Boar hunters from a village in Provence where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have just moved into a 17th-century chateau have appealed to the Hollywood stars to provide access to the grounds despite their support for environmental causes and desire for tranquillity.

The couple arrived last weekend at Château Miraval, near Aix-en-Provence, as Jolie, 32, prepared to give birth to twins. They will rent the 35-room former Benedictine priory for the next three years.

Its 1,000-acre estate includes vineyards that produce one of the Var region’s finest white wines, two swimming pools, a helipad, a forest and a lake with swans and geese.

Alain Mayen, a retired mason from the nearby village of Correns who hunts for boar and deer on the property, has urged its owner Tom Bove, an Italian-American industrialist, to ensure that the actors do not declare the grounds off limits.

Last year Bove invited a party of 65 to hunt 100 boar on the estate. “We’re waiting to hear back from Mr Bove and we hope the new residents won’t ban our hunts,” Mayen said.

“The environment is all very well but you have to protect the vines. Hunting is the only way to stop the vines getting damaged.”

According to local officials, the couple, both environmental campaigners, are seeking a quiet backwater for the twins, their daughter Shiloh, who is nearly two years old, and three adopted children, Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, and Zahara, 3.

Michael Latz, the mayor of Correns, said: “Hunting here is part of the local tradition. Boar and deer are harmful. If you don’t hunt them, you don’t get grapes.”

Officials said the couple had chosen the property after it was recommended to them by Pitt’s friend Bono, the singer, who made an album with his band U2 at a recording studio in the castle’s cellars.

Pink Floyd recorded part of The Wall there. The Cure, Sade and Oasis have all stayed in the chateau.

Apart from the beauty of the property, Pitt and Jolie were attracted by the organic nature of all its produce, ranging from olive oil to lavender, sage and thyme.

The actors and their children are keeping a low profile. “The only sign of their presence is a couple of gendarmes outside the gates. All we see is their helicopter flying off every so often,” said Jean-Claude Sadion, who runs the local tourism office.

For Jolie, the castle is a reminder of her French mother Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer last year. She told an interviewer last week that she had decided to teach her children French. “[French is] the second language in our house. I’m still learning, but my children are starting to speak the language, so being here is very good for them,” she said.

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