Tag: Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur

If there is one place in France I very much enjoy coming back to, it is Saint Remy de Provence. Every time we visit I marvel at the town. Surrounded by the most beautiful, rugged and unspoiled Alpilles countryside, it is so full of colour, character and historical interest and …and let’s not forget the food.

During recent visits I have tried repeatedly to gain entrance to the tiny 16th century Chapelle de Notre Dame de Pitie which sits near where Avenue Durand Maillane and Avenue Pasteur converge and; this time I succeeded although it was something of a bitter sweet moment.

The chapel was deconsecrated some years ago and left a ruin until at least 1985 when a local association, in conjunction with the town council, set about it’s restoration. It no longer serves as a church but is used to hold temporary exhibitions and one was underway as I arrived.

The sculptures on display were predominantly gilded steel and created by Philippe Lonzi (and he had no problem with me taking photos of his work). I think the paintings were by Christian Reale although Lonzi is also a painter.

Because we so often have the dogs with us as we explore, it’s rare that I am able to visit galleries and/or museums on these tours but; Vanya was caring for the dogs during our first afternoon back in Saint Remy and that meant I was also able to visit the Point Rouge Gallery on Rue Carnot in the centre of the old town.

The works of three different artists were on display during my visit and, hey, there were some really unusual and exciting creations. Amongst some impressive pieces by both Florence Vasseur (Painter) and Sylvie Mazereau (Painter and sculptor in ceramics and textiles), were some quite amazing life-size sculptures (mannequins?) by Anne Bothuon in cotton and cloth. It was actually embroidered wadding but ‘cotton and cloth’ has an altogether nicer ring about it. The creations were life-like but with a hint of caricature. Some appear a little freakish (extraordinary is perhaps a more apt word) but all are unique and a couple are quite sensational.

The exhibits in the Point Rouge Gallery formed part of the ‘Nature of Being Display’ organised by the owners Olivier Kaiser and Jean-Michel Warin. I spoke briefly with Olivier (who very kindly allowed me to take photos) and he explained that all the exhibits would be gone by the next morning. It seems that every 6 weeks or so, the owners change everything out, which allows them to showcase the art of a great many other favoured artists during the course of the year.

In addition to holding and displaying tons of interesting and exciting artefacts associated with Vincent Van Gogh the nearby Musee Estrine is renowned for displaying the work of contemporary artists so that, in line with Van Gogh’s wish, “living painters are no longer so unjustly ignored”. It occurs to me that the Point Rouge Gallery have adopted much the same philosophy. This is a gallery I will seek out again.

During this visit to Saint Remy, Vanya and I planned on stopping by Les Baux des Provence to experience the Vincent Van Gogh light and sound show at the Carrieres des Lumieres but, the Van Gogh display has been replaced by a new show (Egyptian Pharaohs) which simply didn’t appeal to either of us. Damn!

Instead, I walked along Avenue Vincent Van Gogh to the former Benedictine Monastere de Saint Paul de Mausol. This historic monastery turned asylum is renowned for a one time resident, Vincent Van Gogh, who admitted himself into the asylum for a year between 1889 and 1890. While there he produced some of his finest creations including ‘Starry Night’, ‘Irises’ and the ‘Olive Orchard’. I’d previously visited the area but never been inside the building itself.

Much of the monastery complex still functions as a psychiatric clinic but one wing serves as a small museum which reflects how Vincent Van Gogh lived during his stay and how other residents and some of the staff lived and/or worked. Also, in and around the museum there are markers identifying where Van Gogh will have sat while painting many of the 150+ creations he completed during his stay in the asylum. I spent a couple of hours wandering the building and surrounding gardens and found it absolutely fascinating. The place really is worth a visit.

Some of the care Van Gogh received in the asylum would have been primitive compared to that available in modern hospitals but, for it’s day, Saint Paul’s was one of the more advanced and caring hospitals. I’m fairly certain Van Gogh would not have been keen on the so called hydrotherapy treatment prescribed by his doctor (two hours of alternating hot and cold baths twice a week) but, for the most part, he didn’t lack for comfort compared to all other residents. Van Gogh’s brother, Theo, paid all fees associated with his stay in the asylum and that included three private rooms; one which served as Van Gogh’s living quarters, the second as an artist’s studio and the third to store his paintings.

After leaving Saint Paul’s, I hoped to revisit the oldmarchaeological site of Glanum but it was closed. I took a couple of photographs of the mausoleum and the triumphal arch which stand outside the northern gate of the old Roman city but then made my way back into town to find a decent restaurant for the evening.

I found and booked us into a delightful family run restaurant (a mother and daughter team) near the town centre – the Restaurant XA. Quintessentially French with a retro shabby chic decor, we were well received (dogs as well) and served some great food. Van went for the fish while I had a veal dish (i.e. proper veal not that awful substitute they seem to serve almost everywhere in the UK).

Once again, we thoroughly enjoyed Saint Remy. There’s no doubt we’ll return but now it is time to start north.

We were in Violes, in the southern Rhone Valley, to sample the wines at the Domaine des Favards and thereafter enjoy their annual celebration ‘Bodega La Nuit Favardaise’ (although, in truth, we didn’t know about the winery’s annual celebration until after we arrived). The Domaine des Favardes is first and foremost a very successful working winery of 25 hectares owned by the Famille Barbaud but they have converted a large stretch of land next to their bodega into a first class campsite. How Vanya finds these places I don’t know but we booked in for two nights.

There was nothing open in the village of Violes that first night. In fact, there is very little in the village to open. Google ‘Francethisway’ and check out Violes and everything they write about is at least 5 miles away – witness Seguret and the Dentelles de Montmirail.

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not complaining about Violes. We know from our earlier travels in this Region that there’s plenty to see and do in the area, if not Violes itself. We were there to relax and enjoy the local wine and we weren’t going to venture out while the Mistral was blowing a hoolie. Our first evening was therefore spent in the campsite’s restaurant enjoying some good French cooking and getting a sneak preview of a couple of the local wines.

A little about the Mistral before I continue. It’s a wind and it had been blowing for a few days before we arrived and showed no sign of abating. It can blow any time of the year but is more common in the autumn and winter. It occurs when warm air coming in from the Mediterranean meets the cold air from Central France and the Alps. The warm air rises leaving a space for the cold air from the mountains to fill and this cold air then sweeps down through south east France to the Mediterranean. It makes for very strong cold winds which get even stronger as they are funneled through the narrow Rhone Valley. I heard a local man describe the Mistral as ‘exhausting’. He could not have described the phenomenen better but, it wasn’t going to spoil our wine tasting the next morning and, anyway, on the plus side this strong wind clears away pollution and makes for very blue skies.

Unfortunately for Vanya, the Domaine des Favardes produce just two white wines; a Cotes du Rhone ‘Les bons moments’ and a CDR ‘L’affute’ and as a result her wine tasting session the next morning was soon concluded. We shouldn’t have been surprised because only 6% of wines across the Rhone Valley are white, 13% are rose and a whopping 81% are red. There was no doubt which of the wines would win the white category either because the L’affute is stored in oak casks and Vanya hates oaked whites. So sorry for laughing Vanya.

I didn’t mind either of the white wines but it was the reds I was looking forward to tasting and when our host started on them, they just kept coming. I was a very happy chap.

Before this session, I knew very little about Cotes du Rhone wines other than that there are 4 grades which are produced across both the Northern Rhone and the Southern Rhone (where the terroir is somewhat different). The best wines are the ‘Crus’ AC; the next best are the ‘Villages’ AC from a named village (e.g. CDR Villages Plan de Dieu and CDR Villages Chusclan) – not just any old village but one of 20 specified villages. The third level are ‘Villages’ AOC which are not produced by one of the 20 specified villages but by a CDR accredited commune. The fourth and final level, which amount to some 50% of the area’s controlled wine production, is the CDR AOC. Anything else just isn’t Cotes du Rhone (officially).

I’m not sure I learned a great deal more about Cotes du Rhone wine at the Domaine des Favards but I certainly got to taste a few. These included (a) Les bons moments rouge 2023 13.5%; (b) CDR Les Grandes Terres 2022 (Grenache, Mourvedre & Syrah grapes) 14.5%; (c) CDR Villages 2020 (Grenache & Syrah) 14.5%; (d) CDR Villages Plan de Dieu 2022 (Grenache & Syrah grapes matured in oak barrels for 12 months and at their best after 6-8 years) 14.5%; (e) CDR Villages Plan de Dieu les Givres 2021 (Grenache, Syrah, Carignan & Cinsault) 14.5%; (f) CDR Villages Plan de Dieu les Brigands 2022 (Cepages, Grenache, Cinsault & Syrah and at their best after 8-10 years) 14.5%; (g) CDR L’une et L’autre 2020 (matured in oak barrels for 16 months and also at their best after 8-10 years) 14%.

There was only the one wine I was unsure about, the Les Givres. The rest were fine but the winner for me was the L’une et L’autre with the ‘Plan de Dieu’ (a named village) coming a very close second. Needless to say, we purchased a mixed case of our favourites.

We were sufficiently rested when, that same evening, we made our way back to the winery to join La Nuit Favardaise. It was well attended by residents of not just Violes but various other villages in the area and all had dressed having regard to the continuing strong winds (in what the Geordies would call ‘their big coats’). The Mistral was still in full flow.

I tried a couple more glasses of the Les Givres during the course of the evening and, I am pleased to report, I warmed to it.

The locals are clearly made of hardier stuff than us because within an hour, Vanya and I decided to retire to the Van. We can attest to the fact, however, that the party continued to precisely 0H30 as advertised on the admission ticket. The music played by the DJ Mister Flo was good and loud.

The next day we left Violes to drive further south and west to Les Argeles sur Mer, near France’s border with Spain. Before leaving I, once again, battled my way into the village for a final look and to buy some fresh bread. My first thoughts apropos the village were correct. It really doesn’t have much about it but, the bakery at the main cross-roads produce first class bread and the nearby cafe-bar does a good coffee.

There follows a couple of photos of the village…

Les Argeles sur Mer next… and of course, one of my favourite wineries (Les Vignerones des Alberes) is very close by at Saint Genis des Fontaines.

We were heading to Violes but, on the way, stopped off at the tiny hilltop village of Seguret.

The ‘old town’ part of Seguret clings to the western side of a small hill in the Northern Vaucluse area and is as deserving a member of the ‘plus beau village de France’ community as any. It is almost completely encircled by two roads; the Rue du Barry which stretches along the lower part of the town and is little more than an access road and; the Chemin de L’Auteret which stretches along the upper part of the town and leads to the village church, L’Eglise Saint Denis. The area in between these two roads is entirely pedestrianised and comprises two narrow winding cobbled streets being, the Rue des Poternes and the Rue de Four. The main street is the Rue des Poternes which stretches the entire length of the village. The other, the Rue de Four, is a spur which leads off the Rue des Poternes and up to the church. Both are beautiful.

We approached the village from the north, entering via the 12th century Porte Reynier (also known as the Portail de la Bise), and then walked the length of Rue des Poternes. Narrow and winding is an understatement but it is full of interest and a photographers dream.

The Rue des Poternes is largely residential but there are a handful of craft shops and/or galleries and three cafe-restaurants, one of which was shut. Le Mesclun, further down towards the southern entrance to the village is reputed to be the best for food but it too was closing as we arrived and we therefore made do with Le Cote Terrasse; friendly and welcoming but not good value.

There’s no market square in old town Seguret; the village is simply too narrow. Instead there is the Fontaine des Mascarons; the ‘fountain of masks’ on account of the four sculpted heads with spouts through which potable water flows. At one time, this was the only source of drinking water in the village. Close to the fountain is the old lavoir (communal washtub for want of a better description) and a drinking trough for the village’s animals. This would have been the village’s principal meeting place; as is evidenced by the adjacent village clock and belfry.

There’s a second larger lavoir at the southern end of the village just outside the Huguenot Gate on the Place des Arceaux.

Having walked the length of the Rue des Poternes, Vanya was content to wait in the Van while I walked the remainder of the village. I escorted her back to the Van by way of the Rue du Barry and then took off, firstly, up the Rue de Four to the church and then up the Chemin d’L’Auteret to the castle ruins. That way, I would be able to cover the whole village.

Saint Denis was closed but the panoramas from a viewing platform outside the church more than compensated; especially those across the Rhone Valley.

Indeed, the views from the church are better than from the castle ruins higher up the hill (and don’t let anyone tell you different); particularly those to the south east (which could be the jagged teeth of the ‘Dentelles de Montmirail’). Actually, I thought the walk up to the castle ruins a complete waste of time. The views are obscured by trees and there’s nothing left of the castle that is worth seeing.

That’s all I’m inclined to say for now about Seguret except that during our short stay the wind started blowing a real hoolie! I thought at the time that such a strong wind had to be the Mistral. If so, we would be in for a rough ride at our next stop, Violes.

We decided to stay on in Saint Remy and use it as a base from which to visit a couple of villages closer to the centre of Provence in an area known as the Luberon Massif. The Massif actually comprises three small mountain ranges (being Le Petit Luberon, Le Grand Luberon and Eastern Luberon) and, to start with, Vanya was keen to visit a small village on it’s south side by the name of Lourmarin.

Lourmarin is different from other villages in the area inasmuch that it is not a hilltop village. It actually sits in a valley near a cleft between Le Petit Luberon and Le Grand Luberon. This suited me because it meant we could drive up from the south and than pass through the cleft to Bonnieux on the north side of the Massif. There are many more villages to the north that I would like to see (notably L’Isle sur La Sorgue, Menerbes, Gordes, Apt & Saignon) but, they will have to wait for another Tour.

Lourmarin proved to be a small pretty village of no more than 1,000 inhabitants. Of course it is pretty; it sits within the Luberon National Park and is listed among les plus beaux villages de France. It is pedestrianised and fairly flat (relative to most other villages in the Luberon) with narrow winding cobbled streets and lanes filled with pretty flower bedecked houses, boutique shops and cafe bars. There is even a Michelin Star restaurant. I wouldn’t say it is the most beautiful of the Luberon villages and there’s not a great deal of interest there (it can be seen in it’s entirety in just half a day) but it is an easy place to relax and while away a couple of hours over a glass or two of the local wine.

Typical street scenes in Lourmarin…

… with a range of boutique shops; flowers everywhere and colourful window boxes

As early as the 15th century Lourmarin was populated by a significant number of Protestants (and before then, Waldenses) but these numbers increased such that by the 17th century only 80 of the village’s 1,300 inhabitants were Catholic. It is no surprise therefore that the largest and some would argue the most impressive religious building in the village is the Protestant Temple. I think it’s ugly and, for me, it is the 11th century Catholic Eglise de Saint Andre Saint Trophime which is most attractive and 1849 Fontaine de la Place de l’Eglise at it’s front just adds to it.

L’Eglise de Saint Andre saint Trophime.

Without a doubt, the most impressive building in Lourmarin is the Chateau. Most of the existing chateau dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries. It is now used for concerts and exhibitions and local events such as weddings and wine tastings. However, the building with the most character has to be the 18th century Girard Mansion. This mansion was owned by Philippe Girard (1775 – 1845), the inventor of the linen spinning mill**, and was bequeathed to the village in 1902 but I have no idea as to what, if anything, it is being used for now.

The entrance to the Girard Mansion.

Two views of the Chateau de Lourmarin

** Talking about the linen spinning mill, a certain James Kay from Entwhistle in Lancashire was initially credited with the invention in England. However this was challenged by Philippe Girard who wrote to the Manchester Guardian claiming that he and others had patented the invention in England some years earlier under the name of Horace Hall. Extracts of his letter are reproduced below:-

A few months ago, a gentleman of the name of Kay, excited a strong sensation in the trade, by announcing a new method of spinning flax, by which much finer and better yarn was produced, than by any other process previously adopted. He announced this invention not only as new, but as his own; the results of his experiments were published in many provincial and London papers; and he granted to several flax-spinners, the right of using his invention, for which he obtained a patent. The public will now hear, perhaps with some astonishment, that all this noise was made for a discovery long since published on the continent, and even patented in England twelve years ago. This new process of spinning, announced by Mr. Kay, is the same which I invented fourteen years since, and which is established, with great success, in France, Saxony, and Germany. A patent was taken out in England, in the month of May, 1815, by my partners in Paris, Messers. Cachard and Lanthois, in the name of Mr. Horace Hall.

Kay’s patent was subsequently invalidated by English courts in 1839 (and again in 1841 upon appeal) on the grounds that it was too similar to the patent lodged by Horace Hall. It appears that Girard lodged his patent in the UK under the very English name of Horace Hall because feeling against the French was still running high after the Napoleonic Wars.

Philippe Girard is not the only famous person to have lived in Lourmarin. The village has attracted numerous illustrious figures over the years, including Albert Camus, Peter Mayle and Winston Churchill. Camus the 1942 Nobel Prize Winning Author for L’Etranger (i.e. The Stranger in the US, The Outsider in the UK) lived in Lourmarin for a couple of years until his death in a car crash in 1960, aged just 46. He’s buried in the local cemetery. Brighton born Peter Mayle, author of ‘A Year In Provence’ moved to Lourmarin in 1999 and lived there until his death in 2018. Churchill didn’t actually live there but he is credited with having painted well over 100 paintings in the south of France (mostly in Provence) and is known to have painted Lourmarin during a stay in 1948.

That’s Winston Churchill standing up in the front car as his cavalcade approaches Lourmarin in 1948.

I was going to write a small piece on the villages of Bonnieux and Lacoste which we passed through on our way back from Lourmarin to Saint Remy de Provence but we didn’t get to see much of either of those two villages. It’ll wait until after our next visit.

I’ll finish with a couple more photos (of flowers); not of the lavender fields for which Provence is rightly famous (they don’t flower until late June / early July but; of poppy fields. I had no idea that poppies grew here so well. I’ve never seen such an abundance of poppies as in Provence.

Port Saint-Louis du Rhone is a port annex of Marseille at the mouth of the Rhone River. It has three beaches, one of which is Napoleon Beach, and Napoleon Beach has it’s own harbour (Port Napoleon) where our friends (Jonathon and Sheenagh) had moored their boat (Options) in readiness for a cruise along the Cote d’Azur. They were waiting for us as we arrived at the harbour’s entrance.

To the left is ‘Options'(nice!) and to the right is Beanie in a craft all of his own.

We were there to catch up with our friends, view their boat and share some lunch. It was a pleasant but very short trip and there is not therefore a great deal I can tell you about Port St Louis du Rhone or Port Napoleon. However, I do know that Port Louis is the last town on the Rhone Estuary and the mouth of the Rhone itself can be accessed by Napoleon Beach. Some ten kilometres of fine sand make Napoleon one of the largest beaches on the Carmargue and it is open in summer for all manner of water sports. I read that it’s harbour, Port Napoleon, has berths for as many as 250 craft of up to 40 metres in length, a dry dock which can accommodate up to 1,000 boats and (ordinarily) all the facilities and services you would expect of a small modern harbour, up to and including ship building. Unfortunately, the harbour’s restaurant (Les 3 Voiles) had suffered a fire and was closed when we visited but we were still able to sit in the shade of it’s porch and enjoy a bottle of wine and a picnic prepared by Sheenagh and, you know what? There is something very pleasing about taking wine and food in a small harbour on a sunny day with a background sound of halyards jingling against the main masts of a hundred small boats. Wonderful and thank you once again Sheenagh and Jonathon for your invitation to join you both on Options.

That’s the local Tourist Office and a final photo of ‘Options’.

I mentioned the Carmargue. It is only right that I leave you with a brief description of the Carmargue (together with my apologies for lifting and abridging it from an Alamy site):-

The Camargue is located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône. It is a designated “Wetland of International Importance”; a vast plain of large brine lagoons cut off from the sea by sandbars and encircled by reed-covered marshes. It is a haven for wild birds and has been protected as a regional park since 1927. In 2008 it was incorporated into the larger Parc Naturel Régional de Camargue (home to the Camargue Bull and the Camargue Horse) and this extended park now houses more than 400 species of birds, including the Greater Flamingo. Of course the marshes are also a prime habitat for many species of insects, notably and notoriously some of the most ferocious mosquitos to be found anywhere in France – and that last part explains why I refused to visit the Camargue and have instead relied on an Alamy description – Thank you Alamy.

On to Saint-Remy de Provence.

We had two almost contradictory objectives today. One was to make some headway towards Italy (mine) and the other was to find a decent sized Lidl, Leclerc or Carrefour and stock up on Cremont Limoux (Vanya’s). In the end we managed neither. Had we travelled the southern route past St Tropez, Cannes, Nice and the like we could perhaps have achieved both objectives but that is such a tedious route.

Instead we googled Lidl to find a decent sized store and then, armed with the necessary information, made our way north through the Alpes Haute de Provence to the small town of Digne-les-Baines. A little further research and we may have discovered that Lidl had only 4 bottles of Crement left. No matter, Vanya bought them all and then we set off to a campsite she liked the sound of at a place called Baratier.

Baratier is just 40 miles from the Italian border with Italy so while neither of us had fulfilled our respective objectives we both made progress. Best of all we were each blown away by the scenery on the way across to Baratier. We took the route through Le Vernet, Seyne, Saint Vincent les Fortes and Savines le Lac (which I believe the Tour de France follows). The road winds through and over some quite spectacular mountain scenery and for a while it follows the beautiful La Durance River and along the south bank of it’s reservoir, Lake Serre-Poncon.

One remarkable site we stumbled upon en route to Baratier (on the D954 in the Durance Valley near La Sauze du Lac) is a series of natural columns of earth and stone known as Des Demoiselles Coiffees; meaning, Young Ladies with Fancy Hair or a Nice Hat. Not hard to see why they were so named as each column is topped with a large rock.

The campsite? At first glance, it was very quiet and had everything we needed but it really is in the middle of nowhere and that evening we walked miles in the dark looking for a restaurant that would tolerate dogs. The only open restaurant we could find was a hotel restaurant and they wouldn’t admit dogs. It was back to the Van for cheese & biscuits because we hadn’t defrosted anything in the freezer.

The journey from Taradeau was fine (mostly motorway) until I reached the walled city of Avignon itself. The campsite I was heading for is just outside the walled city on the Ile de Barthelesse and my (not so) trusty sat-nav insisted on taking me through the walled city with all it’s narrow lanes. It wouldn’t have been so bad and I could perhaps have made it except that it was Wednesday and much of the city is closed to vehicles on a Wednesday (or at least on this particular Wednesday):

After driving around the narrow lanes for a while (using bus lanes when I ran out of road) I gave up on the sat-nav and followed my instinct (and a road sign) to the Ile de Barthelesse. For all it’s smug superiority and foreign languages, the sat-nav cannot recognise the days of the week. Hah! One up to me.

Avignon is lovely. France is lovely.

Avignon on the Rhone. The (part) bridge is the 12th Century Pont St Benezet (sometimes known as the Bridge of Abignon). 18 of it’s 22 spans were washed away in the 17th Century and it has been left that way

Crossing over from the Ile de Barthelesse (using a more complete bridge), the most prominent of all the buildings in the old town are the two standing alongside each other on the Place du Palais; the Cathedral Notre Dame des Doms with it’s guilded Virgin Mary  and the 14th Century Palais des Papes (another Unesco World Heritage Site) built to accommodate  the pope and his entourage after the newly elected pope Clement V chose to stay in his home country rather than move to the (then) wholly corrupt city of Rome:

… above, the Palais des Papes (plural because a number of subsequent popes, another 6 I think, preferred Avignon to Rome) and, below, it’s immediate neighbour the Cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms with the guilded Virgin Mary watching over Avignon…

Views across the city from the Palais…

There are other impressive churches to see in Avignon; principal among them being the Basilique Saint Pierre d’Avignon, the Eglise St Didier and the Protestant St Martial Temple but I had seen enough churches in Italy to last a lifetime and the rest of my day in Avignon was spent perusing Les Halles (a large covered market with just about every food you could imagine – local chefs attend the market every Saturday morning and give free cookery lessons) and sitting outside a cafe doing what should be done when the sun is shining namely, drinking coffee and watching people go about their daily life. You can’t beat it.

Having said that, I’m going to make an observation (in the form of a question). Has anyone ever had a decent cup of coffee in France?