Patricia Sands

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Cote D'Azur

Tourrettes Sur Loup

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If It’s Friday, It Must Be France …

Buckle up and keep your camera ready! The drive to the medieval village of Tourrettes Sur Loup is breathtaking. Only 14 kilometres from the Côte D’Azur, it’s easy to reach and might be combined with a visit to St. Paul De Vence. Much smaller than St. Paul and far less touristy, we like to take visitors there. If you approach from the west, the moment you come around the last corner takes my breath away every time.

I can’t tell you the number of photos I’ve taken of this view. Different times of day, changing seasons, sunny, cloudy, any excuse makes it simply irresistible to my shutter mania.

Established in the 11th C, the natural setting created the fortification of the town. How did they build those towns? All by hand … it boggles my mind. The 12th C church is built on the site of a Roman temple. Don’t miss it!

The village isn’t overloaded with shops (click here for a complete list and the town’s official site … in French, but you can figure it out) and their products are truly artisanal. Le Bois D’Olivier is our favourite with beautiful olive wood products produced by hand since the 1950’s by the Dubosq family (father and now son). Simply walking into their shop is a buzz! I love the warm shades and textures of olive wood. I haven’t seen better prices or finer work anywhere. (Trust me, I’ve looked at way too much olive wood!)

Further along La Grande Rue you will find Poterie La Bergerie‘s awesome cave-like atelier where delicate ceramics are crafted and hand-painted with violet motifs.

You’ll want to pop into many of the other shops as you stroll through. Tourrettes Sur Loup has been famous for the cultivation of violets since the 1880’s.  The locally well-known Fête de Violettes is celebrated every March.

Walk down to the bottom of the village to find a panoramic view past a Roman aqueduct right down to the coast. When you’ve filled your camera chip, have a fine meal at La Médiéval, where the friendly owner fills a glass of rosé like I’ve never seen before. Check to make sure it’s open before you go.

I’ve attached a video below that gives you a bit of a tour through the village. It also shows how the Dubosq men work their magic with the olive wood.

It’s a long video so pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy!

[dailymotion id=xjl5g8]
Le travail du bois d’olivier. Saladier artisanal…dubosqguillaume

Literature, lavender and lunch – part 2

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If it’s Friday, it must be France!

Friday again! It seems to come around faster every week. Ok, I got so caught up in the excitement of the literary history on the Côte D’Azur last Friday that I didn’t get to the other two subjects in my title.

So now it’s on to lavender! Last week we rented a car and drove 2-1/2 hours north to the Valensole area of Provence. We were a little late for the full lavender whammy as the harvest had begun the week before. However, as you can see from my photos, there were still many fields in bloom so we weren’t disappointed. But here’s my word of advice about that: if you want to see the incredibly beautiful effect of the lavender fields in their full glory, go the first week of July. When you open the car windows or step outside, to take way too many photos, the fragrance in the air is amazing!

Of course when you have lavender, you have bees (they’re not interested in you, by the way) and many farms have apiaries to make their own lavender honey. They also often craft their own soaps, candles, and dried lavender products. I have one word for lavender honey – DIVINE!  When we popped into one small farm, they were just putting the fresh honey into jars and offered tastes with great pride. We stocked up!

I have to admit I was never a big lavender fan, although I always loved the look of  the plant, but after this experience I’ve become a convert. The true fragrance is so pure and sweet. There are also the holistic and aromatherapy benefits to lavender which are many. I had a moment of wishing I still lived in a house with a garden so I could plant some myself. Maybe I’ll try a plant on my condo terrace next summer and see what happens. I did see lots of  lavender in pots but suspect they had been there through many winters. Somehow I don’t think that will happen in Toronto!

When you google lavender, there’s a ton of information. You will find some really interesting sites. I’m including a video here that gives excellent information about growing your own lavender. Take a look!

Click here for the video which I couldn’t get to embed after a bizillion attempts!

And now on to lunch! We drove to the beautiful (it’s hard to find other words for these places …) village of Moustieres-Ste.-Marie which we have visited on previous trips.

In the past, we’ve had some fine meals at a small restaurant there and looked forward to another visit. Yikes! Not going to happen! There were tourists everywhere and the walk to the nearest available parking spot was better suited for a mountain goat. We drove straight through the village and tried to control our whining.  Then, voila! Just a few minutes out of town we saw a most inviting sign and quickly pulled in to the Restaurant Ferme Ste.-Cecile. The setting was pastoral and the cuisine was “gastronomique”, specializing in local products and surprisingly reasonably priced. Between the main course and dessert, the chef sent out a serving of perfectly aged chèvre accompanied by a tiny bowl of lavender honey. Bonus! Don’t you love it when a disappointment turns into something unexpectedly wonderful?

Are you a fan of lavender? Do you grow it in your garden? Have you tasted lavender honey? If you have any tips to share with readers about lavender or about your own travel surprises, please add a comment. It’s always so rewarding to receive them!

Chagall in the a.m./moules-frites in the p.m.

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It’s an easy walk from the main train station in Nice (Gare SNCF Nice-Ville) to the Musee Chagall (also known as Le Musée National du Message Biblique Marc Chagall) with just a slight uphill section before you arrive. Honest, it’s not like Grasse where we had to climb 200 stairs to reach the old town … but that’s another story and we could have taken a shuttle so I’m not complaining.

The artist Marc Chagall lived in France for most of his life and in the south of France for the latter half. He died in Saint-Paul de Vence, just north of Nice, in 1985 at the age of 97. He is buried in the beautiful village cemetery.

If you haven’t been to see this breathtaking Chagall collection, please put it on your list. You won’t be disappointed. The ambiance of the exhibition areas is calm with superb lighting and  opportunities to sit in order to appreciate the beauty of his work. The audioguide is excellent. A small outdoor cafe set amid olive trees and mounds of lavender serves superb coffee and light local fare.

Like everything else you may visit the museum online to whet your appetite.

 

 

And with that non-too-subtle segue, let me add a few words about lunch. As planned, we went to le vieux port (old port)

and were excited about finally going to a restaurant we have had on our list for years. Typical of us, we hadn’t checked first and it was … yup, you guessed it … closed on Wednesdays! It never fails. But I always say these things happen for a reason.

We walked down a block to sit right by the moorings in one of several old portside restaurants and had some of the best moules-frites ever. They were in a simple sauce of olive oil, LOTS of garlic and sauteed tomatoes. On the side, to dip in the sauce once the mussels were enjoyed to the very last one, were simple boiled shrimp to just peel and dip.

Magnifique!

Bonjour mes amis!

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Please join me in the south of France for the summer! My husband and I have rented an apartment in Antibes between Nice and Cannes. We have visited this area on several vacations and fell in love with the beauty, the history, the culture, the people, the weather … I could go on but you will see what I mean … and besides that, I LOVE to speak French! I think I must have been born here in another life!

The two most important criteria we wanted for our accommodation were location and view and we have both to perfection. In fact, there really is no need for a car as we can get to so many places all along the Riviera and even into Italy from the train station just down the street. The town of Antibes is more like a village and one walks everywhere. There’s a car rental agency around the corner from us if we want to go further afield from time to time.

As you know, photography is a passion of mine so my beloved Canon Rebel XT has been steaming. I’ll get some photos organized and share them here in the next week or so. We’ve spent the past few weeks getting settled here and also having visits from some good friends, which we’ve spent exploring and discovering. I’ll share some of those discoveries as well – beautiful perched villages, switchback roads that open onto stunning vistas, talented artists and traditional artisans, fabulous coastal towns and beaches, architecture that takes your breath away from the very simple to the sumptuous, and restaurants … oo la la, the restaurants.

What does this have to do with my writing? Well I’ve been working on my next novel and when I knew we were coming to this part of the world for an extended time, my storyline moved over here too. I’m busy making notes and plotting and hopefully will have something close to a finished product by the time we leave. It’s easy to be motivated here as the ghosts of  artists come to you in the narrow streets lined with shuttered houses, many hundreds of years old. Writers as early back as 1500 BC left their work in caves in the area. In the last few centuries a long list of  influential writers found inspiration here including Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, DeMaupassant, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham, Graham Green, James Joyce, Nabakov, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Sylvia Plath and the list goes on. Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Chagall, Picasso, Bracque, Miro  are just a few of another equally long list of painters and sculptors who found the special light and air of the south of France irresistible.

The musical history of the area, particularly during the Jazz Age, is also impressive and we are excited to be here for the Jazz Festival of Nice in early July, followed by the 51st anniversary of Jazz A Juan in next-door Juan-Les-Pins. More on those later.

If spending an extended time in a different part of the world is something that appeals to you, talk to me about it. We are experienced home exchangers and renters and I have lots of good tips. I’m happy to say we have never had a bad experience.

There’s a small fish market on the pier at the end of our street so I’m off to consider our dinner menu and shoot some more photos of the local fishermen cleaning their nets.

A bientot! (Now I’ll have to figure out how to add the french accents to my text!)