Meditérranean rockfish on a provençale style tablecloth
Painted in Carqueiranne Feb/02
9 x 12 acrylics on paper
Lettre #3 cont'd
Carqueiranne, France
11 mars, 2002
One of Jim’s colleagues mentioned we were about to experience a “charming French custom”. It seems the truckers are blocading gas as part of their job action. We had noticed large lineups at the pumps recently and wondered why. Tomorrow we’re off on a few days trip to Avignon, Orange and all those beautiful villages in the Luberon. Hope we don’t get stranded....
20 mars,
An incredibly warm Mistral blowing today. Quite an interesting sound from the wind last night. Jim described it as a “chorus of billygoats” - not having had experience with billygoats I couldn’t really say if this was accurate...
No problems with gas. Seems that was all a rumour that got out of control and actually did create some shortages since so many people filled up. We had a wonderful time in the Avignon area. Weather was pretty good but you can certainly realize this part of the midi is a whole different climate from our lovely warm corner of the Mediterranean. We got some incredible wind yet wind wasn’t even predicted. Our last day we had done some tasting (and buying) in Chateau-neuf-de- Pape and had found a very cosy bistro with a restaurant on the second floor. We had just nicely settled in and then wind, rain, thunder and lightening like you wouldn’t believe began. It was great to be inside watching out. The first half hour of driving back to Carqueiranne was a nightmare but as we got closer (a two hr drive home), the clouds cleared, the sun shone. It didn’t look like our little corner of paradise had any of this extreme weather. We have been exceptionally lucky this winter for lack of rain - apparently it’s the driest in 40 years.
While we were in this part of Provence, we came across some people with very strong midi accents. In fact, at dinner our first night, I mentioned to Jim that I couldn’t even understand what the people next to us were saying. Jim pointed out that they were speaking German...guess that explains the lack of comprehension!
The villages lived up to expectation although none had quite the magic of Uzes. They almost seemed like ghost towns since the real season is summer and week-ends. We visited Gordes, Rousillon, Menebres, Bonnieux, and Oppede-le-Vieux. Also, LaCoste where the Marquis de Sade’s castle is (very much in ruins at the moment). Pierre Cardin has apparently just bought it and hopes to restore it.
The real surprise and highlight was Fountain de Vaucluse. This was not a ghost town - absolutely packed out with people even though it was a weekday. It wasn’t mentioned in the “Most Beautiful Villages of Provence” book I have but it is quite a place. There is an amazing source of water and even Jacques Costeau and his team didn’t manage to reach the bottom (and this was after 80 dives). The water comes over the cliffs and it runs as waterfalls and rivers through the town. Petrach lived here between 1337-53 and wrote some of his finest poetry during that time. The Roman amphitheatre in Orange (one of the best preserved in the world) was quite stunning along with their Arc de Triomphe.
Time to sign off as Italy becons. Thanks, Annette, for the idea about writing these letters. I don’t think I would have kept a journal and I’ve forgotten lots of what I’ve written already. I hope you enjoyed them.
Amitié.
Jim and Janice
P.S. 29 paintings to date
