rivers and chestnuts

The  Ardèche, wild backyard of Provence.  Ardèche is the name of both the departement, itself, and the 125km long river that runs through it.

People have been living in this area since the late Stone Age, around 35, 000 years ago. The region is dotted with caves where flints and tools and cave-drawings have been found which date back to this era. Cave-drawings such as those found in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave which was discovered in 1994. These are some of the earliest cave-drawings ever found and, not only that, their artistic mastery is impressive and they reveal hunting habits and fauna which were not known about until the discovery of the cave. Rather than depicting the herbivores usually seen in cave art, the examples in Chauvet show predatory animals such as cave lions, hyenas, panthers and bears, as well as rhinoceros, which is particularly rare in this area. The cave has been shut off to the public since its discovery, although Werner Herzog gained exclusive entry to shoot his 3D documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and so helping us understand the magnitude of this hidden treasure.

The Ardèche may be one of the country's most poor regions, with a great many more people moving out of the region than into it, but it is a region rich in mountains, rivers, gorges, perched villages, chestnuts, fruit trees, nougat, charcuterie and mushrooms.

Beautiful. You can breathe in the Ardèche.

market salad and a cathedral in the quarry

St Remy de Provence for lunch in the square. Under the shade of a spreading Plane tree, market salad.

Van Gogh and Gaugin at the Cathedrale des Images at Les Baux. From the dark, slightly moist air, the soft stirrings of music are heard. Then suddenly the limestone walls of the ancient underground quarry are illuminated, bathed first in the light of images of metamorphoses...volcanoes, rain, sea, plants sprouting and growing; images which would have inspired these two artists and which are so often represented in the ir works. Then their works, projected onto the quarry walls, accompanied by great feats of musical wonder. Colour, sound, transforming, hypnotising.

a year in Provence

Menerbes, Peter Mayle country.

Ménerbes became famous in the English-speaking world when in 1990, British author, Peter Mayle, regaled his readers with the highs and lows of a British expat who settled in the village of Menerbes.  One of his books was made into a film, A Good Year,  (2006) directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe when he wasn't "fighting 'round the world"...  The area was, of course, already famous for a far more previous inhabitant, the Marquis de Sade who lived in Lacoste, which you can see from Menerbes.

Swimming in Monaco

Open air salt water pool in the port. Older women with dark brown, wrinkled leather tans. Topless. Deck chairs around the pool. Monaco high-rises, limestone cliffs, preparation for the Monaco Super Yacht show, luxury super yachts, marquees, sponsors, trucks delivering chairs, pot plants, wine.

Hot.

Some lengths. The salt slightly stinging the inside of my nose. Some sun. More lengths. Sandwich jambon fromage. Sparkling water.

Train back around the coast.

the cultivation of impertinence

Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, the daughter of the banker and major art collector, Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. Charming and very flamboyant, Beatrice married Maurice Ephrussi, a man fifteen years her senior who had a penchant for gambling and also for women and his gift to his young wife was an illness which prevented her form having children and an enormous amount of debt. The Rothschild family stepped in and took errant husband, Maurice to court to demand a separation and finally, after 21 years of marriage, Beatrice and Maurice separated.

The following year, Beatrice's father died and left her incredibly wealthy. She bought the house which is today the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Beaulieu, just along the coast from Nice, and set about collecting...animals, tea sets, art, plants. When she died, Beatrice left her house and collections (although not the animals) to the Academie des Beaux Arts.

Nice...it's nice...

Landing at 2.30 in the afternoon, a big smile on my face, ready for the frenchiness to unfold. Limestone backdrops, sweeping coastline, heat haze, a city which from above seems to pile up on itself, vapour trails against a blue sky, the antique market in Cours Saleya, Vieux Nice, rosé de Bandol on the terrasse.

Nice.

I think I may well have been French in a past life. Something opens inside me when I'm in France, walking down the narrow streets, seeing the labels in French on cuts of meat in the butcher's hearing French, speaking French. The little seed opens and blossoms.