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

Getting the Lay of the Land in Provence

"So, Linda," you ask, "just what are you doing in France, anyway?"  Good question!  As my jetlag lifts, and I slowly start adjusting to the nine hour time difference, I can answer this.  I am here to assist Julie Snyder in conducting her fabulous "Workshops In France" art retreat, along with wonderful artist and new found friend Belinda del Pesco.   Together Belinda and I will assist Julie in taking care of her guests on this ten day retreat, which begins Sunday.  Here are some ramblings regarding our last two days.  First of all, we are driving SUV's in a country that is made for teeny, tiny cars.  Here is an example of most of the back roads here.  One lane for two way traffic.

In addition, their favorite word where driving is concerned is "roundabout".  They are EVERYWHERE.   Luckily we have the aid of our navigational system lady with the polite English accent who I have yet to give a name.  Need to give her a good one.  She seems to like to mess with us and is not always spot on.  Luckily she at least speaks English.

Then there is the shopping.  We spent some time today picking up supplies at the local mega super market Auchan.  Here they seem to like coffee a lot (it fills both sides of this aisle),

and you can buy anything from Violette Liquer

to Espadrilles.

Here's Julie checking out with some goodies for the Chateau!

Next we did some touring, looking for the fields of lavender that are already blooming.  One of my favorites is the one we found outside of the charming village of Roussillon.  Love the sumptuous curves.

Another high point to the day was visiting Gordes.  Here is a spectacular view of this ancient city, which literally brought me to tears.  How lucky I am to be here!

We spent a lot of time driving today and this countryside is packed with vineyards, lavender fields, and apple and cherry trees dripping with fruit.  The lavender hums with honey bees, and the leaves of the grapevines glow a brilliant green in the sun.  It is all so breathtaking.  I wish you see it and smell it for yourself!  In addition, the French language sounds like music and people in Provence greet each other with three kisses.  Cheek, other cheek, and back again.  It's adorable.

We finished the day with dinner in L'isle Sur La Sorgue, where I had a divine Goat Cheese and Spinach Quiche and Salad and a glass of Rose.  Yes, Rose.  It's not the wine that I would usually order, but they seem very popular here and I am in wine country, after all.  I need to try something new every day.  It was delicious.

These past two days have been a whirlwind tour.  I will tell you more about each town as we spend time there over the next ten days or so.  Tomorrow we move into the Chateau!!  How exciting is that?  Can't wait to share it with you.  I'll finish with a pic of the courtyard of the Air Bnb where we have been staying in Chateau-Renard,

and a pic of me hard at work blogging!  Yes, it's always after midnight before I finish, but I enjoy it so.  Tonight is no exception.  Bonne Nuit from Provence!

Love, Linda