Jewish Food in France

A couple years ago, my friend Joan Nathan, a Washington, D.C.-based food writer and author, called and said she was coming to France, doing research for a new book. I snapped to attention, not just because I love Joan but also because I loved the topic: Jewish food in France. Joan was looking for cooks, stories, recipes, family lore, historical documents--anything that would help her piece

Kit Golson’s Design Tour de France

One of the many super-cool people I've met in the blogosphere is Kit Golson, a California-based interior designer who's crazy passionate about Provence. And now Kit tells me she's leading a Design Tour of Provence over Easter: April 22 to 27. If I didn't already live here, I'd sign up for this trip for sure. And I'm totally planning to schlep along one day if the gorgeous-and-talented Kit lets me

French Vintage on Sale

Jill Mitchell is offering discounts of up to 50% on the French vintage items in her two online shops. (This mid-century French school poster, for example, with North America on one side and Asia on the other, is now $60 plus shipping.) To see Jill's shop on Etsy, click here and use the code word "holidaysale" to get a 30% discount through the end of the year.  To see Jill's Ebay store click here;

Make Your Village A Star!

RendezVous Films  is producing a romantic comedy feature film called Kiss the Frog  in which an American businesswoman falls in love with a French farmer. Most of the story takes place in a tiny and remote village in the South of France and production will begin in April. Now they just need to find the village. Writer/director Kevin Dole describes Kiss the Frog as “my love letter to France.” He

Party Like It's 1399

Tarascon's annual Fête Médiévale runs through Sunday and if you like friendly natives in colorful costumes, this is the fête for you. Starting tomorrow, the Place du Chateau (the area around the castle) will be transformed into a medieval marketplace evoking the reign of King René, who built the castle in the 1400s. There will be jousting on horseback, knights in arm-to-arm combat, dancers, fire

Not So Fast...

Don't you hate it when you're doing a little renovation and you have to stop because you find 2,000-year-old Roman ruins in the cellar? That's what happened to the folks converting the 12th-century Hotel-Dieu in Marseille into a four-star hotel. Read all about it here.
Thanks to Laurence at ProvenceConfidential for the heads up on this great story and photo.

New Wines, Old Ways

Earlier this month, Time Magazine ran an interesting story about Jean-Daniel Schlaepfer (above) and other French winemakers who ferment their high-end wines in egg-shaped vessels based on amphorae — the clay jars used by the Romans centuries ago. Schlaepfer belongs to a growing number of producers who are "returning to the wisdom of the ancients in order to achieve the truest expression of a

Pompeii...the Easy Way

Google’s Street View, which lets you zoom into Google Maps and stroll through city streets in 3D, is amazing in its own right (they've done a pretty comprehensive survey of Provence, by the way). But it just got even more amazing with the addition of the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

Pompeii —the partially buried Roman city near Naples, Italy — is one of the most amazing sights one can see in one’s

Saturday in Avignon

If you'll be in Avignon Saturday Dec. 5th--perhaps to visit the charming Christmas market on the Place Horloge--you might want to check out one or both of these English-speaking events.

The first is the monthly BookShare rendezvous, when members lend and discuss current English-language books. It's 4 to 5:30 pm and visitors are welcomed. It happens at the Zeste Cafe, 62 Place des Corps Saints,

Willy Ronis 1910-2009

Photographer Willy Ronis died Saturday, aged 99. Best known for his portrayals of life in post-war Paris and Provence, Ronis, a contemporary of Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, remained "bright and spirited till the end" despite dialysis and being confined to a wheelchair, said Stephane Ledoux, head of Eyedea Presse, owner of Ronis' agency, Rapho.
"We have lost the last of the great

When Life Imitates Art...

Check out this fabulous suite at the Amsterdam Hilton: it's a real-life replica of Van Gogh’s painting The Bedroom. (Actually, the artist did three versions of The Bedroom, which hang in three different museums, but never mind.) The idea came from hotel director Roberto Payer, who was inspired by the ongoing "Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night" exhibit at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. Payer

Mad About Absinthe?

Eric Asimov, Pete Wells and Florence Fabricant of the New York Times taste tested 20 absinthes for a really good article in today's Dining & Wine section.

"Few things demystify absinthe more than the daunting prospect of 20 glasses in front of you," Asimov writes. The brands and styles ranged in color "from pale celadon and shimmering aquamarine to extra virgin olive oil to dizzyingly garish

Who Cut Off Van Gogh's Ear?

For more than a century, Vincent Van Gogh has been known as the tortured genius who sliced off his own ear in a fit of madness. But a new study claims that Paul Gauguin actually lopped it off with a sword as the two artists argued over a prostitute. In a new book, German art historians Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans contend Van Gogh let everyone think he had mutilated himself in order to

Jewish Cooking in Provence

My friend Joan Nathan (www.joannathan.com) is a Washington, D.C.-based author who writes about food for the New York Times. She’s almost done with her 10th book, a history of Jewish food and cooking in France, which will be published next year by Knopf. From May 4th to 8th, Joan will be in the Vaucluse area on her final research trip, and she’s looking for any information on the cooking of the