PROVENCE - JUNE, 2023

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There is something about the light in southern France that is special. Not only the light but the land itself. It is a place that beckons artists and welcomes pilgrims. The Provence is the provenance of creativity and peace.

 

This June we visited this region of sublime colors and bright air. We had heard and read so much about it over the years. From Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence to the numerous painters who set up studios in hillside villages. The journey was a long sought destination. 

 

We landed in Nice where we rented an apartment for a few days just blocks away from the Mediterranean Sea. We walked the pebbled beach front, took a coastal cruise along the undulating shores of the Côte d’Azur and wandered through the fresh produce and seafood of the farmers market. 

 

Top most on our agenda was to encounter the works of our favorite modern artists; Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, and of course, Marc Chagall. Chagall established the area around Nice for his final home and studio. In fact he is buried in the hillside town of St. Paul de Vence. One day we walked to the Marc Chagall National Museum to witness his enormous paintings. Saturated in primary colors each canvas is a combination of Biblical motifs from the Torah and his idiosyncratic Yiddish characters, His brush was dipped in the God-colors of creation. 

 

A few days later we trained across the breadth of the Riviera and arrived in Avignon, on the western edge of Provence. This was an ideal location for making day trips to nearby sites. Our flat was adjacent to a garden restaurant that was a welcome respite after our day’s journey. Avignon is a charming city with a unique heritage of replacing the Vatican in the 14th century. The enormous yet forlorn Papal Palaces remain and present a stunning view of the city below.

 

A highlight was our tour of the lavender area east of Avignon. We were joined by six other international travelers from Japan, Malta and Austria. By the end of the day we were fast friends and huge fans of our Italian/French guide; Violet. 

 

The famous Abbey de Senanque is situated in a deep valley that has existed since the 12th century. It is a holy site both for the spirit and the soul. We walked into the rows of lavender that stretched to the horizon and awakened our senses. We beheld the stunning symmetry of the flowering lavender and the aroma of their buds. Most surprising was the gentle hum of the honey bees that filled the air with their sotto voce buzzing. 

 

Later we stopped for an alfresco lunch in Gordes, a stone village perched on a hilltop above the Vaucluse region. The fresh food and resplendent view sated our souls. This part of Provence is remote  and rugged. It has been a refuge for Huguenots in the Reformation and Partisans in WW II. We were grateful to travel freely among this reverential terrain.

 

The following day we made a day trip to much anticipated Arles. This is the famous little village where Vincent Van Gogh spent 16 prodigious months of his all too short life. With map in hand we gladly discovered the locations where he created some of his iconic paintings. Reproductions had been set up approximately where his easel stood and we were able to view his ‘Starry Night’, the ‘Yellow House’, the ‘Langlois Bridge’, and finally his ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’. We sat across from this cozy cafe and I was able to sketch it as an homage to the famous Dutch painter. 

 

An unexpected highlight was another day trip to the town of Tarascon. Just 15 minutes south of Arles by train, here is the former factory of the Souleiado fabric concern. In the 19th & early 20th century Souleiado was a leading creator of block print cotton fabric. The old factory is now a museum that is wonderfully preserved. It is as if on the final day of production, the foreman locked the door and left everything in place to resume work sometime in the future. The vats for dying cloth, the wood tools for cutting molds, the racks for hanging finished fabrics were all in place. We walked into the work-world of 1890 handicraft. 

 

Our final stop was a brief overnight in Marseille. This is the second largest city in France and so it does not have the intimate charm of the villages to the north. However, it has a lively citywide beach that was thronged with people young and old where we took off our shoes for a walk in the surf. We then strolled along the shoreline sidewalks and were fortunate to witness the summer sun setting over the sea. Dinner was seafood with flavors of local favorites bouillabaisse and salad Nicoise. 

 

Marseille has been a harbor town since before the Romans. Not only goods have been transported through its docks but also humans and refugees. For a brief time in 1940-41 when all of Europe was being invaded by the Nazis a few brave souls set up shop tin Marseilles to save the most vulnerable; Jews. One of them was the young American, Varian Fry, an unsung hero of that time, in the stature of Oscar Schindler. Facing untold dangers, Fry was able to save the lives of hundreds of people including Hannah Arendt, André Breton and March Chagall and their families and many more. On our Uber ride back to the airport I asked our driver to stop at the former address of Fry’s office. Our African drive, himself a refugee, pulled up to the street lit 18 Boulevard Garibaldi. I hopped out and with my cellphone flashlight turned-on I scanned the addresses of the doorways. There on the list of labels was the handwritten name Varian Fry. Though he died at a relatively young age, some eighty-three years later, he is still remembered.

 

Provence is profound in many ways. Most of all it is the light A light that shines within and without.