Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Villa Noailles in Hyères on France's Heritage Weekend

 Saturday-Sunday (18-19 Sept) was Heritage Weekend (Journées Patrimoines) in France, when  museums, olive oil mills, places of interest in towns and villages all over France are either open for visits (if they aren't normally open to the public) or free (if they're normally open but charge). We spent the morning in Hyères, near Toulon, visiting several sites, including the Villa Noailles.

 Viscount Charles de Noailles and his wife Marie-Laure, patrons of modern art, had their Summer villa designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1923. The villa is located on the hill above the center of Hyères just below the Chateau ruins where the original fortified town once stood.

The Noailles were important patrons of modern art through the 1920s and 1930s, particularly surrealism; they supported film projects by Man Ray Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel; and commissioned paintings, photographs and sculptures by Balthus, Giacometti, Constantin Brâncuşi, Miró, and Dora Maar. Following the war years, from 1947 until 1970, the villa was the summer residence of Marie-Laure,who died in 1970, and the house was purchased by the city of Hyères in 1973. [Thank you Wikipedia.]

An experienced botanist, Charles de Noailles created a large Mediterranean park beside the Hyéres villa. The terraced gardens have a great collection of Mediterranean plants, and a wonderful view of the town and the seaside.

Charles de Noailles, who died in 1981, had another villa with extensive gardens built in a shady valley at the edge Grasse. 

Extinct Horses and Short-Toed Eagles

 A sunny Sunday drive in the back-country of Grasse today, and we ran across once-nearly-extinct Przewalski's horses and a Short-Toed Eagle.

The Przewalski's horses were at the Reserve Biologique des Monts d'Azur, a Buffalo Park we've described on our Thorenc page. We stopped by to check the place out. It was going great, and we decided to come back at some non-August time for a leisurely safari visit.

The Short-Toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) was hunting over the fields in the area of Thorenc and Andon. 

 

Another great lunch in the little Chez Nous restaurant at Andon finished the morning off nicely.

Cévennes Steam Train - Train à Vapeur des Cévennes

 A picturesque steam train runs between the towns of Saint Jean-du-Gard and Anduze in the Cévennes. The 40-minute trip follows along the beautiful valley of the Gardon de St Jean river. Train schedules allow an easy round-trip voyage, or with stops of a few hours or even all day in either Saint Jean-du-Gard or Anduze.

If you're staying in Saint Jean-du-Gard, you can take the train to Anduze for the Thursday market day; if you're staying in Anduze, you can go by train for the Tuesday market in Saint Jean-du-Gard.

We took photo here (above) yesterday, of the southbound train exiting a tunnel and crossing a viaduct about half way between the two towns.

The train runs from April to September, with the most frequent service during the summer, June to August. The first train of the morning and the last one in the evening is pulled by a diesel engine, not the steam locomotive.

Prices and schedules are available on www.trainavapeur.com.

Cannes 2010 February - Sunny and a bit of Snow

The day after the amazing Snow in Cannes on the Côte d'Azur. Friday, 12 Feb 2010, and the snow blanketing Cannes is almost gone.

This snow-sprinkled beach sported snowmen yesterday, but they didn't last long under the sun.

It is very, very rare for these "pointu" fishing boats in Cannes to be covered in snow (below).

More Snow-in-Grasse 2010 Photos

And a few more photos from the snow day in Grasse this Thursday (11 Feb 2010).

This photo (below) is the main street, Jeu de Ballon. The road going up to the left is the Route Napoleon exiting Grasse to the north.

This (below) is the empty Place aux Aires, the heart of Grasse's old town.

Snowy roofs and blue skies in Grasse - the morning after (below).

Olive orchard in the snow - the next day, with blue skies. This is the hamlet of St Antoine.

Snow in Grasse Feb 2010, Photos

Thursday, 11 February 2010, and some serious snow in Grasse. First time this has happened in quite a few years.

This is a view of Grasse old-town from below.

The Fragonard Parfumery on Bvd Fragonard in Grasse (below).

 

The Jardin des Plantes in the Snow, beside the Fragonard parfumery (below).

Snow on the Cours Honoré Cresp in Grasse, Feb 2010 (below)

Fetching the daily paper, Grasse Bvd du Jeu de Ballon, Feb 2010 (below).

Snowey steps and statue, Grasse,  Feb 2010.

The old flower market in the snow - Grasse's Place aux Aires, Feb 2010 (below).

Lavender Blooming mid June

Our local lavender patches around Grasse (in the Alpes-Maritime) began blooming around 15 June this year (2006). It wasn't until today, 22 June, that we got a chance to drive up to the Plateau de Valensole [map] to check on the large lavender fields in that area.

Just 5 km north of Quinson we found the first of several lavender fields, and all were in full flower. A few photos for our blog, and some of an adjacent vineyard being pruned, and we continued on to Riez for lunch and a look around the town. There's more in Riez than the Roman columns - we'll update our Riez page in the near future.

Seillans le Cher?

We visited Seillans today during their biannual Fête des Fleurs, and were surprised to find that there is an entrance fee of 3 euros to visit the old village. Their reasoning is that the village streets are decorated as an exhibition with special themed flora displays, so visitors are really paying for that rather than to visit the village.

The result is that you pay to visit the village. It's the first time we've seen that in all our years in the South of France and we disagree with it in principle.

The people of Seillans put in a big effort to decorate the village (the inner part and the surrounding streets), and it is no doubt costly. We were told independently that the 3-euro entrance fee doesn't result in them covering their expenses.

Still, we think that having an entrance fee into a village is not a good practice and it presents a poor image to visitors. When you pay the fee, you don't know what you'll be seeing, and there's a risk that you'll be disappointed about whether or not it was worth it. Many visitors have come a long way, and probably agree to pay rather than leave without seeing anything. And that doesn't leave them with a good impression of the place.

We think another method of supporting the cost of the fête would be to have an "appreciation box" at the exit of the inner streets. Signs could ask visitors to contribute if they appreciate the decorations and presentations. We have a feeling that the monetary payback would bring at least as much, if not more, than the "entrance fee" method, and the visitors would be happier with having a choice about the cost.

We would really like to hear what you think about all of this.

Sunshine on the Lakes

June has started out warm and sunny, and Beyond's homepage photo shows a sunny Lac de Sainte Croix. We just updated the Lac de Sainte Croix page with some new photos, mostly taken last July.

To prove that  June has really started  out with some sunshine, we photographed  the Lac  St Cassien  today [the photo shown here],  and you can see the snow on the low hills beyond the lake, from yesterday's rain-snow storms.

Bar-sur-Loup revisited

Bar-sur-Loup was one of the earliest villages on Beyond, on-line in 1996. We've passed through or made short stops there several times over the years, and now we've finally done another Beyond Visit and took a few more photos.

We also took a loop hike in the hills above the village (the hike is described on the Bar-sur-Loup page), passing through several long, black tunnels through the rock, without a flashlight. The lovely waterfall, shown in our photo from 1996, was bone-dry. But the little fountain was flowing with nice, cold water.