Early morning view from the terrace

 

A cloudy start to the day was enlivened by the rising sun making Roussillon glow, producing this rather startling effect to entertain us over breakfast.

Snails!

The massing of millions of tiny white snails has long been a feature of the Provencal summer, with every post or fence by mid July being festooned with these little creatures.  This species of snail Cernuella is very common in Provence and have adapted to the summer heat by undergoing aestivation a dormant state which prevents them from drying out in the hot weather.  The snails are edible and feature in a traditional Provencal soup.  I can't see us serving them any time soon for supper at Les Bassacs though!

Lavender Cutting

We are back from our short break in August and there is a definite feel of late summer in the air.  Until 3 weeks ago David was painting until 9.45 pm, but now dusk is on us almost an hour earlier.  We are however rewarded with beautiful warm, still evenings when the countryside is awash with deep greens and inky black shadows.

The lavender was harvested weeks ago and has been left to dry where it was cut; little stooks litter the fields.

 

When we first came here all the lavender was cut by hand using small sickles but now it is a rare sight.  This field between Les Bassacs and Les Cordiers has been cut in the traditional way. The crop is small and not large enough to warrant the use of a harvester.  Once dried these stooks were pitched into a trailer.

 and taken to be processed at the distillery at Castellet which is run by this lone and ancient distiller!

Hot colour and thunder clouds

We have hot, hot weather here as has most of Europe. While we expect it at this time of year, what we are not used to are the daily evening thunder clouds and occasional downpours that they bring. 

The upside of these evening showers is that the countryside is blooming and the colours are beautifully fresh. 

 

Albert Camus at Lourmarin

Occasionally we venture south of the Luberon to Lourmarin for a day's painting and picnic in the grounds of the beautiful renaissance chateau.

Albert Camus had a long association with Lourmarin and he is buried in the town's cemetery. David took a break from painting and photographed his grave.

Camus was friends with the poet Renee Char and initially looked for a house near him in L'Isle sur la Sorgue, but eventually bought a house in Lourmarin using his prize money from the Nobel Prize for literature which he won in 1957.  Camus was captivated by the beauty of the Luberon hills which dominate the northern view from the village.

He wrote in his diaries of  'The first star over the Luberon, the enormous silence, the cypresses' describing the Luberon as ' this solemn and austere land in spite of its overwhelming beauty'. For him living in Lourmarin was  'un halte de paix dans la voyage de la vie'. The view across the plain to the valley of the Aigebrun reminded him of the plain of Mitidja in Algeria where he grew up.

Camus died in a car crash just south of Paris at the age of 46 and was buried in Lourmarin. In 2009 President Sarkozy put forward plans to rebury him in the Pantheon in Paris.  His son objected and so for the moment his remains stay at Lourmarin.

Pont Julien

artist crosses ancient bridge

During Paul Thomas's week the group painted the Pont Julien just below Bonnieux.   The bridge, which was open to traffic until 2005, was built in 3 BC, it has had over 2000 years of continuous use!  It is both sturdy and beautiful.  The river Calavon which runs beneath it is at this time of year a pleasant trickle, but in times of flood it becomes a raging torrent.  The Romans who built the bridge using local stone,  allowed for the river's seasonal variation and wisely gave it high arches and 'dégueuloirs', additional arched openings through which the flood water could freely flow.

It is the last remaining intact bridge on the Via Domitia the Roman road which linked Italy with Hispania. 

Orchids

Pat Johns,  who is here painting this week,  has an eye for spotting orchids and finds them wherever we go.  This morning she and Stephen (whom I should credit for the pictures) went out walking on a circuit around Les Bassacs rather than going to the market at L'Isle sur la Sorgue.  Tucked in amongst the abundance of wild flowers in the woods and meadows at the moment, they found two beautiful and delicate orchid varieties, both with self-explanatory names!

Bee Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

David Caldwell's week

David Caldwell is new to Les Bassacs this year.  He had a group of students who were serious about their work but who also knew the ropes, and despite the weather being unsettled, everyone had a very good and productive week's painting. 

David led the way showing a fierce resilience in the face of the mistral, sporting his shorts in all temperatures and all weathers!

The one wet afternoon we had, meant that he had the chance to teach an excellent session on portrait painting in the studio.

David Caldwell's easel and portrait of Alan

David's week

Despite the stormy start, the week has settled down to nice fresh weather. The magnificent bright sunshine emphasises the new foliage and the hedgerows full of flowers.  The big advantage of this type of weather is that you can happily sit all day in the sun without getting hot.  Later on in the summer, painting views are to some extent determined by the search for a shady patch from which to work.  Yesterday the morning was spent in Villars, and on the way back we stopped to wonder at this field bursting with colour.

In the afternoon David took the group out the back of Les Bassacs to the olive grove that gives views south onto the Luberon hills.

David hard at work

Today a very quiet and peaceful Menerbes was the venue for a successful morning painting.

Rainbows and dark sunshine

Yesterday was the rainiest summer Saturday we have ever had in all the years we have been here.  It poured all day which meant that the trip to Apt market was cancelled and we had the heating on.  Discussing this with Mathilde, our cleaner, she remarked that there is an old provencal saying "never a Saturday goes by without a ray of sunshine", but I doubted it was going to be true for this particular Saturday. However, by 7.30 in the evening the cloud started to lift over the Rhone valley.

Then suddenly through the rain we had this dark dramatic sunshine and two successive rainbows, just beautiful.