And more paintings....

"Toulon Bistro"...we loved this little bisto in Toulon amongst very old olive trees. The name "La Feuille de Chou" literally means "cabbage leaf" but is referring to what the pages were called in newspapers in bygone days. The inside of the restaurant has lots of old newspaper pages framed.



"Carqueiranne Village Square"...the city hall with the flags of the European Union, France, and the village of Carqueiranne (red and yellow to represent tulips). Notice the village crest also has tulips and a plow. And our wonderful little bakery that we and all our guests loved.



"Carqueiranne Market"...I certainly miss this Thursday morning ritual! The black dog was a wonderful old Newfoundland dog that was always there lying in the sun....couldn't paint him that way but he had to be in there somehow.



"Carqueiranne Villa"...we enjoyed living there so much...the pool, the wisteria in bloom, Robin the cat, the Matisse print...



"Villa Garden"...it was such a pleasure to look out at the pool, the palms, the olive trees, orange tree, mimosa, etc.
(Robin leaving in a huff after not getting special pate....the only thing he seemed to eat!)

More paintings...

I really enjoy having this record of our time in France.


"St. Tropez"..I love the campanile and tower.



"Mourillon Beach in Toulon"...there was a race on like this one day and I was struck by the single colour spinnaker sails...and there really was a black one!



"Le Pradet Library"...this is where we had the free internet this year thanks to the Mayor. We loved the mural on the wall and actually the boat was a real one mounted on. When I was doing my internet thing I looked out onto the most magnificent pines.



"Pines, Mimosas, Palms"...these wonderful pines again and of course the fabulous mimosas that welcome us in February.



"La Petanque"...I was inspired by all the murals on the walls in Le Pradet...this one didn't actually exist but I wanted to do something with pastis and petanque.

Paintings

I'll spend the next few posts uploading the 22 paintings I did while in Carqueiranne.
All are 11 x 14 acrylic on paper....easy to carry and fit into my standard frames and mats so I can interchange them.

I hesitated to paint tulips since it doesn't quite seem like the south of France but our little village and area is famous for its tulips and they are really wonderful. We passed these spectacular fields of tulips every day in Feb and most of March.


Tulip fields in Carqueiranne.


Then after the tulips these fabulous fields of poppies were everywhere!






We have been in the south of France when the lavender was out but not this time...I still felt I had to do something with lavender since I am constantly reminded of it everywhere in France with various products. Turned out a bit abstract but I rather like it.

Vence, Matisse, and D.H.

The day before we left we were in Vence which is a charming hillside village close to Nice and is the site of the Chapel of the Holy Rosary that Matisse decorated and felt was one of his finest achievements. As always with Matisse, the simplicity and charm are outstanding. I couldn't take pictures of the inside but I have one of the roof and his campanile....lovely, I lthink.
In another church in Vence I did sneak a picture of a sculpture called Virgin Mary 2000...I love the lines. We visited the cemetary where D.H. Lawrence was buried for 5 years...he died here from T.B. and took a picure of the plaque.

Also had a fabulous lunch in Vence...roast beef in pastry with a wonderful mushroom sauce.

Home Sweet Home

It was great to be back home, even enjoyed the rain and typical west coast weather in Vancouver. By the time we reached Victoria it was sunny. Cooler than we've been used to but very nice. Our house was in super shape when we arrived and Kate and Jean who had been house sitting this past month or so left us a wonderful bowl of fruit in beautiful bowl by billie byjornert of "Concretedesign" (woman located on Cadboro Bay Rd who did the tables for Pure Vanilla). It's just perfect as the pale pink tones and material makes it seem like a piece of the provencale houses we love so much. Thank you so much!

All flights were on time although we had problems of some sort every step of the way. Almost missed our plane from Nice because of a taxi mixup....a hotel staffer was going to rush us there in the end but the taxi did finally arrive. Problems again with my electronic ticket but they did manage to create a boarding pass in Frankfurt and just managed to get a seat as they were way overbooked and people with reserved seats from months ago were on standby...used to be impressed with Lufthanza but no more. One bag missing in Vancouver so dealing with that meant almost missing the plane to Victoria. but arrived in the end and delighted to see the Curlings at the airport. We celebrated our return with a pastis....of course!

It was rather sad leaving our little village of Carquieranne since we have spent about 8 months there in the last three years it almost seems like home. We really enjoyed our three days in Nice and got up to Vence on the public bus for the equivalent of less than 2 dollars. It's great....you can go anywhere in the Alpes Maritimes for a local bus fare....Cannes, Grasse, and loads of other places.

Checked the status of our lost bag online and seems it has been located and they are waiting for the airline to verify.
Would have been sorry to lose it as all my paintbrushes, easel, and most of our souvenirs were in that one.

Is this really the last week here?

It is hard to believe we'll be leaving this wonderful little village we've come to love so much on Saturday, then Nice for three days, then home.

We had a super meal Friday at this fabulous restaurant on an estate overlooking a great view of pines and ocean called Les Pins Penches. This was our anniversary celebration and what a perfect place to be. We had been there with the Curlings on a rainy day and that daywere seated in the solariam with the best view...and it was actually the non smoking section. Generally, if they even have them, you are relegated to the worst part of the restaurant. We all really enjoyed the meal and it was a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. This time it was a beautiful day and we were out on the terasse...better than perfect.

Then, Saturday, I started to develop some ghastly mouth and throat infection that was diagnosed as 'champignon' here...Jim thinks it might be called 'thrush' at home.
A reaction from the antibiotics I took a month ago. I hope no one has had the experience. I won't go into the gory details but I'm pretty much on a diet of water, milk, scrambled egges and vanilla ice cream...everything else feels like eating raser blades. Oh yes...supplemented by some nasty disinfectant mouth wash I have to take 4 times a day and some other medicine.

Now I would like to think my friends reading this would be crying crododile tears on hearing this but I suspect that most will be having a quiet little laugh and SOME will be splitting a gut with laughter...and I know who you are and I won't forget it...A.B., P.B. and D.C.!

I can see the humour of spending my last days in France like this....makes a better story than another boring week of la gourmandise but I do hope this will improve so that I can at least enjoy one last experience of that wonderful crusty bagette that no where in the world seems to be able to replicate.

I see Richard has got some more pictures up...Don and Elaine and Jim and I in front of Notre Dame and a couple of paintings. I've done 21 and have now packed up my studio. I think we're actually going to manage to fit everything in our suitcases.

Quel orage!

We had quite the storm yesterday and the pool went up almost two inches and our local little creek which had previously been a trickle was running very noisily this morning so I guess that will help their dry spell somewhat. There was thunder and lightning for about 8 hours...read this morning that an adolescent was struck by lightning and badly burned. Luckily an ambulance was passing by.

Elaine phoned this morning to wish us 'Happy Anniversay' (37 yrs) and give us the surprising good news of the NDP doing very well in the election....wow!

Last Saturday Roger and Jacqueline (Monique's mom) came for lunch and we had a great visit with them. We started with a super bottle of Champagne that they brought for us...I do love the way the French do things. It was so nice to see them and we had lots of good laughs.

On Sunday we went to Sanary to meet a fellow who is doing an honour's essay on 'Huxley in Sanary' (Jim met him at the conference he gave on Huxley's letters).
He had lots of interesting info and showed us exactly where the Huxleys lived when in Sanary (house now replaced). We had found the area but didn't know the exact property. Three years ago a plaque was put up so now people can find it quite easily. We were looking about 10 years ago. We went for lunch at the restaurant on the beach (a 'pieds dans l'eau' 'feet in the water restaurant'...I love that term!)
and overlooked where they went swimming often in the nude...little too busy for that now.

Been swimming most days since May 1...pool 72 to 74 but so warm outside it's just perfect now. Saw my first sunflowers at the market so did a couple of paintings.

Pictures

I see Richard has got some more pictures up...these are mainly of Bandol and especially for Monique! BTW, Monique's mother and Roger are coming for lunch tomorow and we're really looking forward to their visit.

#1 Bandol...I think this is Monique's favourite place for coquillages (shellfish, oysters, etc)

#2 Bandol

#3 Bandol

#4 Interior of the 400 yr old house of our landlords...beam is original but not supporting anything now.

#5 Painting of our back garden with Robin leaving in disgust at us not providing him with the treats he wants.

#6 Fern's magnificent watercolours of west coast scenes...I get pleasure looking at them everyday and they have pride of place on top of our fireplace.

#7 This painting is sideways but supposed to be the view from the Hotel Suisse of the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

#8 Jim and one of these little motorized bikes he has dreams of tootling around on.

#9 and 10 Bandol

Swimming in the pool...perhaps the ocean soon...

It was a gorgeous weekend for people (many had 4 days) and lots of people around....too many at our local market...glad I don't have to travel in the summer these days. We lounged around the pool and swam mostly but went to Aix en Provence Sunday and there was a great antique market on the main boulevard. Lots to look at and we found a Ricard corkscrew/bottle opener/knife so we were quite happy to get that. Went to our local flea market Sat and found 6 Pastis 51 glasses with the ribbed bottom...our favourite type so we were thrilled with that find.

I did two paintings with poppies and quite pleased with them...didn't think they were going to work but they did. Working on one now of the village square, fountain, bakery and the city hall....lots of fun solving all the problems.

Hard to believe we'll be home 3 weeks today. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed and have regular internet access and a phone that doesn't sound like a walkie talkie.
Of course, we are completely spoiled here with food but I will look forward to our local crab, halibut and chips, and wild sockeye salmon....and a juicy steak...

holidays, holidays, holidays

After a two week break in April, May seems chock full of holidays as well...May 1 Labour Day, May 5 Ascension Day, May 8 Liberation Day, May 16 Pentecoste....!

Looking out an upstairs window today and saw Robin in full hunt mode on the arbour. I couldn't see any birds but figured I better warn them and our two turtle doves that we've become quite attached to flew out...wow...that was a close call for them. I doubt he would have got both but they don't stop billing and coing so one would be quite desolate without the other. Robin was not amused to say the least...walked away at his hautiness.

We had a super dinner at the Heinrich on the weekend...wow...the French certainly seem to be nightowls....we didn't get home until 3am...way past our usual bedtime.

Don and Elaine packed in lots of stuff while they were in Nice. Since returning they have been trying to replicate the experience of that wonderful crusty bagette you only seem able to get in France...I wish them luck but we haven't managed to find something quite the same outside of France.

We went into Toulon the other day to blow Jim's 60 euro gift certificate and got a load of great CD's. Had a super lunch on the harbour....great gambas and then did a tour of the harbour ...quite neat with all the military ships including the air carrier Charles de Gaulle that was soon heading off for Canada and the US.
It was a pretty hot day do Jim had a swim in the pool...a bit chilly for me yet but now we have the solar blanket on so it should warm up pretty quickly...it was at 70....I'll go in when it hits 75.

Four more markets

Just four more Carquieranne market days before we leave! It's such a pleasure to shop this way. The market gets larger as the season goes on....great to see all the old regulars and some new ones. This last time there was a fellow with kittens and puppies...big sign ANIMALS NOT FOR SALE but he was selling some key chains and stuff and getting a big crowd petting the animals. I took the picture I had taken of the fellow who sold us the rabbit and he and his wife were thrilled to get it and the message Don had written.

Looking at another picture we took our last night in Paris at a restaurant in Ile St. Louis. It's a good one of the four of us and also an Australian couple who got talking to us and jumped into the picture just like that's of course what anyone would do! It was their 29th anniversary. We're looking forward to celebrating our 3th anniversary here with dinner at this great local restaurant called Les Pins Penches (bent pines).

Jim's talk on Huxley's Love Letters went really well and we were very pleasantly surprised to be give a 60 Euro gift certificate for a book/Cd store...will be fun to pick stuff out.

Red poppies are blooming everywhere...have to include them in some painting.

Books I've been reading:

Deception Point by Dan Brown...as usual a great plot...he really does capture your interest. Kind of neat to see the Louvre after reading his Da Vinci Code.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Takes place on the French Riviera and they spent quite a bit of time here. Seemed familiar and must have read it in university a million years ago. Didn't finish it...seemed dated and overwritten although some amazingly good poetic passages in amongst the dross...no Great Gatsby.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley...you may be amazed I hadnt read it before! Great stuff and very funny and so timely...hard to believe it was written in 1932. Jim is loving teaching it here.

Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard. One of my Christmas books...very amusing...interesting writer...I'll have to find more of her word. Married to Kingsley Amis apparently.

Bee loud glade

We returned from Paris and Brussels to the wisteria in our arbour in absolute full bloom, smelling heavenly, and also humming with hundreds of bees! Blossoms a bit of a mess for the pool but it is lovely. Our landlord did a major gardening job when we were away and now the pool is getting quite a bit of direct sun. it's gone up from 59 to 66 degrees so perhaps we'll get some swimming yet.

It was interesting being a tourist in Paris again....crowds unreal even in April...can't imagine what it's like in the summer now. Since we've seen everything we usually just wander and discover new areas to explore and of course go through and around Notre Dame numerous times and possibly head into Sainte Chappelle if the light is right. It was fun to go to the Louvre again and the Mona Lisa is a much better experience in its new room. I think they need to do something with the Venus de Milo like they've done for David in Florence...make a big space for it and keep people a distance...impossible to enjoy it now...glad I saw it without the hordes.

We had wonderfully sunny weather our last two days in Brussels and happened on some very old and famous brasseries which was really fun. What a pleasure to go into the Beaux Arts Musee and find NO CROWDS, NO LINEUPS... we knew the Breughels were there....fantastic... but got a real bonus with the Magritte and many amazing Reubens....

Identifying Pictures

It's difficult to label these pictures now that they're posted so I'll try to go in order starting with the one directly below...I also can't see them now so they may get out of order...

* Carasol in Sanary 'le petit prince airplane'...we all commented on how charming these carasols are and how plentiful

* Jim, Alan, and Susan...Carqueiranne beach

* Fish market, Sanary

* enjoying a meal in our back garden

* Hotel Splendid- balcony of our favourite room overlooking....

* our favourite beach

* 17th century country home/vinyard of our landlords

* Painting Francoise did of the home

* Sea urchin festival

* landlord's vinyard

* sea urchin fishermen preparing their wares

* campanile in Cuers

* my favourite dog in Carqueiranne market

* painting of Carqueiranne market

* painting of a wall mural

* Robin the cat neighbourhood cat leaving disdainfully

Brussels

I see Richard got some pictures up. I'll explain what they are when I get back to Carqueiranne. this will be a brief update with more details to come. We all had a super time in Paris and the Don and Elaine loved the city and all the things we did. Well....who can't fall in love with Paris? Jim found more reseach related stuff than he was counting on...same thing in Brussels so he's very pleased. I didn't quite know what to expect of Brussels but it's really quite neat. We're located in the 'lower town' where all the action is and close to the 'Grand Place' which is a fabulous square with wonderful architecture (guildhalls; city hall etc
I didn realize Belgium makes over 500 beers....we are enjoying various brews and neat old bars and cafes. The first night we ended up in a seafood restaurant area and had a wonderful lobster dinner...later found out the lobster was from Canada....can't find the exclamation mark...;yet another keyboard.

Mission Accomplished!

We took the train into Marseille Wednesday and found the Maison du Pastis. It was quite something and the fellow spoke English which was great for Don and Elaine and he was very knowledgable about pastis and all the specialty ones. It's really almost like single malts when you get to the specialty ones. We bought some neat glasses and of course some very special pastis which we've been enjoying tremendously especially since we'll never be able to get them in Canada.

We had a bouillbaise at a very highly recommended place but were rather disappointed. You can't go to Marseille without having a bouillbaise but we all agreed it is a rather bland dish with all white fish (albeit many different types) and can't compare with local Victoria creations for taste even though they aren(t so called authentic. Took the petit train around the old town and that was neat as we hadn't done that before. Lots of excitement in Marseille as there was a huge demonstration by fishermen protesting increase in the price of diesel fuel...they blocked the port and the street were choked with people and police. We were quite thrilled to have the old regional train that we took over 30 years ago when we started going to Bandol. Great nostalgia but the pleasure was somewhat diminished when the one on the way back broke down and we had to change trains and just luckily heard that it wasn't going to stop at Hyeres so had to get off at a little station and get another one. No English of course so any tourists would have ended up in Nice!

We did get to Cassis yesterday and the weather cooperated. It really is such a super place and the entry through all the vinyards is so neat. Don and Elaine loved the narrow buildings with all the different colours and we had a rather choppy (good thing they've dived and are used to motion on the water) ride on our trip to the calenques (high cliffs and inlets that are famous in the area). We started off the day going to the market in Carquieranne which was also quite a thrill for them and Don found s vendor with a roast rabbit so we bought that. He spoke some Enlgish and he was quite a card joking about it being 'cat with blue eyes'...those of you who know Don know how much he would have enjoyed that! It was fabulous and all the innerds including the head were there so Don was in heaven.

Gambas Provencale

We're having a super time with the Curlings...more converts to France and this very special village and way of life. They finally saw Bandol, ate some magnificent Gambas with the rose de Bandol...things they've been hearing about for years...no disappointments! After 10 straight days of warm sun the weather turned rather poor just as our guests arrived but things are brightening up and we hope we'll get a fabulous day to go to Cassis on Thursday. Today we're heading to Le Lavandou for lunch and taking the train to Marseilles tomorrow to visit this famous Maison du Pastis and have a bouillbaise in the Vieux Port. Then off to Paris and Brussels for a week this Saturday...we're all really looking forward to that.

Wine, fish, and classical music

Jean-George and Christienne invited us as their guests to a super concert in Toulon with a Russian pianist playing Tchaikovsky's Concerto number 1 and also Symphony 6 on the program. An excellent evening and topped off with a Champagne reception afterwards. Sunday, Patrick has invited us to another classical music concert in Cassis at the Camargo Foundation. This foundation supplies accommodation for visiting scholars and Jim has been looking forward to seeing their premises. It will also be interesting to meet some of the scholars currently there.

We had a super lunch in the heart of the old town of Hyeres hessterday...'marmite au pecheur'...fish soup with sal,on, rascasse, rouget, mussels, and shrimp. We haven't been into the old town of Hyeres that much this time...it really is very charming and interesting...lots of little food shops and shops of every kind.

Really looking forward to the arrival of Don and Elaine next Friday...won't be long now!