Provence from Fayence: Provence Guide

Provence in Fiction

Have updated my listings of great works of fiction set in Provence and the French Riviera. Very few, it appears. A gap in the market for a budding writer, I guess.

Lavender Routes

Lavender is definitely in vogue as our interest in healthy herbs blooms - I even noticed an article from Wisconsin about the stuff. And then...I came across a map of the lavender routes in Provence on French Duck.

Now, we can all drive by and take those "classic lavander fields in provence" photos...

Truffles from Australia?

Truffles - one of the final quarters of French gastronomic leadership - are under attack from Oz, or so the Aussies would have us believe. There's a small problem, though: the size of the Australian harvest - about 80 kilograms is likely to be produced this year - is dwarfed by France's annual haul of eight to 10 tons.

"If the French are not quaking in their espadrilles yet, then maybe they should be," says the writer. Is that what French people do?

Provençe-ness

Provençeness. Noun (Neologism). Coined by travel-writer Jan Morris (2006) to express that certain je ne sais quoi of Provence. Sort of encapsulates "the olive trees and the lizards and the long summer shadows, the rackety cicadas, the wine-smells - the poet Mistral too, and Cézanne forever painting Mont Victoire, and pastis and garlic and gypsies." Gypsies?

Mons farmhouse

I am so chuffed by this painting. It has a remarkable history.

It is painted by a member of the Pelassy family - Mons' ruling dynasty (Mons is in the canton of Fayence, Provence) - M. Pelassy is the mayor. The Pelassy family own the neighbouring property and we share some olive terraces. I have a lawn mowe admittedly a big yellow one - they have a tractor: it's called keeping up with the Pelassy's. One day, my children will be mayors too. Noel Pelassy painted the picture.

The painting is the side view of our house in Mons (which is, as it happens, for rent) from the olive terraces. The lady in the picture is called Nicole. Nicole was massively popular in the area - everyone seems to know her. We wish we had the chance to know her: she was well loved and everyone speaks well of her. She lived off the land, tended chickens and harvested the olives.

Sadly, she passed away and her estate was sold (she left no heirs) to a lawyer. We bought the house from the lawyer when he moved to the USA in 2000. We first saw the picture hanging on Noel Pelassy's wall when we went to introduce ourselves.  Noel was warm. friendly and a WW2 veteran - we quaffed a Pastis with him and left a peace offering of a bottle of wine. Sadly, he passed away our first winter. We never really knew him. The house was left to the Pelassy nieces.

The painting stayed put in Pelassy land until one day, at lunch with some friends who live in the hamlet, we see the painting on their wall. Roger Pelassy (the brother) presented it ceremonially to our neighbours (and dear friends), knowing how fond they were of Nicole. In 2006, sadly, Roger Pelassy died as well and we all remain shocked at this tragic news.

I blag a photograph. It is our house after all. We are fascinated by its history (over 200 years) and the story of its dwellers, like Nicole, who have inspired such affection.

Cote d'Obscure

Villefranche, Eze & Cagnes coverd in depth by the Herald Tribune.

The Côte d'Obscure, as it is dubbed, "is far richer in Old World settings and artist-bohemian history than in contemporary glitz and celebrity, towns like Villefranche form a Riviera hidden in plain sight, lurking quietly in the shadows of zillion-watt Côte d'Azur neighbors like Nice, Cannes and Monaco.

Along the Côte d'Obscure, the Riviera sun shines just as radiantly, the Mediterranean waters are just as warm and the olive- and tomato-soaked Provençal cuisine is just as succulent (and sometimes more so). At the same time, last year's fashions can be sported with impunity, and almost no one arrives by megayacht. Walking the cobbled lanes of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Eze and Villefranche-sur-Mer, you're more likely to tread the paths of celebrated painters, writers and philosophers than rub shoulders with the Hilton sisters."

"I was never very à la mode," said Josy-Jo's chef, sounding like the spokeswoman for the Côte d'Obscure. "And I never wanted to be."

Cote d'Azur left to nouveau riche

I am appalled by the absurd snobbery associated with French regions, including Provence - anything is better than the UK! Here's a few, reported in Australia:

• Provence is much more popular with left-wing voters, according to L'Express.
• Provence and Vaucluse was home to the gauche-caviar set, the left-leaning politicians and writers who flocked there during the Francois Mitterrand presidency of the 1980s.
• Le nouvel Observateur. the favourite news weekly of the Left Bank dismissed St Tropez as "the capital of dosh and show-offs".
• Old money and the conservative upper orders have long favoured the more bracing climate and sporty ambiance of the Atlantic coast and Brittany to the Mediterranean with its suntan oil and pizza.

You are where you holiday.

New Provence?

Thought-proving article about the invasion of foringers in the Luberon, the clash of interests between locals, new money, movies and tourism.

I love the range of names: les nouveaux, les éstrangers, new co-citizens. One local complains: "When I arrived, Bonnieux was the end of the earth. People spoke Provençal. Today, the language is neo-Provençal-French and English."

He adds: "This is the new Provence." 

French Riviera speeding

Whatever next? French Riviera Police are using radar to trap speeding yachts. They recorded 74 cases of speeding and handed out 19 fines and 28 warnings to boats breaking the limit of five knots.

Worse than the quota-carrying parking attendants in Wandsworth.

French Fries

Ah, ha! France is back in fashion again. The so-called "freedom fries" have been taken off the menu in congressional cafeterias in Washington. (French fries were ditched when France didn't play US ball over Iraq).

Strangely, everyone involved is denying its a story. But, the French are it with Americans: "Fifty-two percent of Americans surveyed now have a favorable impression of France, up from 46 percent last year and 29 percent in May 2003. Before the Iraq war, 79 percent of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of France." 52% is still pretty dreadful for allies - one has to admit.

"Now that they've changed the name of the french fries back, maybe they will admit their other foreign policy mistakes were wrong, too," said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader.