The tiny house movement is undeniably romantic. Toss out your nonessential belongings, leave the responsibilities of your sprawling suburban home, and embrace the freedom and clarity of an unfettered life. Need more romance than that? Make your tiny home a real-life gypsy caravan.

In nineteenth-century Europe, elaborately painted wooden wagons, or vardos, were used by the Roma people (pejoratively called “gypsies”) as living quarters and work spaces. Several companies today, including Gypsy Vans, Windy Smithy, and Ingham & Fallon, produce modernized or replica wagons for sale.

Perhaps most appealing is Roulottes de Campagne, who offers caravans for rent in more than 75 windblown and wildflower-thick locations throughout the French countryside. “Roulotte de Campagne has redesigned the circus caravan, country caravan, or so-called gypsy caravan as a high-comfort way for city-dwellers to get away from it all and tap into their Bohemian spirit,” writes Kirsten Dirksen for *faircompanies.

“The Bohemian spirit is definitely a growing trend,” concurs Roulottes de Campagne. “More than ever before, caravans are the symbol of freedom without frontiers.”

Watch a video tour of one of their diminutive 10-foot by 26-foot dwellings below, and start cultivating your own bohemian dreams: 

Source: *faircompanies 

Images via Roulottes de Campagne. 

We at Utne Reader have been fascinated with the tiny house movement since its inception, tracking micro home enthusiasts on their quest for simple, nonconsumerist living.

Now Christopher Smith and Merete Mueller are giving us an inside look into the tiny-house experience. The two are making a short film called Tiny: A Story about Living Small, which documents Smith’s adventures building a micro home from scratch in the mountains of Colorado. Construction is underway, writes Mueller in elephant journal, but between raising walls and pounding nails, they are talking with people already living in homes the size of some peoples’ bathrooms.

Near Telluride, for example, Daniel Aragon resides in a 110-square-foot polyhedral structure he calls Ico, short for icosahedron, a 20-sided dome. “This is a laboratory for what’s essential, what’s not essential, what’s beautiful, what inspires me . . . what’s sustainable,” he says of the home that is made from at least 50 percent recycled and reclaimed materials. Watch a video tour of Ico here:

The space is minimalist, to be sure, but Aragon seems to have everything he needs. “I don’t have running water, but I like to say I have ‘walking water,’” he jokes, “as I do have a well on the property.”

Sources: elephant journal, Tiny: A Story About Living Small