The Sculptors Come to Grambois!

Cher Ami,

Knowing how you love art and relish unusual experiences, I want to tell you about how we spent our Friday evening here in Provence!  Grambois has recently begun hosting an annual event for local artists: Sculpture en Balade (www.sculpture-balade.com).

Opening night was a fun gathering of locals, visitors, artists, and friends in the park below the village. Among the fruit trees and in the shadow of the pigeonnier, the jazz band played while we strolled through the exhibits, local rose wine in hand.

We spoke with Bernard Geoffroy about the art of sculpting something wonderful from the stump of a dead tree, leaving it precisely where it had grown with roots still in the earth. We swooned with delight at the ceramic sculptures fashioned by Celine Faure and the fabulous work of other artists.

 

We laughed along with Henri Felix and his many followers when his mechanical garden statues performed jaw-dropping stunts.

So many more wonderful pieces and such delightful variety! Will you meet us in the park next year?   One last look at evening's end... 

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