CALISSONS, CROQUETTES, BEAUMES DE VENISE, AND TEA FROM PALAIS DES THÉS: THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS IN PROVENCE AT CHRISTMAS

Posted on December 8, 2013December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

“Calissons” is the first of a three-part series that focuses on what you may find in Provence after the “big supper” (otherwise known as the “Gros Souper”) on Christmas Eve, Called “the thirteen desserts of Christmas” or “Les Treize Desserts de Noël,” tradition dictates that the desserts consist of dried fruit and nuts, fresh fruit, and sweets totaling 13 desserts to represent Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles at the Last Supper. The desserts are set out after Midnight Mass, all at once, on...

DON’T FORGET PROVENCE IN THE WINTER

Posted on November 8, 2010December 23, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Chapelle St-Sixte As one drives toward Les Alpilles, along the D24 between the tiny villages of Orgon and Eygalières, about 30 minutes from Lourmarin, there’s a very tiny chapel. Framed by lovely cypress trees van Gogh surely would have painted had he ventured a little further from the hospital in St Remy, the 12th century chapel stands atop a stony knoll now dotted with olive and almond trees and an occasional patch of grass. Chapelle St-Sixte was erected on the s...