The long lazy days of summer in this part of the world officially come to an end this weekend. Already the days are abbreviated. After all the summers I’ve visited Provence, I have never lost my amazement at how long the days linger in the months of June, July, and August and how soon night begins to fall when September arrives! By now, the last of the summer transplants has battened down the hatches of their country homes and returned north to places like Paris and Brussels. In their place are vacationers—probably more like you and me—striving to be satisfied with just a week or…

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I recently visited Château de Brigue, one of largest estates owned by a single family in Provence. Located in Le Luc en Provence, with vineyards and olive groves scattered among four villages along the famous Nationale 7 road in the Var, it is a now operated by four brothers who comprise the third generation of Brun family members to sit at the helm of this estate. Two generations of winemakers – Father and son, Fernand and Olivier Brun. Photo by Pamela O’Neill Photographer Pamela O’Neill and I had the pleasure of meeting with one of the brothers, Olivier Brun, and with his father Fernand Brun…

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There is no shortage of places to go, people to see, or things to do in Provence, especially in August when festivals of every sort abound. But many of these events, understandably, are not geared to include children.Let’s agree that children typically sit too much nine months out of the year, generally don’t like to sit, and are better off reaping the benefits of moving about in the fresh air and sunshine, particularly on vacation. (Ahem, perhaps this rings even more true for adults.) Our daughter traveled everywhere with us—from the time she was four months and came along to Buenos Aires to now, when…

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Aside from watching my daughter play soccer in Lauris, I never had a reason to get out of my car in this rather drab looking town, just a few kilometers south of Lourmarin. I hasten to add that the people at the soccer field were friendly without exception and took an especially warm interest in my daughter, the sole female player on the field, but for ten years, I drove straight through their little town without so much as a stop at the Petit Casino for a liter of milk.That is, until I heard about a small restaurant in Lauris with a huge following: Lou…

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“It’s breathing history and serenity…and then there’s the food.” Tancrède Barale, Managing Director of Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle and La Bastide de Moustiers Long-time readers of The Modern Trobadors know that my stomping grounds center on the Luberon in Provence’s département of the Vaucluse, with frequent ventures into the Bouche-de-Rhone département. Seldom do I find myself in any of the other four départements of Provence. It’s not that I don’t like those areas—in fact, I love Saint-Tropez in the Var; Moustiers-Sainte-Marie in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence; and Nice in the Alpes Maritimes département—it’s just that I’m seldom drawn so strongly that I want to rest…

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Deep in the heart of the pine, oak, and garrigue covered forests that lie between Mont Ventoux and Les Dentelles de Montmirail, grows a little over 1000 square meters of Crocus sativus. There, around 200,000 flowers are harvested every fall, from which 1000 grams of the most expensive spice in the world is produced. A tube of 0.3 grams of saffron (9 euros).  Photo:  Pamela J. O’Neill   It was the allure of saffron that drove Pamela O’Neill and me to ascend the narrow roads that traverse this area of the Vaucluse—west of Orange, between Vaison-la-Romaine to the north and Carpentras to the south—on one…

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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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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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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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I am immensely grateful to Pamela J. O’Neill for her reporting and photographs of this event. Aups, the small Provence village renowned for its weekly truffle market (every Thursday morning from mid-November through February), was the place to be last Sunday—it was the site of the 21st annual “Journée de la Truffe Noire d’Aups.” Held the fourth Sunday of January each year, this truffle festival draws hundreds of people who come to eat, drink, and “root” for their favorite dog in the truffle hunting contest. This year, attendees also had the pleasure of meeting one of the Var’s last remaining truffle-hunting pigs. Fresh truffles are,…

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