Provence

I’m not sure if it was like “going back in time” to a place where life is beautiful, easy and simple or it was being together with three generations of family living together, Laughing together, and spending uncomplicated time together. But our time together in Provence was magical!

Our home away from home was in Bonnieux. Our only regret was that we did not have time to just hang around and enjoying the beautiful home and property. The weather was heavenly so we kept the windows open and we were bathed in the essence of lavender as we slept, ate, and walked around.

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The purpose of the trip was to bring Katy, my grand daughter to school at Savannah School of Design “SCAD” at their campus in Lacoste for her Fall semester.

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The SCAD campus is in this charming village with narrow streets, paved in “calade” stone. About three hundred people live in the village but the SCAD campus makes up most of the property in Lacoste.

There is also a famous château which used to belong to the Marquis de Sade at Lacoste.

In 1771 the Marquis fled from Paris to escape the scandals created by his erotic writing and outlandish behaviour (too liberal for the era). It is now owned by Pierre Cardin, the famous stylist designer.

Not a bad place to live and study for a few months!

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My two beautiful daughters are the mothers of Katy and Bailey! We spent a glorious day in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence shopping and having lunch. The streets were lined by stone houses, winding cobbled lanes and on average it has 300 days of sunshine a year. This was just one of the charming villages we visited during our stay. St. Rémy is home to significant Roman ruins and the monastery where Van Gogh once recovered from a bout of psychosis, “just a bit of history!”

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We were driving back to Bonnieux one day and saw this mountain top village and decided to explore. We discovered this winery and decided to do a little wine tasting! Needless to say we brought back a few bottles to try. Delicious!

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We also visited Roussillon, Gordes, L’Isle our la Sorgue, and wished we could have had more time to experience them. We just could not get enough of the sights and did not have enough time to explore and savor the food and wine! We also noticed how much the French love their pets and brought them everywhere.

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One of our favorite places was the market in Lourmarin. We arrived when it opened at 9 am thank goodness. We were able to enjoy it before it got so crowded we could hardly move through the crowd by 11am.

We loved it here so much we went back another day and shopped and had lunch at one of favorite cafe’s, L’Ormeau. It was the last day for lunch in Provence so of course I had to have Duck Pâté one last time and it was served with Pear poached in Rosé Wine. I’m still dreaming about it!

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It was now time to tell Katy goodby! We left her in good hands because Pierre and Stephanie who own the charming Cesar hotel and restaurant in Bonnieux said if Katy needed anything she must come to them!

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Jete and I flew to England to visit Becky and Lloyd Dannatt and their children Neve, Frey, Sophie, and Edward in West Sussex. Becky was Jete’s au pair for two years when the twins “Katy and Claire” were born. Katy, Claire and Ryan were all in Becky and Lloyd’s wedding in July of 2004. The families have stayed close all these years and visit back and forth often.

It was so much fun seeing the children growing up and enjoying family life with them. They all go to this incredible and beautiful school Hurstpierpoint college, an independent school in Hurstpier, England. Lloyd is Deputy Head Academic for the school and Becky being a nurse substitute as the school nurse when they need her.

This visit was the icing on the cake for the most incredible trip I think I have ever taken.