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Although Maison Olive is still full for another three weeks before it too closes for a month and the new terrace building episode commences, we have been luxuriating in the free time afforded during this time of the year when you can get things done.

Like fetching fire wood. Erica was here for a month. That means, plenty of fires! At this time of the year, the search is for small, dry pieces of wood. We managed to find some and not being able to wait for a delivery, we did the work ourselves!

January and February are really peaceful times when many restaurants and shops take their annual leave but the construction folk move into full swing with he deadline of the season approaching.

It’s also a time to enjoy our surrounds and look at what’s new in Menerbes….. I nearly forgot!! Madame has been given a new MacBook Pro by Erica, she has her iPad courtesy of William and my Orange fidelity points stumped up for a new iPhone 4GS. Tech support, is here and present.

Au bientot: Lovonne and Simon xx

The first 29 years of my life were spent in blissful ignorance of items such as vegetables and salad. Boarding school and the army saw to that.

However, at the tender age of 29, I met Madame and was introduced to the delights of greens. Over the years, I have strangely never had reason to come across an artichoke on my plate except when it has been slipped under a few leaves in a Provençal salad.

Saturday night was different. We went out to dinner at some American friends. Helen, our hostess announced that the main course was a Peruvian pork dish, which looked and tasted very good when it arrived. At the other end of the plate, Helen had zoomed across the Atlantic and given us a genuine Provençal artichoke.

Bowls of melted butter were laid before us and off everyone else went - tearing off the leaves, dipping in butter and then dragging the aforesaid leaf through their mouths and then depositing them into another bowl.

I was concentrating so hard on the act that I tore, I dipped and I chewed, I swallowed. Now, I know why it’s call arti-choke. And choke I did, but quietly, it was the first time was had been to Scott and Helen for a dinner party after all.

The only solution was to eat pork and then watch the others and the precise method of eating their artichokes. Our host and hostess had already had a conversation about the fact that they were one artichoke short, so I felt that to leave mine uneaten would be rank bad manners!

Ah! Dip in the butter, and then drag the leaf through your mouth, eating the white fleshy bit and discard the ‘choke’ part. I tried. I have many, natural gaps in my mouth and the artichoke leaf came out resembling a rather ragged comb with many broken teeth.

Bad manners or not, I gave up. Anyone for an artichoke?

Advance Australia Fair, mates!

Take the D900 through the Luberon Valley in the direction of Apt and you will find the unremarkable hamlet of Le Chene (turnoff Gargas). However, nestling alongside the road and surrounded by tall plain trees is the ‘old school’ - La Petite Ecole. Now owed and run as a great little restaurant by Sophie and Denis, La Petite Ecole serves Provençal cooking at its best, and without the price tag of such luminaries such as Les Coquillades now so far further up the road.

The restaurant only accommodates 20 people in the winter - a few more in the sumer where they use the outside terrace under the trees, so booking is absolutely essential and you will struggle to find a tourist. This is strictly local! However, Denis has quite a good command of the English language and will guide you through the menu. There are two set menu options (€22 and €30) and a small a la carte. The wine list is also strictly local and very reasonable priced - a 1 litre carafe of rose sells for €9. The restaurant in inside an old schoolroom, complete with biology and geography posters and clientele sit at school desks. Even the menu is in an old school file on squared paper. It could be trite - it’s not.

Madame started with a fascinating dish -a ‘coquillade‘ of egg and smoked chipped beef, baked in a cream sauce : she pronounced it delicious. She then continued with a steamed caubillard fish dish which was cooked to perfection. Erica started with a fish soup complete with a rouille and grated cheese, followed by confit de canard. The only sounds were slurping of rose, munching of food and sighs of happiness.

I was boring - a smoked salmon salad followed by a medium entrecote with mash and a plum Provençal tomato.

Sophie does a mean cheese platter and Dennis is proud of his hand made ice-cream. Be patient, Denis is front of house and Sophie does the cooking. Every now and then she appears with a big toothy smile and adorned with a paper cap and hands over food. In a time when people can cut corners to make the maximum profit, you leave La Petite Ecole feeling that you have really got your money’s worth. Its the kind of mel you go back for time and again. We certainly do.

Galerie Pascal Laine is an institution in the Luberon. Situated in Menerbes, Pascal specialises in contemporary art and has provded much needed publicity and exposure for many artists over his more than 20 years in owning art galleries (Avignon, Gordes and now Menerbes).

During December and January, Pascal Laine has been exhibiting works by the sculptor Nadine Fourre. Nadine was born in France in 1957 and settled in Japan in 1981 for some time. These influences permeate her work, and she has just finished an exhibition of her rock sculptures in Menerbes.

Elegantly crafted and, in some cases, quite spectacular, the works are a master class in balance and precision. Nadine collects her rocks from the Durance river and her driftwood from beaches around the Marseilles area.

We have reason to visit the Galerie Pascal Laine as Beachstone Interiors of Chatham, Cape Cod USA was purchasing a few pieces for clients.

Nadine goes to the source of the 740km long Durance (which is one of the main tributaries of the mighty Rhone River) high up in the glaciers of the Alps and she says that “if you place your ear to the mountain, you can hear the rocks swirling around as though they are in a washing machine!”, and then tracks her stones down to the Cavaillon region where she harvests them.

She is a resident of the tiny, atmospheric village of Eygalieres, a few minutes from glitzy St Remy-de-Provnce, in the heart of the Les Alpilles region of Provence. Fourre says that her art form does not yet have a ‘name’ but her and about 20 others world wide who practice this art form are gathering in Japan later in 2012 to formalise the genre.

It was fascinating watching Nadine Fourre teaching Erica of Beachstone Interiors how to reassemble the pieces when they reach the USA - an art form in itself and really steady, calm hands are needed!

Nadine’s work can also be seen on her website and via Galerie Pascal Laine. (www.galerie-pascal-laine.com).

“I just received the book Footsteps from Amazon!  So excited to relive our time in the beautiful Luberon.  I read that notebook over and over again while we stayed at La Maison Blanc…  I commend Simon on all the work he has done.  The historical tidbits and sections are the most fun to me.” - Nick, New York.

Coming to the Luberon this season? Your ultimate guide…..

NOW ON AMAZON!

When we started Bastide les Amis as a self-catering rental property in Menerbes, we provided our guests with a printed Guide to the property and some useful day trips and items of local interest which are often not carried in the more commercial and established Guide Books.

We’ve had such a great reaction and coupled with the growing readership of this website, we felt that we should expand the concept into a 100 page book. Lovonne’s beautiful photographs taken over the seasons, complement the words which give you a highly personalised view of the Luberon and surrounds.

From a [very] short History of Provence, to day trips, some quirky trips like discovering the secrets behind the ‘turnarounds’ (the roundabouts!) to ‘Finding your way around a French supermarket’, Footsteps has been designed to give you an insight before, during and even after your trip to Provence - no matter how many times you have been here.

Footsteps - the Luberon and Surrounds, is available from Amazon as a hard copy book or can be downloaded via the Kindle App on to your ipad, iphone or any other smart/tablet device. The price is €19.00 (GBP16.00;US$24.99;AU$25.00;ZAR206.00). Downloading the Kindle app is free - merely go to your favourite App Store.

*Currency conversions apply from US$ at time of writing, Amazon will provide their own ruling price at purchase.

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