WITH its 18 bedrooms set in 138 acres, Le Preverger, in rural France, is a symbol of the ambition of the girl from Merthyr whose life’s work it was to make it her home.
When Laura Ashley honeymooned in St Tropez with husband Bernard in 1949 they were captivated by the region’s opulence and glamour and vowed to make enough money to own one of the region’s most sought-after homes.
Decades later, when a cottage industry designing and printing headscarves at home had grown into a £100m global brand, the Ashleys were ready to realise their dream.
In 1983 the couple bought Le Preverger, in the medieval French village of La Garde-Freinet, in the hills of St Tropez, from actress Jeanne Moreau.
Now their fashion businessman son Nick, 53, has put the lavish property in Provence up for sale at 9.9m Euros (£8.9m).
He told The Daily Telegraph: “My mother’s love affair with Provence reached back to 1949, when she came here on her honeymoon on the back of my father’s motorbike.
“They were both captivated by the glamour and the wealth but ran out of money and had to sell the motorbike and limp home early. They vowed to work like hell, become successful and buy the most incredible home in St Tropez.”
Ashley, who often spoke of her fond memories of growing up at her grandmother’s two-up, two-down Dowlais home, kept exalted company at her French retreat. Only the great and the good of 1970s and 1980s society graced the pre-Napoleonic farmhouse’s eight reception rooms.
Diana, Princess of Wales, enjoyed drinks on the terrace, while Margaret Thatcher and leading 1970s designer Roy Halston Frowick both sampled the Ashleys’ hospitality.
Despite the property’s elite heritage and exclusive price tag, Nick says his mother favoured humility over grandeur.
“My mother was a down- to-earth woman who was raised in a two-up, two-down in South Wales. Airs and graces were never her thing,” he said.
“Although Laura Ashley the brand was all about chintz and flounce, Laura Ashley the woman had more low-key, almost spartan taste.”
The home was the last owned by Ashley and her husband before her death from a brain haemorrhage at the age of 60 after she fell down a flight of stairs.
Located just 13 miles from the millionaire’s playground of St Tropez it was one of several homes the couple owned alongside properties in London, Brussels, Maidenhead, Wales, the Bahamas and Picardy.
And though she lived in the property for just 18 months Nick believes it was her most favoured abode.
He added: “My mother kept chickens and the intention was to import some Welsh sheep.”
The estate includes a guest house, a caretaker’s lodge, a swimming pool, a pool house and landscaped gardens.
Naturally enough amidst such wealth and splendour A-list Hollywood stars for neighbours come as standard – including Johnny Depp, the Redgraves and Liam Neeson.
After his wife’s death Sir Bernard remained in the house until he passed away in 2009 aged 82.
His second wife, photographer Regine Burnell lives in Portugal.
Nick said with his mother’s four children and 10 grandchildren based in the UK and US, the property was being used only as a holiday home.
He also believes his mother would have favoured a sale.
“She was of the school of thought that nobody ever owns a house. We are just curators of it for a certain length of time,” he said.
“She would see it as only right and natural that La Garde- Freinet would pass into new hands, be lived in, loved and then handed on again.”
