A Family Week in the Luberon

A Family Week in the Luberon

August 2013

A family reunion at Katia and Philip's holiday home in the heart of the Luberon district of Provence. It is just a few kilometers from the village of Menerbes, made famous by Peter Mayle's popular book "A Year in Provence", first published in 1989. His house was "set above the country road that runs between the two medieval hill villages of Menerbes and Bonnieux, at the end of a track through cherry trees and vines."

I should not give up my day job!

View from Menerbes towards the house, nestling just behind
the tip of the hill coming down from the left.

The village was named after Minerva, goddess of wisdom and the arts. Picasso bought his mistress, Dora Maar, a house in the village in 1944, where she lived until her death in 1997. The house now features the Brown Foundation fellows Programme.

The matriarches, from the left; Katia, Delfine, Margaret, Fiona, Elisabeth and Kiran

and Camilla.

The Luberon really is a lavender imbued Shangri-la for Europe's haut bourgoise, swimming in rose wine.

Lavender fields

Alex in Gordes at the L'Estaminet, the rose
is from the Domaine La Garelle

Lunch at the house with Gregoire

Neat lush vineyards, groves of pruned olives and truffled oaks liberally sprinkled with heavily restored provencale farmhouses, "disneyesque" in its perfection. The land that witnessed the massacre of the Vaudois heretics in 1545 now sports Porsch SUV's with Belgian plates, Ferrari's with English plates and Range Rovers with Russian plates.  

A family bicycle ride, unposed, with Bonnieux beyond the vineyards.

And the children on the trampoline and in the pool

and the daily activity schedule.

Gordes, each perched village in the Luberon has its associated
paintings

Two architectural views, above Bonnieux.

The rose red village of Roussillon, famous for its ochre pastels

Flowers in a window, and by Winifred Nicholson

My fascination with "then and Now", change and permenancy,
and upcycling. In this case Lourmarin.

The Cedars of the Luberon Hills.

The Atlas cedar trees overlooking the Valley of the Durance

Natural Sculptures, from the cretaceous  limestone of the Tythian Sea.

A "selfie" of the photographer.