We followed the broken foot throughout Provence
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










My name is Jackie Grandchamps. In 2003, I founded French Escapade, offering another way to travel in small groups of 8. "Don't be a tourist, be our guest" is the moto and spirit of my company.
Check www.frenchescapade.com
Through this blog, I will provide information about France, Belgium, California, (soon Italy) but also some stories from my guests on the tours.
Learn more about the company in the French Escapade section of this blog.