Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Menton Fête du Citron - Lemon Festival 2009

The 2009 Lemon Festival of Menton is underway, from yesterday 14 Feb until the 4th of March, and Beyond was there. Our Menton Lemon Festival has a collection of photos from the Citrus Expositions in the Jardin Biovès in the center of town.

La Motte Moulin - Treasure

The "treasure" we spoke of in our previous blog about La Motte is the Moulin of La Motte. We discovered the the little village with this old mill, displaying the wonderful artistic works of clay figurines (large santon-style), olive-wood plaques and line graphics.

The interior is a site to behold, even before focusing in on the large variety of treasures on display.

If you're wandering around the Var, summer or winter, any day of the week, be sure to stop and have a look here - and say Bonjour to the talented M. Pizay. La Motte village is only 7 km from Les Arcs, 12 km from Draguignan and 23 km from Fréjus - St Rapahel.

The little Varois village of La Motte is in Beyond

We had managed to bypass La Motte for many years now, or slow to 50 while passing through, or even stopping for an adjacent hike years ago, in pre-Beyond days. A Sunday visit to the neat little village of La Motte made us wish we had investigated here long ago. There are a few narrow little streets to wander, one with a couple of "bardas" that we hadn't heard of, a great village-center café and some pretty fountains.

Located between Draguignan and Le Muy (beside the autoroute), La Motte is easy to get to. It's only an hour's drive from Cannes - Nice, and about the same from Aix-en-Provence. There's also a nearby waterfall and a treasure in the village.

Saturday - Beyond in the Snow

A week of rain (in the lowlands) stopped for the weekend, and Beyond took a drive from Grasse, up the Route Napoleon to Castellane, then along the Vedon River, south via Trigance, Jabron, Comps-sur-Artuby, Bargemon, Seillans and back to Grasse.

Along the Route Napoleon the trees, mountains and countryside along the road was all snow-covered, with overhanging branches sometimes dropping a load on us as we went by. The road was a bit dicey in one or two spots, but mostly clear. And absolutely beautiful.

Café stop in Castellane, along with some of the interesting quiches from the next-door bakery: courgette-chevre and artichoke quiches for the coffee, and crevette-crab and broccoli-rochefort quiches saved for the afternoon.

The Verdon river a deep green, but shady down in the valley between tall, snow-covered mountain slopes. Difficult for photography.

 Heading south past Trigance and through Jabron, there are usually birds of prey hunting the fields beside the road. This time there was a large "buze" perched on a low tree just beside the road. He soared away when we impolitelyl stopped just there.

These two photos are cell-phone photos taken on the move, through the windshield.

Auron, Isola 2000 Ski Stations Snowed Out

Too much snow for the Southern Alpes Ski Stations. With the huge amounts of rain in the lower parts of the Alpes-Maritimes the past week, and the huge amounts of snow in the mountains, there is a high risk of avalanches along the routes to the ski stations.

This photo, by the way, is a camera-photo of a large fox trotting along the road down from Isola 2000 to Isola village, taken a couple of weeks ago.

Both Isola 2000 and Auron have been declared off-limits (the roads are closed) for the weekend start of France's winter school vacations. We have a map of the Southern Alpes ski stations here.  A sad state of affairs for ski-enthusiast families and for the economy of the local ski stations.

The plans are that the roads will be closed until Saturday night.

Beyond's Recommended Reading via Amazon

We've had a Books Section on Beyond for many years, with lists of recommended reading in different categories, from general-interest books about Provence, to travel guides and reference books (Roman history, architecture, etc.)

Until now we've left it to the reader to track down a book for potential purchase. No more struggling, dear reader.

The Beyond Recommended Books now (mostly) have colorful cover images and direct links to the appropriate Amazon.com page for purchase. At the very least, a click through to the Amazon page will bring you more information, including reviews of the books.

Our book list pages include 2 pages of Suggested Books, Hiking Walking Guides, Reference Books, Michelin Green Guides, Roadmaps and Michelin Maps for Provence and the rest of France.

If you're in the market to buy a book or map anyway, why not help support Beyond a bit?