August 24 & 25: Some visitors and Lourmarin

The weather was a bit weird on Monday — some actual clouds in the what had been nothing but endless blue. It was still quite warm, but a brief rain shower did come by in the late afternoon, only to leave the scent of rain and a beautiful evening sky. I chose not to venture out; took care of some “business” while relaxing in the house, swam some laps and awaited the arrival of my guests from Winchester: Lucy and Paul. After many solitary days and meals, I had been looking forward to having some company. And of course, the better the friends, the better the company. We had a very enjoyable evening and a wonderful meal on the patio. It was truly a perfect Provence night.

We had decided on a slow start to the morning with our only planned activity a trip to Lourmarin on market day. Lucy swam and Paul and I walked into town for a baguette and croissants and off we set for one of the beautiful villages in Provence. Extremely picturesque, the village is a magnet for tourists. Prominent sites are the village itself, the pretty Renaissance castle, the Catholic and Protestant churches and the view from the village of the Proches Bastides, a large fortified farmhouse dating to the Middle Ages. It’s a very artsy village, and the writers Henri Bosco and Albert Camus both lived here and are buried in the local cemetery. Peter Mayle, the author or A Year in Provence currently lives in Lourmarin. The streets are so narrow that some won’t permit vehicles,and it is well known for it’s Friday market, which offered both food and artisan goods like table linens and handcrafted olive wood products. And somehow, a young boy with a baby goat who convinced me he was collecting money for the it’s care and feeding caught my attention. We had arrived towards the end of the market hours, so some vendors were already shutting down. There are 2 Michelin-starred restaurants and many gift shops; quite lovely.

Chateau of Lourmarin consists of a 15thC late medieval building and a 16thC Renaissance wing. It is entirely furnished and managed by the Academy of Arts & Sciences, offering tours and occasional concerts. Across from it is the Protestant Church, which is from the 18thC. In 1545 the town had been mostly burned down because it’s population was primarily Protestant. The village twists snail-like round a rocky spur topped by the “boite de seal” belfry (castelas), the remains of a 17thC belfry built on the foundations of an 11thC fortress. It was difficult to get close to it with the narrow windy streets, so I satisfied myself with the long shot!

On the way back we stopped at a mountain fed lake that was clearly a holiday spot — at one end there was camping and a beach — it was an unexpected sight And then, dinner on the patio — Provence-style — and that was today.