Look at all that cheese!

Bonjour my dear friend!

I am really looking forward to your visit with me this summer.  Do you remember that the last time you were here we bought so much cheese? Well, I have been scouring the local villages for new and different cheeses for you to try and I wanted to send you this note with appetizing photos to whet your appetite.

Just up the road from our village there is a guy who raises goats and makes “fromage de chevre” goat cheese. The first time I bought his cheese he was at the Sunday morning market at St Martin de la Brasque.  Then I noticed a new display of his cheeses at the vegetable store in our village, Potager de Lily. My favorite is “affine”, not too dry. We can get it plain or with a topping of pepper, garlic, or herbs.

At the Tuesday market in La Tour d'Aigues, I have made friends with the couple who sells cheese there. They sell in other village markets nearby on other days too. They have everything from creamy Camemberts, to Tommes from the Alps, to wonderfully sharp veined bleus. 

You'll love this idea: a friend, who speaks no French, handed her a 20 Euro bill one day and asked her to create a sampling platter of her favorite cheeses. She agreed with delight and we had a delicious picnic lunch, complete with baguette, olives, and a little red wine!

Want a more traditional venue for buying your cheeses? The local grocery store has an aisle, a full aisle, of cheeses!  Big wheels, small buttons, some encased in rinds, others wrapped in grape leaves. They will cut and wrap any that you choose.

 

Whatever your gourmet heart desires, we can find it nearby in the villages south of the Luberon! Come visit soon and until then, Bon Appetit!

Love, J

Lovely Provence Gardens

My Dear Friend,

What wonderful news! I am so glad to know that you are coming to visit me here in Provence. There are so many things I want to show you. Most of all I think you will enjoy seeing the gardens. They are really different from what you have in Seattle. 

It seems odd to call them that--gardens. They are not really organized public gardens, for the most part, in Provence. Here, the gardens are fields of flowers along the roadsides, or small quiet settings in the churchyards, or in stone planters around people's front doors, or otherwise in the most curious spots! 

 
I would like to take you to Banon, a village up on the Sault Plateau where the lavender grows in summertime. Talk about a public garden!  On the way up to Banon you drive through hills and small valleys absolutely filled with fields of lavender and grains.


Banon is where they make that creamy cheese you adore, the one that is wrapped in grape leaves? We can get you some in the village.  We can walk up into the "old town" to see the "gardens."

After we pass through the portal, the old cobblestone walkways are lined with masses of hollyhocks, growing out of the cracks between the paths and the houses. It's incredible! They are absolutely everywhere; I think you are going to love it.


 There is an old church at the top of the hill where they usually have a curious art exhibit of some kind. 

 
And right outside there is a quiet spot where someone has set an old iron set of table and chairs; someone waters the flowers in stone pots there.
 

On the way back toward the Luberon we can stop to visit the gardens at Salagon. They are a rather famous french treasure where research and conservation is a high priority. I don't know of another place like it in this part of France.  

There are five gardens that surround a 10th century Benedictine priory and we can take a fascinating self-guided audio tour of the gardens and small museums.  
Hundreds of plants, all labeled,  with stories about their use and history: medieval, medicinal, aromatic, modern, and one devoted to the white oak. 

Let me know when you have your tickets. Can't wait to see you. 
Love, J