Standing above the village of Flassans-sur-Isole, in the heart of the hills of the Var, the Commanderie Peyrassol was founded in the 13th century by the Knights Templar. It was a popular staging post and a place of rest for large numbers of pilgrims setting off for the Holy Land. In 2001 Philippe Austruy, a French man who made a fortune from private clinics and retirement homes, purchased the property and gave it a new lease of life adding loads of contemporary art.
Today we ate breakfast to the surprising sound of 1940’s music echoing charmingly through the trees. Thinking it might be a funfair we walked over to find that, amazingly, it was a Victory Europe (VE) day celebration with loads of carefully looked after military vehicles – even including a period BMW motorbike. A memorial site had been set up around a landing craft in which colonel R. D. Parker landed with 190 men at 8 o’clock in the morning on 15 August 1944 on the beach which we can see from our camper. Today is apparently a national holiday in France, known as ‘Victoire 1945’ or ‘La Fête de la Victoire’.
Today we went to Château de la Napoule, the home of Henry Clews Jr. and the famously beautiful Elsie Whelan Goelet Clews, a rich couple dedicated to the arts. He was a sculptor.
What is it and I wonder what Henry and Marie would have thought of it?
The small island, l’isle d’or, behind Kim is a nice reddish colour (porphyry) and its tower is said to have been the inspiration for The Black Island in Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin.
In 1897 Léon Sergent bought the Isle of Gold from the French state in an auction for 280 francs. In 1905, Dr Auguste Lutaud won the island in a game of cards. He decided to build an 18m high tower. When it was finished in 1913, he proclaimed himself Auguste I, king of the Île d’Or and organized a sumptuous party. Stamps and coins were made, showing the Island. In 1961 the island was sold to François Bureau, a former naval officer, who renovated the tower and lived in it until his death in 1994 during one of his traditional early morning swims. The island still belongs to the same family and if a flag is flying, then the tower is inhabited, just like Buckingham Palace!🇬🇧
A nice round walk starting directly from the campsite.
Today we ate at Badaboom, which was delicious and not too extortionate. Charming American waitress. The straws came from Costa Rica and are some sort of bamboo!
More public French philosophy. No need for translation, I think.
A super cool French chocolate rabbit.
The garden of the Marc Chagal museum in Nice. Nice size and good audio guide (despite pesky 120 dB schoolchildren)
Today we were up early enough to be practically first through the door at Fondation Maeght
Look carefully and you can see a bird nesting on her head.
Groovy architecture!
The Korean artist Lee Bae did some nice things with charcoal youtube link (French), which are almost impossible to photograph nicely.
On the way home we stopped off in Tourrettes-sur-loup, which is very pretty. We took a free book from their book-sharing cabinet – Cold Water by Gwendoline Riley.
In the evening, we enjoyed listening to Jazz Radio.
Rain was forecast for today so we drove to Tourrettes-sur-loup, stopping for a picnic and a poke around Entrevaux. Had a nice chat with father & son bakers about bread and “brexshit” as the older man proudly showed off one of his important bits of English vocabulary.
After all of the bends in the mountain roads, Gerhild is happy to frolic around the meadow in the campsite Camping la Camassade €23 with borage casually growing by the wayside.
An Asian artist made this which reminds us of a restaurant in Rosenthalerstr. in Berlin.
Alexandra David-Néel sang operas, was a feminist activist like Emily Pankhurst, was the first western woman to visit Lhasa in Tibet and drank tea with yak butter which I thought smelled quite yukky, not yakky (although none of the French sniffers in our guided tour group seemed put off). wikipedia Alexandra David-Néel.
This portrait of the great lady is supposed to be made of yak butter.
More yak butter work. If it melts in the sun that’s fine, nothing is eternal in Buddhism.
Alexandra was quite a pretty teenager, dressed up here for some unspecified performance.
The simple house where she lived after returning from her travels, until an age of almost 101. Free guided tour in French.
Guardian article
The scholar and opera singer who sneaked into Tibet in the 1920s was also an anarchist, ran a casino and adopted a Buddhist monk
Camping Bagatelle, €23 just across the bridge from Avignon
La Petite Pêche, 13 rue St. Etienne. Fantastic 3-course Dorade (whole fish each) lunch with a thyme jelly dessert. Incroyable €15,- each menu du midi.
Watch out Avignon, Gerhild’s coming.
Is it Gerhild or trompe l’oeil?
Now Conservatoire de Musique but used to be where the popes kept their spare change.
Horsing around in the papal garden.
What’s left of the famous pont d’Avignon and the papal palace
Camping Municipale les Romarins €23
Really arrogant French policeman on motorbike. Incredibly loud TomTom GPS took us to wrong place. Several Michelin-approved restaurants in Maussane-les-Alpilles! Fantastic optician fixed Gerhild‘s sunglasses for „free“.
“Antony Gormley The Hall Art Foundation Schloss Derneburg 2017 CHANNEL” von Hall Art Foundation
Maria Lessing Kantate
Im Stil eines Bänkelsängers trägt Maria Lassnig in 14 Strophen ihren Lebensrückblick vor, während im Hintergrund selbst gezeichnete Schauergeschichten ablaufen: Es ist die Kunst jaja, die macht mich immer jünger, sie macht den Geist erst hungrig und dann satt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDSZ9GwnCE&feature=youtu.be
Patrick Shearn/Poetic Kinetics – Neo Prayer Flag
Liz West – Our Colour Reflection
Thilo Frank – Vertical Skip
Adam Scales + Ari + Pierre Berthelomeau – Reframe V2
QUINTESSENZ – COLORMAZE
Gabriel Pulecio – Infinity (Tiles of Virtual Space) 2016
Xaver Hirsch – Das Leben ist ein Wirbel und kein Strich.
flora&faunavisions – Without You
The small island, 
