Van Gogh's Year in Provence 1889 - 1890

Vincent Van Gogh spent a year in an asylum in St Remy, Provence which is 10 ks from my place.
Living in this area is awe inspiring just as it is ..but to understand and to see what some of the world's greatest artists saw is a double whammy. Poor Vincent, he was stuck in a room and within the walls of the asylum and he just painted what he saw .. amazing. I visited early in the morning this week as the irises in Provence are in bloom to see if I could work out the angle of where he sat etc ..think I did. Crazy!!

above - Irises by VVG

above - 3 pics from the garden at the asylum of St. Paul de Mausole; St Remy de Provence.

a good find at the 'vide grenier' (garage sale) in the village today

A really beautiful old jam jar with tapered sides, a base ..gorgeous for jam, for flowers or as a votive.
Such an exciting find. 

A beautiful day in the old village of Eygalieres

moules frites - Saturday lunch in Arles

It doesn't get any better than this.

Moules Frites and glass of chilled rose' followed by a wander around the centre of what once was Roman Gaul.

The bistro is situated in the area that was the ancient Roman Forum. Okay - so Caesar hung out there with a jug of pink too!

Baby it's warm inside

My favourite cafe has it all worked out. Positioned perfectly to capture the gentle Spring rays of sunshine whist relaxing with a 'noisette' (small coffee) on a typical French bistro chair. When it is just not quite enough to stay out then inside to the comfy leather club chairs where the fire is quietly keeping the room warm and the sun beats on the glass doors. On Friday's when it's market day this prime spot is often the best place to watch the colour and movement of it all and perhaps take home a small olive tree or some freshly shucked oysters!

Blossom time

Wow - totally pretty. Pics below from my walk into my village today via the 'old village'.
12th Century. Can't think of a better afternoon.

Our Olive Grove!

Today is the day! Finally, after a year of negotiating, documentations, designs and approvals we have started work on our land. Existing on our little piece of paradise was a disorderly but 'ancien' bunch of olive trees (oliviers) and 2 'parasol pins' (pines).


As the trees have struggled to stay alive over years, with no bore water or clipping, they must be as excited as we are to sort them into proper lines, 6 metres apart from each other , and to install the watering system (arrosage).


This will be a third lease on life for these trees - they had a good start in the earlier part of the last century only to 'die' (literally chopped off at the roots - ground level) after a severe winter, apparently the coldest yet ( - 27C) in 1956.


Determined, the trees grew new shoots around the old sawn off stump - hence they look a bit strange with 3 or 4 smaller trunks in stead of one. There are many olive groves in our area that were affected that year and discussion about our trees never fails to include much gesturing, puffing and eye-rolling about 1956.