MAY THE ROSE BE WITH YOU

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson found respite from Hollywood by restoring a vineyard in the south of France with designer Michael S. Smith. Then they opened the doors to their hidden cinema paradiso. Will the next Jedi rise in Provence?

-  JAMES MCAULEY

Château Margüi sits about an hour north of Toulon, nestled in the hills of Provence on the outskirts of a sleepy town called Châteauvert. At first glance it looks like yet another picturesque stage set for "French country, another sleepy postcard from la France profonde.

But in a country and a region that prides itself on its history, here is a hidden manor that is truly ancient, improbably cantilevered at the intersection of soil and civilization. Archaeological traces show that 2,600 years ago the Romans tended this soil for wheat, olive oil, and most of all wine, attracted by the unique and rare combination of the pure springs on the property and the special clay underground. To this day, a statue of Ondine, the mythological water nymph, watches over the springs here; they have never run dry.