About-Us
Our Story – About Us
We’re the new owners of Imagine Roussillon :
A new journey
In 2021, we wanted to quit our jobs et change lives. The objective? Put the human connection at the center of our lives. Since 15 april 2022, we own this lovely holiday cottage. We couldn’t be happier. This former wine cellar is surrounded by lush vegetation. It’s perfect to feel in harmony with nature. We spent the last year welcoming guests and we don’t regret it at all!
We can’t wait to welcome you in our child-friendly holiday cottage, located in the South of France, for
your next luxurious vacations.
Our family
Élodie will take care of you. You’ll be able to talk about sport with Guillaume. Eliott plays piano, his sister Lisa is a horserider and, last but not least, Flora is a really good dancer.
This is the story of the creation of Imagine Roussillon :
Imagine Roussillon is created by Phil and Emma Davies, who live on site with their two young children.
Imagine Roussillon as you see it in 2018 is a tailor-made luxury mini resort designed uniquely for families with young children. But it wasn’t always this way…
Our Lives in the UK
Emma originally from Aberdeen in northern Scotland, where she was a respected fitness studio owner, Pilates teacher and personal trainer. After not seeing the sun at all for 35 years, she decided a move to the South of France as this was the only viable option.
Phil worked in the television industry in London for many years until young children and a yearning for a new life in sunnier climes forced a radical re-think. It had nothing at all to do with a mid-life crisis.
« We were both at a career cross roads in the UK and decided to be a bit daring. Loads of people talk of starting a new life outside of the UK so we thought it might be novel if we actually went ahead and did it, lock stock and barrel.
Planning for the Move
In truth, it took two years of planning and research before we made our move abroad. It really isn’t a straightforward task to disentangle yourself from everything you’ve ever known. It needs lots of painstaking, detailed work and so that’s what we did.
With very young children (aged 2 and 4 at the time) we knew we had a great window of opportunity to start a new life. If you fancy doing something similar yourself, remember to add copious amounts of optimism to your plans and then purchase some rose-tinted spectacles and keep them firmly in place. This will help you on your way when things get tricky!
Saying Goodbye to Blighty
We took the rather unusual – some might say a bit silly – step of moving to France without having actually signed the contract on our new property. It was in the pipeline but could have gone wrong at any moment.
We did eventually acquire the rundown former Chateau Sisqueille winery in 2011. There was relief all round, not least because the draughty house we had been renting was really rather cold in the winter.
Bit by bit we proceeded to lovingly transform our rather charming old vineyard into Imagine Roussillon’s tailor-made family apartments. It took a total of about 7 phases of renovation, so when you come to stay, please don’t ask us if we have anything to do in the winter!
Quite honestly, we never wanted to get involved in renovations. We were left with no choice though as all the existing businesses didn’t have the potential for a fun holiday that our clients always want. Clients with young kids want more. We made sure we ticked all of their desires on our checklist. This did make it a tough journey for us.
We noticed that most family holiday providers offered either great facilities in a poor inland location or mediocre accommodation in more desirable places.
We were determined to give our clients the best of all worlds – appealing, spacious apartments, personal service and the best location near the beach.
Here’s some more detail on our story.