On the Market: A 1990s Minimalist Conversion of a Former Sheep Barn Near Saint-Paul-de-Vence
The property extends to approximately 305 m² (3,282 ft²) across the main house and a series of smaller cabins, set within more than 2.5 hectares (~6.2 acres) of terraced, olive-filled gardens, with a long rectangular swimming pool, surrounded by stone walls.
A 1995 house conversion by French artist and interior designer Jacqueline Morabito has come to market near Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the French Riviera, listed with L'Exploreur, with pricing available upon application.
Set within an olive grove, the artist’s private retreat was developed within the stone walls of a former bergerie—a traditional rural sheepfold common in southern France—and reimagined as a minimalist residence. Morabito, a French artist and interior designer whose work is defined by sculptural, all-white interiors, works across design, art and interior scenography, creating tightly conceived environments in which furniture, architecture and light are treated as part of the same composition.
Rather than preserving the bergerie in the conventional Provençal manner, Morabito used the structure as the basis for a more radical transformation, replacing the expected rustic vocabulary of exposed stone, timber beams and terracotta with a restrained architectural language defined by plastered white surfaces, carefully framed openings and integrated interior elements.
From the outside, the house reads as a sharply reduced, white-rendered volume set among olive trees and stone terraces. Inside, the spaces are organised through patios, partial partitions, narrow steel doors and bespoke furnishings designed by Morabito herself.
The property extends to approximately 305 m² (3,282 sq ft) across the main house and a series of smaller cabins, set within more than 2.5 hectares (around 6.2 acres) of terraced, olive-filled gardens, with a long rectangular swimming pool.
It’s located near Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a hilltop village set inland between Nice and Cannes, away from the Riviera’s coastal strip. Long associated with artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall—who lived and is buried there—the French village remains a notable centre for modern and contemporary art.
Properties in the area are typically Provençal in style, with former agricultural buildings often restored to emphasise heritage character. This project departs from that approach, favouring a controlled, minimalist reinterpretation over a nostalgic reconstruction.
The result is less a rustic restoration than an artist-led reworking of a vernacular building type—one that positions the house closer to a private design statement than to the region’s more conventional renovations.
All photos belong to the listing agency. See even more photos on L’Exploreur.
Photography by Cerise Doucède & Hervé Le Dû