5 observations recorded during our stay in Provence in the South of France.
These urban sketches are my reminders of what matters most in life. Little fragments that we tend to forget but made our days.
1. A Trabant in Velleron
My wife sorts everything by color. It gives her life balance and structure, she says. I’m the total opposite and if I would need to sort things, it would rather be by form or size.
But walking through Velleron, a small village near Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, the above situation did strike me. There is this turquoise East-German Trabant of which you could ask ‘How did it get here?’. No way it drove here in that state!
Right on the corner where it was parked is a house of which the door, shutters and draining pipe are painted in almost the exact same color. Coincidence? Or are driver and resident the same?
2. French lesson at the bistrot
Beaumes-de-Venise is classified as a ‘place of remarquable taste’. Indeed, the wines are excellent and the kitchens are of good reputation. As a patent of nobility the restaurant walls are covered with labels and certificates. We chose one with a large treille that protected the large terrace from the burning sun. All the doors and windows were wide open. The guests were mostly French, which is a good sign. Go where the locals eat, is the best advise. Two women sat in the corner in front of the window where the kitchen was. One was French and knew the cook. She threw in some remarks through the open window once in a while. The other lady spoke with a deep voice and a clear accent. She was definitely British and was taking French lessons. They commented on pictures on their smartphones. They had the same as we had: la formule de midi. A tasty entrecôte with vegetables, couscous and a green salad on the side + a quarter of rosé and a dessert of choice. All that for €14,-. Not bad hey?! And you get to learn French at the same time.
3. The peek a boo tourist
In Avignon we sat on the terrace of a small restaurant on the place St.-Pierre. Nothing special, just cosy and less crowded than the Place de l’Horloge nearby. But the church on the square has some special features that makes it appear in popular guides to Provence. While we enjoyed a plate of Provençal cooking more than a busload of tourists stuck their heads and lenses barely around the corner to take a glimpse of the church. They wouldn’t even bother to come onto the square. Off to the next one!
4. Tour de France, all year round
Important warning for people who don’t ride bikes: in the older part of the village of Bedoin you are safe. You can clamber through the narrow streets and escape from the cycling maniacs on the boulevards. But if you ever plan to climb that cold, bald Mont Ventoux, this is the place to come to.
5. A virtual vineyard
At home we talk a lot about how we approach things. No matter what. Stuff can become very clear that way. My wife Riet, she’s a painter, came to tell me that I always draw from life. Without exception. Situations sur le vif. And it’s true. Where she can create the most colourful landscapes and flowers from scratch, I need to start from what is there. She can improvise on the basis of a few simple lines and get hypnotised by colours and shapes. I get blocked!
While flipping through a sketchbook recently I found a design I did about a year ago that illustrates how deep this goes. For a tourist guide I wanted to create a typeface where you could type vines and create your own vineyard. I needed as many different vines as possible and digitise them. So I stepped into the vineyard of our neighbour and started drawing. Not longer than 15 minutes later I felt kind’a stupid. What was I doing here? Couldn’t I just sit at my drawing table, take a marker and spit out 50 types of distorted vines? So I did. But guess what: they didn’t come close to what I drew in the field! They were dull and uninspired.
The crazy shapes, the whirling branches, the oddly pruned one at the front, the fat and shorty in the middle, … they gave me the hooks I needed to create the virtual vines. That’s what I tell myself at least. Or is it to avoid that guilty feeling when I would invent non-existing vines?
