What is a Modern Trobador if not one who detects the scent of a story and, with nose to the ground, follows it through to the end?  Like a dog with a bone, you might say.  That was our Pal, our 15-year-old ever-faithful beagle who was with us on our sojourn to Lourmarin fourteen years ago and who has sat at my feet as I have written almost every story since the inception of this blog in 2008.  She passed away today, I report with immense sadness. Pal was an exceptional dog who touched the lives of many people.  Pal, I think, was very proud…

By:
On:
In: Dogs, People, Places

Cannes is the quintessential French Riviera resort, renowned for its glamour and bling year-round.  Come May and the internationally acclaimed Cannes Film Festival, the Promenade de la Croisette that wraps around the waterfront, passing the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès where the festival is held, will swell with even more rich and famous folks who have flocked to Cannes to rub shoulders with celebrities and, oh yes, see a few film premieres. It’s hard to imagine Cannes as an unassuming fishing village, but it was… until after World War II and the inception of the Film Festival.  It would have happened without the movies,…

By:
On:
In: Culture, History, Places, Travel, Uncategorized, Wine

Twenty years ago, my husband, daughter, and I rolled into Marseille on the high-speed train from Paris.  If I recall correctly, the Aix-en-Provence TGV station had not yet been built. We rented a car and drove to Aix-en-Provence, where we would spend several nights before moving to Lourmarin, the small village at the base of the Luberon Mountains.  Peter Mayle country. Peter Mayle, the British-born advertising executive and author of children’s books turned internationally-renowned author of books set in Provence, entitled the book that propelled him to fame, “A Year in Provence,” but as others have pointed out, a more apt title would have been…

By:
On:
In: Food, Markets, Places

If you have been to Lourmarin, you know Café Gaby. Located in the center of the village on Place de l’Ormeau, where main street Rue Henri de Savornin meets Rue du Temple, Café Gaby is the hub of this charming Luberon village. Men meet at the bar when the sun first rises, parents gather for coffee after dropping their children at school, vacationers come for lunch, young folks come for wifi to text, locals take their pastis as the day comes to a close, and regulars rendezvous for dinner. Deals are consummated here, real estate is sold, heated debates occasionally turn to fisticuffs, paintings capture…

By:
On:
In: Food, History, People, Places

We—or rather those of us of a certain age—grew up asking ourselves “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf” and later, as adults, were compelled to ask the same question about Virginia Woolf. I’ve never had the occasion to pose the question about Peter Mayle, internationally known English author of a long list of wildly popular books about Provence, most notably A Year In Provence, and recipient of many honors, including the prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor)….Who would? Frank Churchill wrote the lyrics to “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” a song that was made popular by…

By:
On:
In: Events, News, People

After 40 years at the helm of one of Provence’s most renowned restaurants, La Fenière, Chef Reine Sammut and sommelier husband Guy are handing over the reins of the cuisine to Nadia Sammut in October. Nadia, who is the third generation of Sammuts at La Fenière, credits her grandmother and her parents for her culinary knowledge and passion for food but brings her own personal experience and education to the table, too: growing up with celiac disease and learning to cook creatively sans gluten (and dairy, too!). The transition began a year ago, Nadia told me in a recent interview.   By July, when I dined…

By:
On:
In: Food, News, People, Restaurants

In all the summers we’ve spent in Provence, I have never seen any mention of summer truffles. Maybe I was drinking too much rosé to notice something I thought only surfaced in the winter—silly me—but, this summer, Tubera aestiva were on my radar…and on my plate! I began the summer with a truffle hunt, later went to a truffle fête, and then tried (in vain) to squeeze in a visit to Carpentras—long famous for their winter truffle market—to see their first endeavor at a summer truffle market. Living in the Luberon in late fall and winter, one can’t help but cross paths with a winter…

By:
On:
In: Food, People

Forty years ago, Georges Mazoyer (1925 – 1996) opened his Musée Extraordinaire in the tiny Luberon village of Ansouis. Deep-sea diver, artist, and world-wide traveler, this extraordinarily unusual man spent ten years refurbishing the small space–a former stable–adjacent to his studio and filling it with the souvenirs of his adventures. Encouraged by friends to share his passion for underwater life, the museum was a labor of love that today is carried on by his daughter, Nicole, and her husband, Claude. Last night, Nicole and Claude hosted a bash for the whole village to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the museum. I attended the event, along…

By:
On:
In: Art, History, Museums, People, Places

French Lessons. There they are again on my list of goals for 2015. I shudder to think how many years “French Lessons” have hovered near the top of my annual list of aspirations deemed important in moving toward personal-fulfillment or, from a practical standpoint in the case of French, to making travel in Provence a lot easier. Right up there with writing, reading novels, travel, wine, squash, and running, all areas of my life in which I hope to make progress. (I finally dropped piano playing.) At sixty, I no longer harbor illusions of speaking fluent French. My ambitions are greatly reduced. At this point…

By:
On:
In: Culture

In most tourist books about Provence, rarely is more than a small paragraph devoted to the charming village of Ansouis. In some popular books—notably Rick Steves’ Provence and The French Riviera—the village is not even mentioned although, remarkably, the old standard Michelin Guide: Provence includes a full page about Ansouis.It’s no wonder this beautiful village is also referred to as “sleepy and “quiet.” (Read: surprisingly few tourists.) Selfishly, I would like to keep it that way, but having spent a week there this past summer, I could see that it was not the somnolent Ansouis I first met in the mid-1990s.   La Closerie  Photos…

By:
On:
In: Culture, Places