From designing luxury lodges and cruise ships? first-class cabins to starring in Celebrity Masterchef and the Celebrity Jungle, leading TV presenter and interior designer, Linda Barker, has her talented fingers in many projects, both on and off our screens. Ten years ago, she and her husband, Chris, jointly bought a Roman-style villa in the tiny village of La Môle, just west of the French Riviera?s fashionable hotspot, St. Tropez, with close friends, Vanessa and Mike Wilderink.
Linda talks to Angela Sara West about her longstanding love affair with the South of France and how she and Chris have transformed their ?1.4m bolthole from a basic B&B into a barefoot luxury retreat, filled with friends, family and elegant French furniture from the markets of Belgium and France.
Provence is a wonderful part of the world that Linda has always loved visiting. So much so, she purchased a Provençal property, which she has lovingly treated to a modern French makeover. ?We used to rent a friend?s house near Grimaud, between le Plan-de-la-Tour and la Garde-Frenet, and it was always really nice going back to the same house,? she tells me. ?But our friend decided to sell up, and we thought, ?Well, maybe the four of us should invest in our own property? Let?s just do it!? We started looking around and found the house we now own together quite quickly.?

In the heart of the Var region, this particular area of Provence appealed because Linda and Chris knew it so well. ?It was its proximi...