There is a charming little village up in the mountains behind us called Saignon. It seems to be a haven of little B&B places and has several restaurants. Lavander can be seen blooming in the valleys below and there is an unusual stack of rocks called a rouche which has had some sort of habitation on top for centuries. I, personally, like the windows and doors.

I take a picture of this window each time I’m there-I think I just recently posted an old photo that I had of it.

 Aging gracefully

 Sophisticated and elegant

 I love this pink rose against the fading white shutter

 My favorite fountain in front of the Auberge de Presbetyre

 I was showing a friend around one of the outdoor markets in Aix. We saw:

 Colorful flowers and vegetables for sale

 Piles of green and white asparagus

These colorful strawberries  some of which I bought

 And this display of children’s clothing with the models looking like they are playing hide and seek-these aren’t real children.

 Somewhere around here my wallet was taken out of my purse and we got to spend a delightful three hours reporting it to the police. I was really surprised this happened in Aix. I don’t know why. I won’t be using my backpack purse anymore. I bought a new purse yesterday, one of those that go over one shoulder and that you can hold next to your body.

 I think we are at the end of the beauty provided by the poppies. We’ve had several days of hard Mega Mistral winds and today it was in the 80’s. I quickly went up behind our village to see if I could find a few more glimpses of red joy.

 Up behind the village is a chateau, much of it crumbling leaving rather poetic endings of its life.

 There is silver-sage wheat growing in a field behind the chateau and poppies are growing in the tracks left by the tractor.

 Poppies among the wheat.

 The late afternoon sun shining through the last of the Spring poppies.

 We live near a very small village. When I say small, I am not exaggerating. There is no post office, no boulangerie, no cafe, nothing. It does have a quaint thing going and it is interesting to me to hear about life there in times now past. Our area is known for its hiking and biking so we often see people pursuing those activities here and there.We are deep in the countryside of Provence and along with our little village we get those pleasures that run deep brought to us by nature. In any case, here are a few shots around our village.

 This building has always intrigued me. Someone is living there now but it was once an auberge or hotel of some kind. When we first moved here you could see writing high up on the wall but it is all faded away now. I saw an old photo in the mayor’s office with women in long dresses and hats sitting in front of it.

 This is the home of the mayor’s mother. He and his wife live behind her. She always has great flowers growing. The mayor is a farmer and long with growing grapes for his own wine and olive trees for his own oil, he also has a small plot somewhere and his mother sells white asparagus and strawberries in the Spring.

 Mary watching over our village on top of the church that I have never seen open.

 View up the “main street” of our village. This is what is called a gite. They have gites which house single families but this is a more rustic one set up for hikers and bikers with a camp feeling of bunk beds in large rooms and large bathrooms. We tried to book this for the family reunion coming up in August as it can hold up to 30 or so people but it was totally booked for 3 1/2 weeks by a group of handicapped children.  

This is where we voted. Yes, I voted in the French elections. I really didn’t feel informed and wasn’t sure how to vote but in the end I voted as my husband did because he was so passionate about it. He was for the Socialist, Royal. He was so upset when Sarkosy won and worries about the future of France. He stayed up until 3 AM watching the vote returns in Paris. I do feel that France needs to change alot of things in how it does business so maybe Sarkosy can do that. We will see.  When I voted I put a slip of paper with the person I wanted written on it into an envelope and then put it into a slot. The mayor pushed a button which let the envelope drop into a glass container and a little bell dinged and the mayor said, “A vote”. Yesterday the changing of the guard took place in Paris when Sarkosy took over from Chiroc. Maurice was so upset he couldn’t even watch.

 This Sunday Maurice and I went to a brochante in a village called Jouques, not too far from us. We were hoping to find a piece of furniture that we need for our dining room but this brochante-professionals selling mostly antiques-had very few things of interest. Still, it was fun to get out and explore a village new to us.

 One of the things I collect is enamelware, mainly because it is affordable. I like to find unusual pieces which all of these are but I’m trying not to buy “stuff”, especially small stuff but save my money for furniture and rugs.

 Old fashioned coffee grinders

 As you can see by this closeup, this coffee grinder is made by Peugeot. They started business in this way and gradually moved up to making cars. You can buy very fancy, and expensive, pepper and salt grinders in their fancy store on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

 I’m always drawn to these colorful spritzer bottles.

 I hope all mothers out there feel happy and blessed today. I think being a mother is the hardest job in the world. Here are a few photos of some of the things I am always taking photos of-windows and doors. They were all in Provence.