Ven, lifestyle manager, Les Domaines de Chabran
“I know how you take your coffee before your suitcase is open. That is the job.”
I run the houses day to day, and I am Liliana’s sister, so I have been part of this story for a long time. My work is the thousand small things that make a week feel effortless: the beds made the way you sleep, the fridge filled to your list, the chef booked for the evening you want him and not the one you don’t, your favourite flowers in the house before you have asked for them.
“Come back, and you find everything exactly the way you liked it last time.”
On Wednesday I am at the Saint-Rémy market at eight, before the heat and the coaches; guests come with me, or hand me their list. Through the week I do my best to see you every morning, and we talk about your day: what the bistro in the village is serving at lunch, where the best cheese is, what to look for at the market in Eygalières. I have everyone’s number, and I know which of them will pick up at seven in the evening when you want to be on a boat in Marseille the next day. Most of what I do, you will never see. That is how it should be.
Quentin, chef — the next voice
“I don’t write the menu until I have seen the market. Wednesday decides the week.”