Sarah Brown and Sheppard Ferguson, sister and brother, have known Les Martins since their parents bought the property and converted the farm into a family second home with swimming pool.
Until high school, Sarah attended French schools. She has a PhD in medieval architecture from Columbia University and has been often described as the English speaking person who knows the most about Provence. She has lived in Les Martins for 25 years and is writing the definitive book about the history and culture of the Luberon valley. As well as A Week in Provence she has owned a gallery in the region.
Sheppard has alternately been a bookseller and photographer, co-founding the rare art book company Ars Libri, Ltd in Boston and subsequently running Schoenhof's Foreign Books in Cambridge, MA, a subsidiary Editions Gallimard, the French publisher. His photographic documentation of the stone quarries in the region (the biggest one visible directly across the valley form the house) has been exhibited widely throughout Provence, in an Avignon museum and in New York. He currently lives in Watertown, MA.
Both Sarah and Sheppard love introducing friends and guests to the valley and wider region.