace. Once the day does begin, Uzès and its markets are half an hour away, and the Cévennes belong to the walkers. Dusk, though, belongs to the old watchtower, whose top has become a roof terrace with a hot tub in Klein blue. The welcome cocktail is best drunk up there. The countryside stretches away to the horizon, and the slope of the village keeps the mistral off. Guards once stood on this spot to watch whoever was passing through. Now the only thing anyone watches for is the first light coming on in the valley.
Dinner is served at a handful of tables for two, on the terrace or indoors on cooler nights. François cooks from local produce, simply and with the occasional surprise, and Hervé chooses the wines with an equally sure hand. There is one menu each evening, so strong dislikes are best mentioned when booking. Eating in also spares anyone a drive afterwards, and the walk to bed is a single flight of stairs.
The size that makes the house special also brings drawbacks. With five rooms, summer dates go long in advance, and pets are turned away along with children. Beyond the village, almost every outing starts with the car. After dark the silence is total, and that is what many guests are after. The outdoor pool opens only in summer, though the rooftop tub, heated all year, earns its keep in every season.
La Maison du Passage was named for travellers passing through. Its guests keep failing to live up to the name.
On location
In 1704 the Camisards won their only large battle on the land of Martignargues; the house's old watchtower overlooked the field.
The guest house fronts the small Place de l'Église in Martignargues, facing the church. Its buildings were part of the village defences: a vaulted passage that served as one of the fortified gates, and a tower used to signal to neighbouring villages in case of attack. Later the house became a silkworm nursery, then the village grocery. Cars park on the square outside.
Paradis Perdu is one of two suites with a private hot tub outdoors, set on a large ground-level terrace with a mister, sunloungers and a corner of Mediterranean garden. The suite has its own entrance and a walk-in shower built for two, and lies a few steps from the pool. The Petit Prince suite has the other outdoor tub, on its upper terraces.
Dinner is served on reservation every evening except Thursday, ordered the day before so François can shop for it. The four courses, starter, main, cheese and dessert, change nightly, and vegetarians are catered for when they say so at booking. Each couple keeps its own table, indoors in this room or on the terrace according to the season. Most wines come from the Gard.
The pool is small: a heated outdoor basin of twenty square metres, 1.5 metres deep, with massage jets and a counter-current for swimming. It opens from June to the end of September, once the water reaches twenty degrees on its own. Loungers and a shower stand beside a little garden of olive trees, and an infrared sauna is open to all guests.
At a glance
Where
127 Rue de l'Église, 30360 Martignargues, Gard, on the shaded Place de l'Église opposite the church; a village of some 430 people backed against a hill, between Nîmes, Uzès, Alès and the Cévennes. By car: Vézénobres 5 minutes, Alès 15, Anduze 25, Uzès and Nîmes 30; Nîmes station 30 minutes, Nîmes airport 40, Montpellier airport one hour
Why this one
Heated all year, twelve metres up.
François cooks six nights a week.
Every room is for two.
The Edit Notes
Three suites have a hot tub of their own, and they are not alike. At Paradis Perdu it stands on a ground-level terrace beside the garden and the pool; at the Petit Prince it sits on the upper terraces. Le Repos du Guerrier keeps its tub indoors, in a room apart from the bed, with a loggia facing the church. The other three rooms share the tub on the roof, used by one couple at a time. Papillon and Secrets have no terrace or balcony.
The table d'hôtes serves every evening except Thursday, and dinner has to be reserved the day before so that François can buy for it. There is one menu, starter, main course, cheese and dessert, and it changes nightly. It is not vegetarian, but he adapts it when told at booking, so allergies and strong dislikes belong in that message too. A Thursday arrival therefore means driving out to eat. Simple lunches can be ordered the evening before or at breakfast.
The house is old and climbs. The hosts point guests who find stairs difficult to Le Repos du Guerrier, on the first floor with easy access, or to Les Secrets du Corps de Garde, on the ground floor with its own door onto the street. Paradis Perdu and the Petit Prince also have independent entrances. Every door opens with a key card, so coming back late disturbs no one. There is no garage: cars stay on the shaded square outside, visible from the windows.
Every room and suite is planned for two guests, with no extra beds, and the house does not accept children or dogs. The two resident cats, Guily and Couillu, wander the garden and say hello, which matters for anyone with an allergy. The pool is open only from June to the end of September, while the rooftop tub is heated all year. On some May and June weekends, in high season and on holidays, a minimum stay of two nights applies.
The price question
The money buys a small house where the two owners receive, cook and serve, breakfast included with direct bookings, and access to the rooftop tub, the sauna and the summer pool. The real choice is between categories: the three suites with their own tub cost clearly more than the three rooms that share the one on the roof. What it does not buy is a town on the doorstep or a kitchen open seven nights.
Book it for three or four nights as a couple, with dinner reserved for every evening except Thursday and Uzès, Anduze and the Cévennes taken by car. A family, a dog owner, or anyone who wants to walk out of the door into a town is better placed elsewhere.
La Maison d'Uzès
A seventeenth-century private mansion in the centre of Uzès, a Relais & Châteaux member with 13 rooms and suites around a monumental staircase, the restaurant La Table d'Uzès and a 150 m² Spa by Clarins under Romanesque vaults.
Le Mas les Eydins
A guest house and restaurant outside Bonnieux in the Luberon, run by Alexandra and Christophe Bacquié, with rooms, gîtes and a table d'hôtes.
The Extra Edit
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