Linda's Journal
July, 2004

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July 12th

We just spent three great days with friends who visited us at our house in Provence. Not only did they make us feel like we had done a great job with our house and that we were in a wonderful location, but we got to explore some new, to me, cities in Provence, but first we stopped in Lourmarin to give them a look at this charming place.

I find the decoration and color of these shutter so feminine.

Lots of great doors in the village.

Loved the color of the door and the oleanders together.

Wonderful vase of sunflowers in a hotel.

Arles was a pleasant surprise to me. I knew there was a Roman arena there. I picutured cars zooming around it for some reason but it is mostly a pedestrian area with narrow streets and lots of fun to walk around.

View of arena as you approach up the street.

I wish I had brought my wide angle lens to get in more of this impressive building.

A look at the inside.

St Tromphine is a wonderful cathedral near the arena. It is famous for its front door with fabulous sculptures and carvings.

Very wierd carving on the side of Satan.

Cloister attached to the cathedral which is famous as well.

Next a trip to Pont du Gard, a roman aquiduct built to bring water to nearby cities. It is a marvel to see, very sturdy and immense and instead of looking very plain and ugly for such a task it is what I've heard called Poetry in Stone.

It spans a river.

We ended with a dinner at Uzes, which is nearby and I wish we had had more time to explore this great looking town but it was dark when we arrived. We didn't get home and into bed until 1 AM. A long and very great day.

A look at an illuminated church tower.

July 16th

I decided I needed to get out and look at some lavender before it was all cut. I believe the major lavender festival is coming up next week, which I don't want to miss, but I also wanted to see it in the fields. I drove up in the Haute Provence region up behind our house where the quality lavender is grown as opposed to the more plentiful, but not as high quality, type grown in regions not in the mountains. Sure enough, I found some. Some of the fields were not taken care of and had many weeds growing amongst the plants and some were very well taken tended without a weed in sight. And I also saw some machines cutting the lavender so I probably just made it while the fields were still lavender in hue.

Fairly well tended. I notice some had been cut by tourists and there were holes left where some had been dug up.

You can see how they are grown in rows in this photo.

Neat view of lavender with church near Oppedette.

I liked how they embellished this sign to make it a flower in Banon.

A building in Banon that people spend fortunes trying to copy.

Simaine de la Rotunde is a very picturesque village.

Note to self: plant this kind of flower in my yard next spring.

Close-up of cigale, thousands of which are chirping in the trees around Provence.

July 21st

Maurice's grandchildren are visiting. Mostly they play in the swimming pool but today we took them up to a nearby farm where sheep are raised for a look. I bet that the source of most of our flies here, and we have a ton of them, is this farm.

View of cut hay on the walk to the farm.

Closeup of hay. Fascinating to this city girl.

A roll of hay in use at the farm.

These are young sheep. The adults are in the alps somewhere eating to get certified a certain way. Note the long tails which will get clipped at some point.

On our way to look at the mule (donkey?). The sheep won't let us near them.

The mule is cute and loved its owner.

Kids like it.

This is where most of the sheep end up. A few males are just for reproduction.