Roussillon, Domain du Bois de St. Jean, and a Painting Demo

Saturday, June 25th marked our second trip to paint the lavender fields.  The eleven of us jumped into our two SUV's with matching ribbons, (to keep track of each other), and headed for Roussillon.  The village is noted for its large ochre deposits found in the clay there.

In honor of the ochre deposits, the entire town is painted in the same tones, which makes it unique to Provence, where you will usually see pale colored houses with soft pastel shutters.

Our first stop was at the lavender fields on the outskirts of town.  If you check out my post on June 17th, you will see that we actually scouted this field out before the workshop, and we especially loved it for its sumptuous curves.  Our artists were delighted at the chance to paint it.  Among others, here's Brenda,

Nathalie...

Angel...

and Aleex.

We also had the owners of the field come and set up a stand right next to us, selling lavender soaps, oils and bouquets.

I know for sure we took quite a few bars of lavender soap off their hands that day!

After we finished up at the fields, we headed up to the town to eat lunch and browse through the shops.  They are known for selling artist pigments there in a wide variety of colors that can be mixed with a binder and used as either watercolor, oil or acrylic.  Of course I was most drawn to the blues and the greens, especially the aquamarine.

We all piled back in the cars and headed for our next stop, which was wine tasting at Domain du Bois de St. Jean.  We sampled an assortment of reds, as well as a white and a rose.  Our host spoke french, but the language of wine is universal.  LOL.  PS Julie translated.

An anecdote is that Brenda, one of the Artists on the retreat, was here at the workshop for her second time.  Last year she did a painting of our host at the vineyard, and sent him a poster after the workshop.  This year, he brought out the poster, and she got to have her picture taken with him.  Pretty awesome!

We purchased some very nice wines for dinner that night, and took a sneak peek at the vineyard in the back on the way out.

We returned to the Chateau for an outstanding dinner of Legumes Farci,

along with a special cake in honor of the Artists.

which we enjoyed outdoors.

We finished off a very full day with a fun and informative demo from Julie Snyder, about how to take your reference photos home and turn them in to finished works, using your iPad. 

And so ends another great day with Workshops in France.
Thanks so much for following!!

Love, Linda

Transition Day, Grocery Shopping and Those Darling French

Today was transition day for us, moving out of Chateau-Renard and doing final preparations for Workshops in France.  Here I am in my usual pose,  out on the balcony getting in that last Instagram post before I leave wifi!

In celebration of the Lavender Season, I decided that lavender toes were appropriate.

Upon heading out, we picked up our second rental car, which thankfully Belinda del Pesco will be driving (bless that darling woman), and headed back to Auchan, the mega grocery store.  I had such a good time there I wanted to share some things I saw.

BUT FIRST, let me tell you how charming the French people are here.  If you try to speak a word of French to them, they will go out of their way to try and speak English in return, doing their best to help you and lead you around the store to find what you need.  Forget the stereotypes you may have in your head.  They are adorable. 

Now, here are some things you don't see every day at the market in Los Angeles.  How about an entire section devoted to rabbit?

Or an entire eight foot section devoted to each kind of cheese.  This is just the camembert!

Then there are the acres of wine.  Again I am fascinated with the Rose, because where I come from it is downright un-hip to drink it. But here in the south of France, they are known for it, and people who are passing through from neighboring countries make sure to stock up on it when they visit.

How about yogurt in cute little crocks and glass pots?

And let's not forget those darling French fish department guys.

Again we got out of there with a boat load of food, stocking up the fridge for breakfasts and lunches during the retreat.  The dinners will be catered.

We moved into the Chateau, and here's just a tiny glimpse.  I'll talk more about it in future posts.

Dinner was extra special tonight as we entertained our very first guests.  There were none other than Julie's cousin, Gillian Hill and her good friend Liz Downing, visiting Provence from Majorca, Spain.  Julie and Gillian have not seen each other since 1995.  Gillian, Liz, Belinda and Julie all have a love of boats in common, and it was great fun to hear them exchange stories and experiences.  Dinner was  Monkfish wrapped in proscuitto, roasted potatoes and a tomato and cucumber salad.   So good,

and Belinda made us a killer drink called a "Very Berry", which was Blackberry liquer, fresh limes and Blackberries, and Vodka.  So refreshing, and it also happened to pack a whallop.

We finished the evening with a group shot to remember a splendid evening.  Left to right are Gillian, Julie, Your's Truly, Belinda and Liz.

And as I stepped outside to walk back to my room to write the blog, I noticed it's a full moon tonight.  What a beautiful way to say goodnight to you all.  Bonne Nuit and Sweet Dreams.

 Love, Linda