Falling in love can be so easy, can’t it?
Sometimes you just know. I had a hunch from the first moment that the village of Simiane la Rotonde would be the real thing and my instinct didn’t let me down.
Patina, time pushing up against each other at odd angles and solitude. Simiane checks the boxes of more than a few of my favorite things. Remi and I eventually stopped talking as we wound our way up and around, delighting in suspended gardens and ornate gates leading to forgotten bastides.
A bird is free now to make his nest in the curlicues of a Renaissance manor but Simiane was once quite wealthy, quite populated. While 1,157 people strolled its cobble stone streets in 1753, there are 30-70 residents living in the village year-round, depending on who you ask.
The 16th century covered market hall opens out onto the lavender fields below and is a simple token of the village’s more glorious past.
But touches of gentility remain…
I’ll be quiet now and let you wander…
…take your time…
…because as Diana Vreeland so wisely commanded “The eye must travel”…
But what, you might ask, is that large sugar lump of stone? More of that in the next post…for there is still much to share…
When we fall in love it is hard not to be exuberant, n’est-ce pas?
How beautiful, Heather. Thank you for letting my eye travel 😉
~ Clare x
I agree with Jackie and Joel, this post was a gift. Thank you dear Heather!
"l'esprit de lieu"…sound beautiful in French. In my opinion, you hit the nail on the head each time (for lack of better words). And you put your thoughts in writing so beautifully and well, makes me wish I can be half as good.
Thank you so much, Lisa and "one day, one day"… It will make the trip all the sweeter and then you will see for your own eyes that I only am able to express the tip of the iceberg!
And I will happily take those blessings and send them back in your direction,
Heather
Oooh, spoken "comme une vrai française"! I dare not type one word more…
xo,
H
PS. Sauf, n'oublie pas "toujours discret"! 😉
Hmmm, that is so beautifully said and that sentiment was such a big reason for why we moved from Paris to Arles. To live amongst these old stones, every single day, is such a gift. And we also have the Rhone, which, while not at all having the force of the ocean is still a force to be reckoned with…
That is just such a gorgeous thing to write Jackie–it is you who have given a gift!!
Ann, it truly is something special! And I know how you love the food angle–like a girl after my own heart!–the products of the region were in-sane. We missed out on one that is sold only at a small epicerie there–la biere de la chataigne! Worth going back for, non? 🙂
Thank you so much, Helen but truly I am disappointed with my photos of it and only wish that you could plant your easel to see for yourself how enchanting it is–that really is the word! And to think that you are not so far away! But I would love to see what you could do in lavender season in the area…it would be glorious!
xo,
h
Aidan, go for a look-see the next time you visit Sara in the LPV, it is not so far at all…
xo!