Villa Rentals in Valbonne, a Classic Piece of the Cote D'azur

After the scourge of the Black Death in the Vallis Bona (or Valbonne to you and I) during the 16th century, the Bishop of Grasse and the abbot of Lerins decided the valley had to be repopulated. They chose to plan the village on an ancient Roman grid system, á la New York, making the village unique and unlike other villages in the south of France, which tend to follow the curves of the hills. Valbonne is a charming medieval village inland in the Alpes- Maritimes, north-west of Antibes and to the north of the Provencal autoroute A8. The area, a valley with two streams flowing through it, La Brague and le Merlet, was known in the 12th century as Vallis Bona, “the good valley,” which is how Valbonne got its name. The public square, the “forum” of the Roman towns, is at the intersection of the two principal avenues. This extremely attractive square, surrounded by arcades added in the 17th century, has been named Place des Arcades.

Valbonne has become increasingly popular with western visitors either buying a home in the village or the surrounding countryside, or coming to rent a villa, or apartment in Valbonne. Valbonne villas are a charming way to visit Valbonne and the Cote D'Azur. Most villas in Valbonne are private estates with pools, where you can bring your family on holiday to the  rental villa for the week or the month.

Valbonne is populated with café terraces and shops, and is handy for the restaurants Cadran Solaire and the Comptoir du Sud down nearby streets. The village, bordered by ‘rampart houses,’ has entrance gates on each of its four sides. The Fête du Raisin is celebrated here at the end of January on account of the late ripening of the servan grape. Market day every Friday is held in the square; it is also where the English pub is found. Several glass workshops for perfume flasks provide interesting visits. On the south side of the village is the 12th century Eglise Saint Blaise and an attached Chalaisien Abbey which has recently undergone restoration.

There is also a little shopping center on the west side of the old village where there is a post office, paper and grocery shops. There is a delightful woodland walk called Sentier de la Brague which follows the river Brague all the way to Biot. Valbonne is near the N85, the route Napoléon, the route Napoleon took in 1815 on his long march from Golfe Juan to Paris.

The renaissance chateau, Mouans-Sartouz, to the south-west of Valbonne, houses the Espace de l’Art Concret, where a permanent collection shows works by Honegger, Albers, André, LeWitt and Morellet.

Later in the 1970s, the planners founded Valbonne’s neighbour, the high tech centre of Sophia Antipolis, nicknamed the ‘Milton Keynes of the Riviera.’ In the 1980s the University of Nice moved parts of its campus there; it has become an important site for research and development. There are over 1300 companies in Sophia Antipolis, consisting of over 25,000 employees, who have boosted the population of the community, in addition to the many Anglophone residents.

Accommodation in Valbonne is not hard to find, and there are villa rental companies with luxury villas and apartments to rent in Valbonne and in the surrounding countryside. You can book your luxury villa in Valbonne on-line with various immobilier and online villa companies. Choose from an elite collection of villas and apartments in Valbonne for villa rental on the Cote D’Azur French Riviera South of France.