Mas and bastides

A mas is not a bastide, and the difference is not decorative. A mas is a farm: it grew by additions, around a yard, with rooms of unequal size and floors that do not always line up. A bastide is a gentleman's house: drawn in one go, symmetrical, with a piano nobile and tall windows. You sleep well in both; you do not live in them the same way.

What the walls do. Eighty centimetres of stone take a full day to warm up and as long to cool down. That is why you sleep cool in August without air conditioning — and also why a house left empty for three weeks is freezing in October: ask the owner whether the heating will have run before you arrive.

What to look at. The terrace's orientation, more than its size — facing due south, it is unusable from noon to four in July. The number of bathrooms, more than the number of bedrooms. And the real walking distance to the nearest shop: "fifteen minutes from the village" describes a flat path just as well as a two-hundred-metre climb.

Every address in this collection was read before publication. They were not scored; they were chosen.