People Magazine has quotes from Johnny Depp’s interview with a French publication, VSD. Johnny’s interview is very similar to what he told Hello! Magazine, so he could have said these things in a press conference. I re-checked Hello! and the quotes are similar but not identical, so I’m thinking Johnny just has certain things he likes to talk about to the press. Overall Mr. Depp sounds very happy with his low-profile life in the South of France, where he lives with his partner of 11 years, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis, and their two children. Johnny says that he’s extremely content to putter around his property of 30 acres (Hello! has it at 45 acres) and that “there are times when I don’t leave the property for three months at a time.” Excuse me while I let out a little wistful sigh for Johnny, his quiet lifestyle with his family, and lucky Vanessa.

Currently filming The Tourist in Venice with Angelina Jolie, Depp says living in France with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children, Lily-Rose, 10, and Jack, 7, “has given me everything. A marvelous family and also an equilibrium which I missed enormously.

“With Vanessa and the kids, we live in a sort of little village in the south and I have the impression of being in paradise,” he continues. “It’s a property of about 30 acres and you know what I do there? Absolutely nothing.”

PEOPLE’s current Sexiest Man Alive also admits, “there are times when I don’t leave the property for three months at a time.”

Depp says his lifestyle is a “truly simple existence” that’s like “being on another planet. When I wake up I go look at my garden. I go see if my vegetables are growing, if certain flowers have started to bloom.”

He also confesses that “everything revolves around” his children. “Where will we go for a walk? Should we eat at the house with them or maybe go for a picnic? These are the problems we face there,” he says.

[From People]

There’s more in Hello!, and Depp paints such a lovely picture of his life. He says “[When I want to get away from it all] I go to my home in the South of France, which is a great place set in 45 acres just outside a little hamlet. I stay there and I literally do not do anything. I’ve been there and not left the property for three months at a time. Get up in the morning, go check the vegetables, see how they’re growing, go take the kiddies out on walks – it’s the perfect existence.” When asked about his greatest pleasure, Johnny answers “I’m a pretty basic, simple sort of guy. Give me a good book, a bottle of good wine and a nice breezy day, and I’m happy, you know?”

People also notes that Johnny is enthusiastic about working with his partner, Vanessa, on screen. At that time, Johnny and Vanessa were in talks to co-star in the film My American Lover, an account of French feminist Simone de Beauvoir and her lover, writer Nelson Algren. They’ve since been maybe confirmed to co-star, as Kaiser reported earlier this week. Johnny told VSD, “I’ve great desire to work with her on a film. Vanessa is not only a terrific singer but a wonderful actress.” Those two have a real partnership and it’s so nice to hear them gush about each other.