The Luberon’s lavender season usually begins around the end of June and extends into August when harvesting begins. I’ll be in Provence this year to see those gorgeous swaths of solid purple gracing the hillsides of my favorite region of France. I am excited! Lavender field outside of Sault.  Photo by W.T. Manfull Many images come to mind when one mentions “Provence.” Rosé, bouillabaisse, truffles, sunflowers, colorful fabrics, hilltop villages, and the Côte d’Azur, for example. But none is more firmly entwined with Provence than lavender. The most famous lavender field in Provence lies in front of l’Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, otherwise known as the…

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Today’s post is coordinated with my friend David’s current Cocoa & Lavender post. David and I each chose a recipe from Provence Food and Wine: The Art of Living, a new cookbook by François Millo and Viktorija Todorovska. I went with the main meal and David went with dessert, a Tarte au Citron. “Bouillabaisse is a party,” said Viktorija Todorovska*. “It creates a party.” Yes it does! This luscious “fish stew” may have come from humble origins–it was a “plat des pauvres,” said François Millo**. But, today, the very word is much more likely to conjure up festivity, celebration, and fun. It certainly did for…

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This is the second in a series of posts about buying, renting, and selling our property in Provence.   Please note that, our homes, christened La Bonbonnière and L’Oustaloun, were purchased by a lovely family who continues to rent them both—for more information about these vacation homes as well as others, visit www.RentOurHomeInProvence.com It was beginning to feel like Monopoly—do we buy Park Place so we can build on Boardwalk? I hoped one of us had a “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD” card. We spent a lot of time in our courtyard.  Photo by W.T. Manfull In this case, do we buy a bergerie…

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This is the first in a series of posts about buying, renting, and selling our property in Provence.  It is an abbreviated version—really, Mom, it is—and a few of the names were changed. (If you want to hear the long version, you’ll have to invest in a gastronomic dinner and some very nice wine.)   Please note that, our homes, christened La Bonbonnière and L’Oustaloun, were purchased by a lovely family who continues to rent them both—for more information about these vacation homes as well as others, visit www.RentOurHomeInProvence.com I had a home in Provence at the foot of the Luberon Mountains.  The mountain range…

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Enjoying an aperitif before dinner is a distinctly European tradition, especially popular in Provence and Italy (where it is called an aperitivo). Americans have been reluctant to embrace this practice, but this is changing in our country: bartenders are serving up the classic aperitifs to enthusiastic customers and stateside winemakers and distillers are producing the stuff that define these drinks, namely fortified wines and spirits imbued with herbs and botanicals. So, what is an aperitif? Literally, the word comes from the Latin aperire which means “to open.” It is served prior to a meal (usually dinner) and its role is to “open the appetite.” It…

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Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, “Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?” And you’ll see how everything changes. And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince   If you are a regular reader of The Modern Trobadors, I suspect that you know “the little prince.” It’s likely that you know him well. People who travel, like the little prince, open their eyes, their ears, and their hearts to the adventures the world has to offer and to the lessons introspection provides. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Alghero, Sardinia, May 1944 Collection…

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What does a town do with a vast web of stone quarries with a “Closed” sign on every door? The folks in Les Baux-de-Provence turned theirs into the largest permanent multimedia show in France. Carrières de Lumières (formerly called Cathédral d’Images) is a smashing success. Close to 400,000 visitors attended last year’s show. For over 2000 years, the quarries in Les Baux-de-Provence were a primary source of limestone for this area. The Romans exploited the quarries for material to rebuild the nearby Celto-Liguirian town of Glanum back in 200 BC and later the Municipal Arch and the Mausoleum that still stand across from Glanum. The…

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My dear friend and fellow blogger, David of Cocoa & Lavender, is a self-proclaimed salt-addict. When discussing his current post—in which he makes public his intimate relationship with salt—I recommended a trip to Aigues-Mortes. There is salt for him—literally everywhere but especially at Salin d’Aigues-Mortes—and history and architecture—a fortified city considered “the purest example of 13th-century military architecture”—for his partner, affectionately known as “Markipedia.” And, when they’ve had their fill of historic Aigues-Mortes and its neighboring salins (salt marshes), there is the whole Camargue at their disposal—a Parc Naturel Regional of over 140,000 hectares (500 sq mi) filled with pink flamingos, white horses, and black…

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When you’ve tired of charming hilltop villages in the Luberon and swanky restaurants along the French Riviera, don your jeans and cowboy boots and head to the Camargue. (Forgot your boots? Pas de problème. You can pick up a pair in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.) Although I quickly grow bored with swank, I have to confess I am rarely tired of charm, especially in the Luberon—I just wanted to grab your attention to promote the Camargue, an area so radically different from the rest of Provence that you’d think you’d crossed the border into another country. If there are children in your group, they will love you for…

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Provence—today, the very word conjures up images of sipping rosé: on the beaches of the Côte d’Azur, by the pool of a handsome mas nestled into the garrigue-covered hills in the Luberon, in outdoor cafés along Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence, with bouillabaisse in Marseille’s vieux port, and, for some folks, in yachts docked at St. Tropez. Mon dieu, rosé was born in Provence and, well, bred there, too. The Greeks introduced rosé when they arrived in Marseille, some 2500 years ago. They planted grape vines throughout the South of France and produced red wine so pale—the grape skins and juice were not together long enough…

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