A Trial with Mars Edit

We have recently encountered several problems with Google's Blogger, especially with photos that disappear, so the time has come to try out an alternative.

Lets see how this works:

New Year's Day 2012

With all our best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

    After a splendid meal with good company on New Year's Eve,  a brisk (well maybe not so brisk) walk on a beautiful winter day was precisely what the doctor ordered.   The winter scenery was at its best in the late afternoon light (rising early on New Year's Day was not part of our Resolutions).

We walked passed the old vines that had be shorn of their summer growth.....

.....and ploughed fields waiting for the winter frosts.

The sun played on the plane trees against the background of the Luberon mountains. 

Lourmarin was looking its very best (4.50 pm).....

...and as the trees were largely bereft of foliage, we were given the opportunity to see less customary views, like this of the back of the Chateau de Lourmarin.

At 5 p.m. the bells of either one of the churches or the town belfry chimed the hour; four minutes later the bells of either the town belfry or one of the churches chimed the hour.  Precise time is not a requirement for life in the Luberon - thankfully!

So the afternoon finished as we continued back to home taking the main road.

A good walk was enjoyed by all as we made it back home as the sun was setting.

A Saturday before Christmas (JUST!!)

This Saturday was an interesting day. We had nothing planned and were expecting to spend a lazy day at home. But we ended up having a full afternoon and early evening. We went to an outdoor party with a living crib and provencal music at the Pigeonnier behind our house. It was chilly with the wind blowing but a very sociable village event, made warmer by the mulled wine and the roasted chestnuts....

After that we went to a concert that filled the eleventh century church in Vaugines with a soprano, baritone and pianist, which was very good with a varied repertoire from Handel to Copland. The church at Vaugines is beautiful in its simplicity and is well worth visiting in its own right.

The (JUST!!!) is because of one of the most difficult things in the Luberon - to find out what is going on. This requires sensitive antennae and a great deal of luck. There is no effective website or local newspaper to provides information on activities in the several villages in our area.

We found out about the village party, because we heard the music from behind our house. We found out about the concert in Vaugines from a very small poster on a tree! Maybe making an informational website is a future project!!

The Christmas Fair Season .... Alsace in Provence

The end of November marks the beginning of the season for the Marché de Noel. It seems that every city, town, village, hamlet, school and vineyard has its own. They range from the very small and amateur, as in our local one.......

..... to the large, elaborate and more expensive, as in Aix-en-Provence with its wooden chalets....

One of the more extraordinary ones is that held every year in Sénas. What makes it different is that it combines stands from local organizations with a significant number of stands from Alsace, some six hundred kilometers away. There was even a pizza van that had made the journey. There are all the trappings of Alsace - sauerkraut, sausage, beer, gewürztraminer and traditional costumes.

At the Christmas Fairs there are all sorts of potential holiday gifts. Above all there are usually one or more sellers of Provencal Santons. These are little figures that are made in clay, baked and then painted in bright colours. They became widespread after the French revolution and the usual Christmas cribs held in the churches were suppressed. The Provençaux made their own cribs to have in their homes. Little by little these expanded beyond being the traditional Xmas characters and started including figures of all the inhabitants of the village, often apparently, recognizable!

Shapes of Autumn/Fall

Autumn not only brings incredible colours to the Luberon, but there is an interesting variety of striking shapes.

When I first saw strange fields full of sticks growing in rows, I could not think what exotic plant they were.......

......only to discover they were fields of decapitated sunflowers!

Autumn is the season for violently trimming the characteristic plane trees found throughout Provence. They provide cooling shade in summer, only to be completely cut back in Autumn...and grow back in full force in Spring.

Equally striking are the weird shadows cast by the emasculated trees in the strong afternoon sun....

When walking, the ground is often covered with large numbers of acorns - which were an important part of the diet of early inhabitants of the area.

The typical three-legged ladder also makes its appearance in autumn, as it is used to pick the higher branches of the olive trees and, as here, the pomegranate tree.

The setting sun brings into sharp relief the ironwork used on top of civic and ecclesiastical buildings. (This is used to provide the height of a bigger tower but with less likelihood of it being blown down by the infamous Provencal mistral). The smoke from buring leaves only adds to this autumnal scene.

Perhaps you can understand why we find autumn to be a wonderful time to be in Provence!!

Colo(u)rs of Autumn / Fall

Autumn in the Luberon is a magical time.

The Oak leaves turn to gold......

.......the olives ripen....

....... and the grape vines change the landscape.

One can now readily see the vines that have not been tended - an inheritance dispute??

Meanwhile some begin to prune their vines, although most wait until later.

The cherry trees take on a sad grace....

.....and around the villages the various creepers turn into a dazzling display of reds...

....with beauty emerging even in decay.