Travel another way

What can be more emotional for painters than being where Van Gogh painted his most famous paintings? We went to St Remy de Provence and visited the St Paul Mausole where Vincent was hospitalized the last year of his life. The garden full of red poppies made for a beautiful picture: contrast of blue sky, grey building and red flowers.

Linda couldn’t stop taking pictures and had to be VERY close to the flowers.

The cloister with old and new arches was full of flowers in bloom. Sandy, Barbara and Linda A spent a few hours painting it while Bonnie got her inspiration for writing.

The place is full of paintings of Van Gogh (well, posters of his paintings). The most expensive one that is worth 45 millions of dollars is in a private collection: the irises

Linda C is our techy. She spent most of her time either on her ipad, her iphone, texting, checking her emails, using mobile me, etc… Even her grand kids call her: techy grand ma.

The weather cooled off a bit which was perfect. Instead of 39 degrees Celsius, it was 25.

Another French escapade day ends. Check our all our painting tours at www.frenchescapade.com

Due to its privileged position, its exceptional charm and its typical architecture, Gordes has been listed as “one of the most beautiful villages of France”.

The houses of white and gray stone rise up in a spiral around the rock where the village is set. At the very top is the church and the castle which face out onto the hills of the Luberon.

Sandy and her group sat on what is called by the locals ” the monkey cliff” to paint this incredible view of the hilltop village of Gordes. Many tourists were more interested in them than in Gordes and started to take pictures of them.

While strolling around the tiny streets which climb up between the tall houses, we discover here and there beautiful old doorways, arcades and walls of flat stone perfectly restored, and on the other side, there is the panorama of the valley and mountains of Luberon.

The weather has been so perfect since day one allowing us to have picnics every day.

Lunch is always a time for camaraderie and good laughs.

There is also a lot of shopping to do. Margaret found the perfect gift.

Window shopping is a delight.

Roussillon is one of the most beautiful villages of France: the houses and the soil are red, yellow, orange and all the colors in between. The reason is the ochre. Roussillon used to be the biggest ochre mine in France.

Picture 1:

Here is some of our guests looking pretty on the ochre trail in Roussillon:

Jan, Sandy, Linda, Margaret and Barbara

Pic 2: Barbara and Linda are wearing their French Escapade T-shirt. That is the new model for 2011.

Pic 3: During the day, everyone chose what inspired them the most for their painting. While most of us, climbed to the top, Linda C decided to sit in the middle of the city hall plaza to paint the world go by. She was wearing her big pink hat, that makes it easier to spot her on the picture.

Linda with her pink hat painting on the main plaza in Roussillon

Pic 4: At the end of the day, we went to one of the two restaurants in Venasque, overlooking the valley. Picture 2: Jan is making fun of me taking a video of Bonnie looking for the sunset.

Pic 5: Here is the sunset you were looking for Bonnie!

Sunset in Venasque

Tomorrow, we go to the jewel of Provence: Gordes.

We are back in Provence. A new painting trip has started. This time, the teacher is a watercolorist from California, Sandy Delehanty. Sandy has been teaching on three of our trips already and this is a fourth one, although the first in Provence.

For the last month, the weather has been gorgeous. It is not a May weather but a July weather. If the farmers are not happy about it, we sure are, especially our painters.

Margaret, who have already been on our painting tour to Belgium 2 years ago, is painting the entrance of our charming Bed & Breakfast. The inn has the right name since it is called “les volets bleus” meaning “blue shutters”.

Margaret painting the entrance of the inn

All shutters are blue, even the ones at Bonnie’s room. Bonnie is our star. It is her fourth tour with us. She follows her teacher Sandy everywhere and especially on our tours. By the way, Bonnie is the one who had me started on painting trips….I will always be so thankful to her.

Our star Bonnie

Here is the entire group for our welcome dinner at the inn. From left to right: Jan, Barbara, me, Sandy (the teacher), Bonnie, Linda C, Linda A and Margaret.

Our first dinner

Food in France is delicious but at the inn, it is exquisite: here is a little sample:

Our hors d'oeuvre called "entree" in France

That was just our first day.

Stay tuned for more adventure.

Jackie

Following Linda’s broken foot to Isle Sur la Sorgue, the painters had an amazing array of subjects to paint ranging from the orange umbrellas of the Cafe Bellevue, the deep blue green water of the River Sorgue,  paddling ducks below, and underwater life.

Kerry's painting of Isle sur la Sorgue

Painters convened to lunch on fresh trout, salmon steak and cod in shrimp sauce at Cafe Bellevue and view their scenes from the opposite side. After their fabulous lunch, a refreshing walk along the river revealed the water wheel of an earlier moulin (mill) and continued reflections of glorious flowers and fabulous architecture.

View of Isle sur la Sorgue

As we met by the river to leave the village, Victoria noticed a free-wheeling young fellow named Michael riding his bicycle in his flip-flops, whom Linda and she had met on the train from Paris to Avignon as they were all moving heavy luggage, mindful of the “broken foot” and his flip flops.  Michael explained he was wearing flip-flops because he had blisters from the hiking expedition in the Himalayas from which he was returning to his lovely village home in Isle Sur la Sorgue.

…And so continue the footsteps of the broken foot which will lead  Linda tomorrow to London as we all disperse and depart from our charming Maison aux Volets Bleus in Venasque.

writer: Kerry, one of the guests on the French Escapade tour

Our group (from left, front to back then from right, back to front): Pam, Linda, Kerry, Tina, Victoria, Lynne and Marty

The funniest painter, Linda Walsh, broke her foot 2 days before coming on the trip. She arrived nevertheless and has been a trooper, carrying her cumbersome foot through Provence.

Lindas' broken foot

Linda, with her broken foot, has excelled at broken colour whether at Monet’s gardens at Giverny or at Van Gogh’s hospital at Mausole de Saint-Paul in St. Remy de Provence. Our mentor, Victoria Brooks, internationally renowned plein air painter from California, covets Linda’s broken colour but not her broken foot. This morning our entire painting group painted Van Gogh’s olive grove and les Alpilles from the vantage point of his original painting.  Victoria demonstrated an extraordinary composition and then provided instruction on mixing all of the colours in the scene before her. She also illustrated the benefits of painting  first the darkest darks, the lightest lights and then medium values.

Victoria demonstrating how to paint in St Remy

Victoria encouraged all of her painters to create the scene in their own style.  In the afternoon, the painters followed the footsteps of Linda’s broken foot to the far corner of the sunflower garden and painted the sunflowers lighting up the church!

Mausole St Paul in St Remy where Van Gogh was hospitalized

Linda’s foot led us to cheap wine at the local cafe in St. Didier. Following Linda’s foot, we found excellent wine, salads and pizza at La Pizzeria “Cote Cour”.

Linda and her good wine in St Didier

Smoked salmon salad

Tomorrow we follow Linda’s foot to seek out beautiful landscapes described to us by charming residents of Isle sur sur la Sorgue!

writer: Kerry, one of the guests of the painting trip with French Escapade

Today we went to Gordes, one (if not the one) of the most beautiful villages in France. Hilltop village built around a castle on a cliff. What else can be better for painters?

Pamela, Linda and of course teacher Victoria painted the hilltop village while Tina, Lynne, Kerry and Marty went shopping on the weekly market in the village.

Victoria helping Pamela for her painting in Gordes

They bought different gifts for friends and family from apron to lavender soap but also cheese, ham and baguette for our picnic.

We had a picnic at the Clos des Jeannons, at Andre’s shop. He makes wonderful olive oil including basil and truffle olive oils. He gave us a bottle of rose wine for us to drink later. What a treat.

More painting in the afternoon before going out for dinner.

Victoria, Lynne and Marty at the restaurant, toasting for their leader...

After dinner, more shopping, but different since it happened in my room: French Escapade shopping.  Some women bought wonderful T-shirts they will wear tomorrow with their French Escapade vizors.

Linda, Kerry and Tina with their new French Escapade T-shirts.

A busy day but so wonderful under the Provence sun.

New group, new faces or almost. I already knew artist Victoria Brooks since she came and taught for me in 2008 in the French Alps. She is back with a new group of art students. This time is Provence. Yep, Van Gogh, Cezanne,…they knew where the light is best for painting so does my new American group.

Today, our first day, demo by Victoria: first, how to set up the easel, then how to use  colors.

Victoria doing a demo of plein air painting

Lynne and her wonderful apron:" A bad day in the studio is better than a great day in the office,"

The view from the guesthouse we are staying at is breathtaking. Maybe overwhelming for some who chose to paint a  vignette: a flower pot, some grapes, some hanging flowers. The idea is to get used to painting outdoor.

View from our guesthouse in Venasque-Provence

The group visited an artist gallery. The artist told them to go and paint by the cemetery in Venasque. “It is very quiet there” he told them. And quiet it was !

After a marvelous picnic with duck mousse, salmon rillette, French baguette, fruits and so on, the bravest went to the cemetery to paint ..not the graves but from there, we had a wonderful view of the hilltop village of Venasque, where we are staying.

Linda using the painting knife for her oil painting

I picked Venasque on purpose. Listed one of the most beautiful villages in France but not touristy. How come? Well, no touristy shops, no cafes, no ice cream places… just wonderful medieval houses, church, fountain and medieval towers. Just what painters want.

Tomorrow will be a complete different day in Provence with French Escapade….

I am now in Provence with my first cooking group in Provence: 9 women who love food and want to learn the secrets of provencal cooking.

On our first day, we went with Finette and her master to hunt for truffles. Finette is an expert dog in finding truffles. Despite the rain, Finette found several big truffles. Since we are in May, the truffles are the white truffles or spring truffles. They don’t have the same aromas as the black truffles from the winter (and are only worth about 180 euros/kg instead of 1000 euros!!).

After the hunt, we got invited by the master into his house.  We were served rose and white wine and toast with truffles of course.

To make the toast: grill some little pieces of baguette on both sides, cut the truffle on top, add salt from Camargue and olive oil. Let them sit for a few hours so the olive oil can melt the salt.

It was delicious.

Tomorrow, we will be cooking a ratatouille in a farm, picking the herbs ourselves.

I love my job because it offers a great variety of tasks: my favorite one being leading the tours, of course, because I enjoy interacting with my guests, sharing their joy and showing them wonderful new places.

However, most of my tours happening between May and October, many people often wonder what I do then. No, I do not sit and relax for 6 months ! It is in fact when I have to do the toughest part of my job: marketing, selling and organizing.

However, having started my company 6 years ago, it becomes easier and easier: I have solid contacts and partners, and “word-of-mouth” makes wonders ! Right now, my cooking tour is really successful and Belgium is getting more interest than the past years . Belgium 2010 is  a cultural tour with an optional  writing workshop. My new tour in Tuscany  is getting filled. As for Provence and the painting workshops, they remain the greatest hits !

For more information and availabilities about all our tours in 2010, check  www.frenchescapade.com

Picture info. 1. Visit of a ranch in Camargue / Provence 2. Picture by Jan Hagan

Designer Christian Lacroix was born in 1951 in Arles, Provence, and his fashion shows and collections were often inspired by Camargue colors, gypsies and corridas.

He opened his own fashion design business in 1987, sponsored by French luxury company Louis Vuiton Moet Hennessy. He became internationally successful right away, and later diversified his business by creating a line of perfume, linen, table ware and accessories. He even participated in designing of the interior of the Mediterranean TGV.

However , financial difficulties appeared in 2005, and today, the company was officially closed when no potential buyer showed up to make an offer to buy the famous brand name.

Cindy, you have no idea how right you are. We had to visit a supermarket today so that Hope & Pam, as well as Rosa and also Sarah could buy some extra luggage to carry home all their shopping!!!

We started the day by drinking wine!!!! Well, visit of Chateau Neuf du Pape village and of course visit of a cellar before the tasting of three Chateu Neuf du Pape wine, The very famous Cote du Rhone.

Linda, Sarah and Sue are very serious abut the swirling, an important step in the tasting.

A bottle in the US is at least $80 when it is only 30 euros here (about $45). Everyone bought as much as they could which is three bottles per person. Hope and Pam maxed out.

After all this wine, we needed some food. Sarah was wondering how she will finish her “little” salad.

After lunch a little dessert was needed. Why not some chocolate tasting? We met with Stephane, the chocolate maker at Castellain in Chateau Neuf du Pape for a little demonstration on how to make chocolate. We kept asking him questions and therefore got many more samples that we were supposed to.

Not sure the group will appreciate this picture on the Internet but I couldn’t resist.

Join us next year on this great trip to Provence. Sign up before Oct 30th and get $150 off.

Click here to see the details of the trip.

What are the specialties? Here are some of the specialties our group bought during their excursion in Provence :

Lavender of course: Fine Lavender is from Provence while the Lavandin can be found anywhere in the world. Everyone in the group bought  and bought and bought some lavender products, from soap to essential oils to hand lotion or shower gel. I think the 2 big winners (I mean buyers) were Linda and Hope.

But Lavender is not all. Today in “Les Baux de Provence” everyone rushed into the cookie store. The first reason was maybe to warm up since it was so windy out there but then everyone felt for the cookies. The nougat is of course the specialty of Montelimar in Provence. Prepared in Montelimar since the 17th century, the nougat combines artfully honey, sugar, egg white, vanilla, almond and pistachio nut in a recipe kept secret…. Its velvety frosting is due to the azymous bread in which the dough cooks.

“Calissons” is the specialty from Aix en Provence. Calissons are white diamond-shaped sweetmeats, made from ground almonds and candied fruits. it is a white cookie with an almond paste inside. Calissons were first prepared in Aix en Provence during the 15th century, and its name is said to come from the expression : Di Calin Soun, which means in the dialect : “they are a stroke”…

Not sure what Lynne and Pam bought but they seem very happy about it:

But there is more than food. What about the “Santons of Provence” From the 19th century, the Santonniers of Provence (santons manufacturers) started to introduce the village people of Provence in the nativity scene: the Water Carrier, the Lavender Lady, the Shepperd, the Cheese Maker but also the Bush Ranger or the Gossiper ! All of them are now part of the traditional Provençal crèche.

Rosa was very interested by the tiny ones but did she have time to buy them? She wasted her time at the restaurant for lunch and missed the “Santon Museum” in les Baux de Provence.

Tomorrow, we are going to Chateau Neuf du Pape for wine tasting and chocolate tasting, so there will be more shopping. Stay tuned!!!

Visit our complete itinerary at www.frenchescapade.com

New tour, new group. We have spent only 2 days in Provence and so much shopping already.

Yesterday we visited Andre, an olive oil maker at the Clos des Jeannons in Gordes, in the Luberon, Provence. But how is olive oil made?

In Provence, harvesting normally takes place around November.

Using traditional methods, this will be done by hitting the olive branches with long sticks, thereby forcing the ripe fruit to tumble onto nets spread on the ground beneath the tree.

After harvesting, olives must be taken to the mill for processing as quickly as possible -  within 3 days to get the AOC (Apellation d’Origine Contrôlée, which is a label of quality from France). Leaves and twigs are removed, the fruit washed, then the olives – pits included – are ground into a paste … using huge millstones.

Yes, the pit is included because it contains a anti-oxydant that will preserve the oil. No preservatives are added to the oil.

A first centrifuge at 4000 rpm will separate the solid (skin, pit) from the liquid (water an oil) and a 7,500rpm centrifuge will then separate the water from the oil.

The best quality oil is made from the “first cold press”. In other words, it must be derived from the first pressing of the olives. And cold pressed olive oil means the olive paste must be kept under 27C (80F)  for, if too much heat is used, the oil chemistry will change.

Our group (from the left: Linda, Lynn, Rosa, Pam, Hope, Sarah, the olive producer Andre, Sheila and Susan…and all our bags full of olive oil !!!!!)

If you are interested in joining one of our tours, check www.frenchescapade.com

Six American ladies managed to hide a big surprise to Sharon on her birthday. She had been told she was going to travel for a week, but she had no idea what her destination would be until she finally got to San Francisco airport, from where she flew to Marseille. But it was not her final destination: Barbara, her girlfriend, took her on a train ride to Avignon, where 5 friends of theirs were expected them.

                                               Carol and Sharon in Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape

 Allison was also there and joined the jolly group along ! Everybody had a great time, visiting the area (hilltop villages, ranches, markets …) and enjoyed the Bastide in Luberon.

                                                                  Sharon, the birthday girl !

  Allison, chocolate-tasting in Oppede                   Ready to board the van for another fun day!

                                                The whole group on the ranch in Camargue

For more information about our tours in France, Belgium and more, check www.frenchescapade.com