Mas Armelin

The guest house is in an ancient farm house that was renovated by the owners with much care and love. The rooms are spacious and decorated nicely in a modern style. Also the big garden is kept meticulously. The owners are a very friendly German couple with a lovely sense of humour. Breakfast was formidable.

We stayed for a week in the 2-bed apartment with our children, aged 6 and 10. Good things: it’s a lovely shady garden for a hot day, a pretty house, a nice shared pool, comfortable rooms, and the dog, cat and rabbit are good company. The location is convenient for transport links, though suburban residential rather than postcard Provençal. Things I wish we’d known before: no longer any snacks or other food available; breakfast is now only a croissant, some bread and some fruit from the garden rather than meats, cheeses and yoghurt (the price is still €10/person). If you stay in the apartment you need to wash up your breakfast things, do all cleaning and empty the bins even though it’s advertised as b&b. The pool and garden have strict rules - no splashing or jumping (owners concerned about water usage but even splash-free dives banned), 4 people at a time only, keep the noise down. Fewer sunbeds than guests and owners permanently reserved 2 for themselves. So you miss the independence and privacy of an Airbnb, but get none of the service of a hotel. So far slightly annoying but just about understandable. But then 2 incidents late in our stay which were more seriously worrying and may be a “red flag” for families considering a stay here. One morning the owner confronted our daughter while she was alone by the pool. She’d gone ahead of us and left our towels on sun beds while she read a story. She came back upset and tearful. Other guests told us they were concerned by the owner’s angry behaviour towards her and judged it very inappropriate for a child. When I asked for an explanation, rather than an apology I was told “we are the owners, you are just the guests”. Then on check out we were told that our children's room had been unacceptably untidy and that the owners had taken photos of their belongings while we were out to use as evidence against us should we dare to leave a bad review or complain. I have never heard of this happening in a hotel, and it may explain some of the positive reviews! There are two sides to every story. Young children on holiday can be messy and noisy. We tried hard to respect the many rules. The atmosphere of vague hostility could be funny - good to share stories with other guests about who had been furiously reprimanded by the owners each day. But I can imagine no reasonable excuse for making our children feel unsafe and unwelcome. I would strongly advise against a family stay here - there are lots of other nice places nearby, and it’s just not worth the risk.

I stayed in Mas Armelin in early June 2022. The house is beautiful, the grounds are gorgeous and there is even a cute sausage dog called Hugo. Mas Armelin has everything one could hope for but unfortunately our stay felt more like an army camp than a relaxing holiday. The host was quite rude and an expert order giver. We got told off for, well basically, everything we did during our stay. Our friends shared their disappointment with the host and were told they better not put a review online or the host would “find them”. In brief, avoid at all cost if you want to have a pleasant stay in Provence and leave the region without a threat hanging above your head.