The Mas

The large building is a mas, or a farm manor house in Provence. It is surrounded by vineyards.

The End of the Walk

There is a beautiful walk of a few miles between the villages of Villars and Saint Saturnin. It is the Lovely One's refuge to take this walk mentally in times of stress. As you approach St. Saturnin, you get glimpses of the village in the distance.

I phoned my Mother to wish her Happy Mother's Day while walking this trail.

Pottery of Provence

The colors of Provence are reflected in the buildings and the pottery, and indeed life. These Provecale pieces of pottery reflect the blue sky, the ochre, the red poppies and the terracotta ground. The colour of the soil has gotten in their blood (or is it vice versa).

Doorway Gargoyle

An ugly gargoyle adorns the archway above the door of a village house that is now a doctor's office.

Medieval Security

This image detail was fascinating for me for a few reasons. The first is why would the window be so small. It must have been a special purpose hole in the wall for something when the building was built a few hundred years ago.

The security grating is ingenious. It is old beyond a doubt. It is blacksmith wrought iron that has been cleverly cut to make it such that the space to put one's hand through is occluded.

The third thing is that the building's mortar is made from ochre, which gives it colour. This pic was snapped in Rousillon.

View From the Terrace

The panorama above was my view for hours and days at a time when I sat at a terrace cafe perched on a hillside, writing software and eating a Savoyard pizza. A Savoyard pizza is a woodfire pizza with bacon and potatoes on it. It is the best tasting pizza that I have ever had in my life.

A Poppy Emerges

The ubiquitous poppy growing wild adds its scarlet highlights to the colours of Provence.

Walled in Greenery

The lush foliage of Provence is amply demonstrated in this photo of a yard walled in and yet lush and green. There are plants everywhere, even in pots on the upper deck patio visible in the top right of the picture.

Ochre Art

The colours of ochre permeates life in Provence. You see it in the buildings, in the fabrics, in the hills and fields, and you see it in the art. The colour of ochre is the colour of life in Provence.

An outdoor cafe opens and prepares for lunch as tourists stroll by in a hill-top village.

Flowers Everywhere

If there is one ubiquitous thing about Provence, is that there are flowers everywhere in almost every nook and cranny.

Road Markers

The respect for tradition in Provence is shown even in the milestones and road markers. In days of old, these were carved from stone. Today, the old shape is preserved and they are made from modern materials.

Village Fountain

Every medieval Provence village had a central fountain. This is the one in Bonnieux. Water comes out of the pipes in the fish mouths. There are gold fish in this fountain. The sign reads "Respect our fish and our fountain".

Gordes

This is a distant view of the mountain-top village of Gordes -- one of the more famous and picturesque in Provence. Ex-president Francois Mitterand had a summer home here.

This is a view from a property that has a hermit's grave from the 13th Century, a Roman aquaduct, a Gaulois old stone wall from the time of Asterix, was the home of a famous French philosopher, has a courtyard, a truffle grounds, a vineyard, grows all of the herbs of Provence, and the Lovely One won't let me buy the property.

Hotel Dieu

I came across these imposing gates in my favourite mountain top village in Provence. You can see "Hotel Dieu" across the top. In the middle ages in France, a Hotel Dieu or a house (hotel) of God was a hospital. This is now a series of restaurants.

Tourists

Many of the old Provence villages have had new life breathed into them by the tourist trade. Of course, there are those who say that tourism is ruining everything.

My Favourite Village in Provence

This is a souvenir of my favourite village in Provence. As I sat in the terrace on the mountain top village, I wrote software that is a significant revenue stream for my company that operates in the Caribbean.

Vines at the Doorway

The previous blog posting was of old vines and irises. This is a picture of a village house doorway with an ancient thick grape vine growing at the edge of the building. The rest of the doorway entrance is a collection of potted plants to add greenery and colour to a stone village house.

Irises and Old Vines

Irises growing wild poke their violet and purple flowers among ancient grape vines.

Loft Window

A little window on the corner of the building is a loft window that will be surrounded by grape vines growing up the building. It is the attic portion of the building that has been converted to a little sleeping loft overlooking the room below.

Hameau Sign

This is an old road sign. It marks the presence of a hameau up the road. In French, a hameau is a hamlet, but a hameau is something similiar but not quite. A hameau is a collection of buildings where people live. It had its origins in farming. The farm owner would build his house. Then more houses would be added for the farm hands, and his grown children and their families. Soon you had a collection of houses called a hameau. They were given names. This is the road sign to the hameau of Les Chapelins.

Flower in a pot

As I was passing a village house, with flower pots lining the front door, I came upon this flower in a pot.

Ochre Village Bell Tower

Roussillon is the ochre village. There are large deposits of ochre and most of the town is coloured in ochre. This is the bell tower of Roussillon as seen from a lower tier of the village.