La Bastide Neuve by Marcel Pagnol

The history of Bastide Neuve

An emblematic place in Marcel Pagnol’s childhood

Between 1904 and 1910, Marcel Pagnol spent his holidays at La Bastide Neuve with his family. When he was around ten years old, he discovered the hills of Provence, which were to have a profound influence on his life and work.

Situated near the village of La Treille, in the hamlet of Les Bellons in the commune of Allauch, La Bastide Neuve became for him a veritable refuge in the heart of Provençal nature.

These happy years came to an end after the death of his mother in 1910, but the memories remain engraved in his mind. In his autobiographical books, the writer often evokes this house and the surrounding hills. As some readers doubted the reality of these stories, Marcel Pagnol later bought part of the bastide to prove that these places did indeed exist.

A setting that inspired the works of Marcel Pagnol

Around Bastide Neuve stretch the typical landscapes of Provence: fragrant garrigue, pine forests and hills dominated by Taoumé and the Garlaban massif.

It was in these surroundings that young Marcel explored nature with his brother Paul and his friend Lili des Bellons. These adventures would become the subject of his famous novels La Gloire de mon père and Le Château de ma mère, in which the Bastide Neuve appears as the setting for the “paradise of his childhood”.

Behind the Bastide lay a vast “garrigue desert” stretching from Aubagne to Aix-en-Provence. These hills left a deep imprint on his imagination and fed his literary and cinematographic work.