AUGUST IN PROVENCE: TOO HOT AND CROWDED?

Posted on August 18, 2013January 8, 2016 by Susan Manfull

August in Provence. It is hot and crowded. The line of cars inching their way along, hoping to snatch an open parking spot for the most popular markets is foreboding and the sea of people that fills the streets of those otherwise picturesque villages steals any of your remaining enthusiasm for the outing. Reservations for lunch or dinner are impossible, a disappointment mitigated only slightly by the knowledge that the wait staff would be too cranky to bear anyway. And the lines of buses parke...

MEET ME AT LES DEUX GARÇONS: A SEQUEL TO “MIDNIGHT IN PARIS”?

Posted on November 28, 2011December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Should Woody Allen and Owen Wilson decide to follow Picasso to the South of France, surely Les Deux Garçons would feature prominently. Like Les Deux Magots, the famous café hang-out of Gertrude Stein’s Lost Generation in 1920s, Les Deux Garçons has long been a magnet for artists and writers in Aix-en-Provence. Les Deux Garçons’ roots reach back to 1792, but 53 cours Mirabeau had a long history before it became a café. The 17th century mansion is first mentioned in ...

MONTE DOLACK: RETRACING FAMOUS ARTISTS’ FOOTSTEPS IN PROVENCE

Posted on January 16, 2011November 24, 2015 by Susan Manfull

If world-famous artists like Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh fell in love with Provence, Montana wildlife painter Monte Dolack says it's got something to do with the luminous landscape and the culture he too found so captivating during recent trips there. “There's a sense of wildness, but almost no natural forest. It's shaped because of people planting things, so it has a different look that's kind of intriguing,” said Dolack (who has stayed twice in our rental apartment in Lourmarin). “The...