Glanum part 2

Having visited many parts of the Roman empire and made a bit of a habit out of ooh-ing and aah-ing at various examples of roman-ness on our travels, I've never seen anything quite like what remains of this temple top at Glanum. Turns out that it is not the original - disappointing. However the reason for the reconstruction is pretty convincing. The mistral, which whips through our part of Provence would wear the soft stone away at a rate of knots, so to preserve the intricate carving, it's in the museum and this is a reconstruction. Here's a close up....

What did the Romans ever do for us?

The Romans were a big influence in our corner of Provence and one of the most interesting historical visits around here is to Glanum, the remains of a Roman town just outside St Remy de Provence. The Romans weren't the first to colonise the valley - they followed hot on the heels of the Celto Ligurians and the Greeks. But as ever it seems that the Romans had the best building techniques and it's the remains of the Roman town which are still standing.

Glanum has the oldest triumphal arch in Gaul



and the best preserved Cenotaph in the Roman world,


as well as being in a beautiful setting at the foot of the Alpilles and being a really interesting example of a small Roman town.


Glanum flourished until 260 AD when it was destroyed by maurauding German tribes and the inhabitants moved north to found St Remy - we're very grateful to them for that!

I am going to upload pictures of Glanum over the next few days as it's hard to do it justice in one post....

Sound and (En)Light(enment)

Just took Debbie and Mark to see the Cathedrale d'Image at Les Baux. It's based in the old bauxite mines where the aluminium ore was cut out in blocks to leave the mountain hollow.

Here are Debbie and Mark exploring an abandoned quarry nearby.

Just round the corner from that, we discovered a quarry still in use.  They're mining the stone (prized for its whiteness and purity) for its own sake nowadays, the seams of aluminium ore being long since mined out.

So this set the scene for the Cathedrale d'Image - a 'son et lumiére' show inside the old bauxite mines - truly a cathedral sized space.

While suitably evocative music plays, video projectors beam images onto the the quarry walls, floor and ceiling, to create a completely consuming visual experience.  You can literally walk inside the picture.

The theme changes every year.  For 2008 it's van Gogh, whose association with this area is well known, him having been based in both Arles and St-Rémy-de-Provence for his most creative period at the end of the 1880s.

The show uses not only his most famous paintings, but also photographs from the era and his sketches and drawings.  Note the scale of the space, ably demonstrated by the couple standing in the foreground.

Obviously there had to be sunflowers...

So quarries and van Gogh turned out to be the theme for the day.  Later on, we were in St-Rémy and walked out to St-Paul-de-Mausole - van Gogh's asylum.   Just behind the asylum is the Mas de la Pyramide, where, at the centre of an olive grove, stands the last remnant of an ancient quarry.  Why that bit was left, I have no idea.

Debbie, forever the botanist, was in raptures about the Judas trees flowering all around (deep pink blossom in the background).  She was also pleased to hear that for once it wasn't going to be John and Ruth that were out with me as I took blog shots and insisted that I include a picture of her.  Here she is...

Alchemist not at Home

We went to the nearby village of Eygalière the other day. It's very chi-chi! Rumour has it that Brad and Anjelina and all the little orphans (the jolipitts?) have been looking at real estate there!

Eygalières sits at the base of the Alpilles, just to the East of St-Rémy-de-Provence and has fantastic views from the old village.

We were there to visit the Jardin de l'Alchemiste, but unfortunately it's not open for another month. However, I just found these pictures that I took there last July, so I thought I'd put them up instead...

I'm not sure of the purpose of this line of curtains, but it's very striking. I'd like to do something along these lines at our place as it's linear nature would suit our very rectilinear garden.

I'm not sure if we'll ever have a covered avenue, but one day I hope that our new pergolas will have a similar shady feel. I've been building the pergolas on and off for a few weeks now. One is finished, although it'll be a while until it's covered with the vines and creepers that I've planted. The other will have its cane roof added soon. Hopefully next week. Then, of course, I'll post pictures of them.

A water feature is a bit more of a pipe dream at the moment. (Pipe dream! Get it?)

Windows of Provence (2)

St-Remy-de-Provence - more accurately this should be titled 'Window Frames of Provence (1)'

Blossom, dearie

The almond blossom's out down in Provence, which means that Spring has sprung!

These trees were photographed last week in the Alpilles, the hills to the South of St-Remy-de-Provence, between St-Remy and LesBaux-de-Provence.

Almonds will be followed Apricots, Cherries, Peaches/Nectarines, Apples, Pears and Quinces. Quince blossom is particularly impressive - almost like a Magnolia.

So why the big paws?

... as the barman said to the bear.

But it has been a long time since I blogged, I confess.

Last September, 2007 turned from busy to hectic and for a variety of personal reasons, there was never any time for blogging. But I'm back now, and back on line.














And more significantly, Lindsay's back from working in Brussels, so I hope that she might find time to add to our blog as well. Here are a few pictures of Lindsay that I took last year. The first 2 I took in Montpellier, last August. (If you look again, you might be able to tell that Lindsay was feeling ill as the lunch that we'd just eaten was in the process of giving her botulism!) The third was taken in Paris at the end of November. You don't have to look that carefully to tell that it was cold!

We're just back from a flying tour of England and Scotland over Christmas / New Year and are settling back into life at the Mas des Grand' Terres. Provence has been looking distinctly soggy for the last few days, with a rare period of rain. It can keep it up for a few weeks yet as it's great for the new beds that I've planted in the garden. Plus rain down here means snow up in the mountains and we're due to go skiing in 10 days time. So, let it snow!

I did keep snapping through the latter months of 2007 and so have a back-log of images to share. To get things rolling, here are 4 images from a walk that Lindsay and I took recently with our friends John and Ruth in the Alpilles hills just behind St-Remy-de-Provence. I trust that they demonstrate that Provence is beautiful throughout the year. And once the hot weather and bus-loads have disappeared, there are compensations to be had with beautiful (and sometimes exilerating) walks in the hills.

Transhumance in St-Remy-de-Provence

May 28th is the day of the annual Transhumance Festival in St-Remy-de-Provence. This festival celebrates the hundreds of years old tradition of driving sheep from Provence where they've over-wintered, to the Southern Alps where they'll spend the summer. This happens because summer in Provence is too harsh for sheep - the grass becoming dead and dry in the heat - and the winter is too harsh in the Alps - the grass getting covered in snow.

Nowadays the sheep are transported by lorry, but in the past the shepherds would drive them along ancient drovers roads to and from the mountains over a period of several weeks. They always left at the end of May to return by the end of October. Traditionally they would gather in such towns as St-Remy in order to travel together and thus better protect their flocks from rustlers and wolves. Thus each May 28 this spectacle is re-enacted. About a thousand sheep and accompanying goats are driven along the main ring around the centre of St-Remy by people dressed in traditional costume, many of whom are still working shepherds or involved in sheep farming in some way.