L’Olivine, a Mediterranean residence
Mercantour Valley, French Riviera · 320 sq m
A Mediterranean residence overlooking the Mercantour valley. Discreet, luminous elegance, the brief was to honour the southern light without falling into postcard cliché.
L’Olivine sits on a hillside above the Mercantour valley, with the sea on the horizon line of every south-facing window. The brief was clear: build a house that disappears into the landscape and lets the light do the work.
Limestone floors run continuously from the entrance through the living room and out onto the terrace, so the interior reads as a single shaded room of the garden. Walls are lime-plastered in a single warm white, applied by hand for a soft, irregular surface that catches the southern light without bouncing it back as glare.
The kitchen and dining are on a single axis that frames the olive grove. The master suite occupies the upper floor with a private terrace, the secondary bedrooms each open onto the pool deck.
Materials were sourced within 80 km of the site: local stone, Provençal oak, hand-glazed tile from Aubagne. No imported finishes, no veneers.
Energy performance is part of every brief we take on — read our explainer on the DPE and France’s 2026 rental rules.
