Showing posts with label DESIGN AND DECOR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DESIGN AND DECOR. Show all posts

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Make Your Own Glass Ornaments

In his studio in L'Isle sur la Sorgue, glass artist Guillaume Roux is offering a great idea for the holidays: the chance to blow your own Christmas ornaments (boules de Noël). 

session lasts about 15 minutes, costs 20 per ornament and is appropriate for ages 8 and up. 

"I gather the molten glass on my steel blowing pipe," Guillaume explains, "then hand it to the customer who chooses two colors. Once it's all fused, I take over, shape it into a starter bubble, make everything hot again and then the customer blows his ornament. When it's done, I crack it off the blowing pipe and add the hook." 

Guillaume also offers a more comprehensive four to five-hour "initiation" glass-blowing workshop for 260 per person, for ages 17 and up. 

After working in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, Guillaume opened his studio As du Verre (Ace of Glass) about 18 months ago. There he produces a wide range of work, both functional and decorative, which he sells on site and at shows such as the annual Rencontre des Metiers d'Art (which happened in Pernes les Fontaines this past weekend). Upcoming shows at which he'll exhibit include Salon Ob'Art  (Nov 24-26, 2023) and Maison & Objet (January 19-22, 2024), a major European event. 

All workshops are by appointment only. "As soon as you walk in, you'll have a warm welcoming!," Guillaume says. "You'll find a wide variety of my creations: tableware, landscape vases, perfume bottles, ambient Lights and more. And once you leave, you will never be the same!"

As du Verre is located five minutes north of Centre Ville (Direction Carpentras), at 165 avenue Saint Antoine, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, 84800. To book: +33 (0)7 49 08 61 70, asduverre@gmail.com. 

To learn more and see lots of Guillaume's beautiful work, find him on Facebook and Instagram.

Monday, January 4, 2021

17 Perfect Provence Vacation Rentals


Three photos above: who wouldn't want to wake up here? This gorgeous eight-bedroom, eight-bath villa was crafted from an 18th-century olive mill, just a short drive from Les Baux.


A super-popular home with a luxurious-but-laid-back French country vibe, perched on a hillside in the Luberon, with sections dating to the 12th century. 



The roof terrace and dining/living room of a designer three-bedroom apartment I love in St. Remy.


This dreamy five-bedroom, five bath "farmhouse" in Eygalieres, restored impeccably and loaded with amenities, is nestled in an olive grove in a walk-to-town location.


A bright, airy three-bedroom on a lush, terraced property in the foothills of the Alpilles, just 1 km from the heart of St. Remy.


When I visited this gracious, old-world-style three-bedroom home (with drop-dead views, pool and tennis) I told the owner "I'd love to buy this!" Her reply? "Everyone says that!"


This magical sun-drenched compound in Eygalieres offers multiple art-filled houses, two pools, gorgeous landscaping, horses grazing next door...and the most-charming owners.



This ten-bedroom, nine-bath beauty, on 10 acres just 2 km from Gordes, has a small vineyard, lavender field, pool and tennis.


Families love this five-bedroom open-plan house in a lovely, laid-back village where you can walk to shops, cafes and restaurants. It has a separate kids wing, large yard and heated saltwater pool. Great hiking, biking and wineries nearby!


This 18th-century, seven-bedroom bastide was fully redone in 2016 and sits just 2 km from L'Isle sur la Sorgue, a postcard-perfect village with 250 or so antique shops and vendors.

If you're one of the lucky ones who can travel to France this year--or think you may be able to, once travel bans from your country are lifted--then you're probably thinking about where to stay. I know all the best hotels in Provence (for all budgets) and would be happy to help you choose. I love hotels!

But for lots of obvious reasons, this is a great year to rent a house. Provence has thousands of cottages, gîtes, apartments, townhomes, houses, villas and châteaux available for vacation rentals...all sizes, all prices. They range in style from cheap-and-cheerful to over-the-top elegant...rustic to highly refined. They're in city, village and countryside settings, with outdoor spaces ranging from tiny balconies overlooking terra cotta rooftops to sprawling terraces giving onto olive groves, lush vineyards and stunning lavender fields. Some have private pools while others have one pool for all guests to share; some have potagers and fruit trees and encourage guests to help themselves. All have kitchens, one of the major advantages of a rental house over hotel. Whether you dream of waking up in a renovated olive mill or a gorgeous family "farmhouse" with original beams or a 15th-century hunting lodge or a romantic tree house or a simple cottage among the vines, you'll want the perfect location, size, decor and amenities. And of course you want it to have that undefinable je ne sais quoi...no matter what your budget is.

But how to find that dreamy house, with so many options online...so many rental agencies...and so many villages to choose from? So glad you asked!

I have close to 400 rentals in my database and there's definitely something for every taste: from cute studios for singles and couples on up to vast multi-home properties sleeping as many as 50 people. You tell us what you want and when you're traveling...and we'll come back quickly with a selection. Then together we'll discuss pros and cons, narrow the list and help you choose. Et voila! 

This year, of course, we're all paying super careful attention to cancellation policies. We'll go over this carefully with you and make sure everyone agrees on a payment schedule and cancellation rules that are fair to both parties. My experience this year has shown that homeowners in Provence are far more flexible and forgiving than online booking sites are. And of course you'll want to buy trip-cancellation insurance, with a careful eye on the policy's specific pandemic-related coverage. Please note that I'm a matchmaker, not a rental agency, and your rental contract and payment arrangements will be handled directly between you and the homeowner.

Finally, one more quick caveat. Many houses are already heavily booked up for summer 2021 thanks to "rollover" guests who weren't able to come in 2020. So if your passport allows you to travel to France this year and you're dreaming of a very very very fine house in Provence, I suggest we start the hunt tout suite

To get the ball rolling, I chose 17 rental properties that I absolutely love and just published them on my trip-planning site ProvencePostTravel.com, arranged loosely by size and price. Click here to see the list. Why such an odd number, you ask? Well I was going for ten but it was so hard to choose that I settled on 15 instead. Then I got a bit nuts and kept going and then finally, at 17, I decided basta la comedia...that's enough! Rest assured my list of "17 Perfect Provence Vacation Rentals for 2021" is just a very-small sampling of our many offerings...an amuse-bouche rather than a full menu! Still, they're all terrific options and I'm pretty sure you'll find one (or more) that make your heart sing. So have a look and reach out to me at WhatToDoinProvence@gmail.com to discuss. Operators are standing by...

Friday, August 21, 2020

Peony Confetti: Made in Provence with Love

Flower farmers have created new company selling dried peony petals
Logo for new company selling dried peony petals
Field of peonies at flower farm in Provence
Workers harvest at flower farm in Provence
Large bunch of just-picked pink peonies
Peonies drying, to be turned into flower confetti
Flower buds, leaves and stems in basket
Cream colored confetti made from dried peony petals
Bright pink confetti made from dried peony petals
Soft pink confetti for weddings, made from dried peony petals
Multicolored confetti made from dried peony petals
Flower farmer on a peony petal pathway, a great idea for parties
Selling peony-petal confetti at a wedding expo in Provence
Samples of flower confetti can be shipped to future brides and wedding planners worldwide.wide.
Dried petal confetti, made in Provence, France, can be shipped worldwide
Flower-petal confetti in personalized cones at a recent wedding in Washington, D.C.
Guests throw peony petal confetti at wedding
Boutique selling just-picked flowers on a farm in Provence, France

My friends Debbie and Marcel van Eenennaam are the owners of Ferme Fleurie, a large, wholesale flower farm just outside Tarascon, between Avignon and Arles. They grow a wide range of flowers from October to June but they’re particularly well known for their peonies: gorgeous fluffy blooms in colors including Sarah Bernhardt, Duchesse de Nemours, Coral Sunset and many more...in both “simple” and “double” varieties. 

The farm’s 130,000 stabilized peony bushes will produce roughly one million stems this year.

Deb and Marcel export 95 percent of their harvest to Holland, sending huge refrigerated trucks packed with blooms--all measured, clipped, bunched and boxed—two to seven times a week in season, to be sold at auction. But they always hold back plenty of reasonably priced bunches and bouquets to sell in their small farm shop. I have friends who “go to Deb” every week, keeping their homes filled with gorgeous fresh flowers all fall, winter and spring. Many local florists, hotels and restaurants also buy regularly at the farm.

And now Deb has launched an exciting new venture all her own: producing dried-peony-petal confetti for weddings and other special events, from peonies grown and hand-picked at Ferme Fleurie.

Called Pétales de Provence, the new confetti company currently offers eight colors, ranging from rich cream to coral to deep red. The petals are 100% natural, 100% dye-free and 100% biodegradable. The most-popular use, Deb says, will be as loose confetti to throw at weddings, but they’re also perfect for flower girls, table decor, petal paths and more. Prior to lockdown here in France, Deb was making the rounds of the Provencal wedding expos and she says the response so far has been super. Samples are available and the company ships worldwide.

“Pétales de Provence was born in 2018, after an extremely hot peony season with lots of open flowers in the fields,” she explains. “And rather than see them go to waste, I had the idea to turn them into confetti. Now three years later, we’re finally ready to share our fluttering petal-confetti clouds with you! From the planting to picking to drying to packaging...it’s all done right here on the farm. We package them with love and post them to you wherever you are in the world. We like to think we’re selling smiles in a box."

In France, people traditionally throw rice at weddings so this is a new concept here, Deb explains. And most of the petal confetti already produced elsewhere comes from delphiniums,and cornflowers, which have much-smaller petals and no particular significance with regards to weddings. "Peonies have long symbolized romance and happy marriage, in both ancient and modern cultures," Deb tells me. "So in addition to being beautiful, they really do add special meaning to your day. Plus, they just look so amazing in photos!”

For more info (including prices and suggested quantities), visit the Pétales de Provence site here...and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

To learn more about the farm and boutique, read my recent blog post hereThe shop is now closed for its summer break (it’ll probably reopen in mid October) but after they reopen you can see shop hours and what flowers are available on the Facebook page here.

Photos: (1) Petal Pushers! Deb and Marcel met at a dinner party in Provence and quickly grew deeply connected. She's English, he's Dutch. They married on the farm in 2015. To learn more about the farm itself, click here. (2) The logo for the new company. (3) Peonies ripe for the picking; Deb and Marcel grow roughly one million stems each year. Marcel knows more about peonies than anyone. Many of his plants may very well outlive him...peonies can live to be 100 years old. (4) In peony season, the farm employs roughly 40 workers to get the flowers out of the field at just the right moment, then processed quickly for shipping to Holland. Marcel's brother receives them on the other end and does a final quality check before they go on to the Flora Holland Auction and world wide sales. Deb hopes that each year, more and more of the crop will become dried-petal confetti. (5)  Lily De Plano, who's studying immunology at university in Glasgow, helps out each year during peony season. Her friends think she has the best job in the world. (6) The first step is drying. (7) Beauty shot! Petals, leaves and buds in a basket. (8-11) Peonies come in every color but blue...who knew? Pictured are four of the eight varieties currently available as confetti: Duchesse de Nemours, Paula Fay, Sarah Bernhardt and Coral Sunset. (12) Deb made this petal path for a recent photo shoot at the farm. (13) Our favorite flower girl and her helper, Rejanne Havond, at a January wedding show in Aix-en-Provence. (14) You want samples? Just ask. (15) Deb says she feels like she's selling "smiles in a box" and will ship worldwide. (16) Personalized paper cones filled with confetti, ready to throw at Stephanie and Josh's recent wedding in Washington, D.C. (17) Pretty sure you get what's happening here. (18) The shop at Ferme Fleurie will reopen in October with the first flowers of fall: lillies. Then watch for anemones right though until peony season. 

Friday, April 17, 2020

20 More French Instagrammers to Follow


Every day, I hear from at least one friend somewhere in the world, asking how it's going under lock down in France. My short answer is pas mal...not bad!..and the perfect weather has played a big part. A few days ago, President Macron announced he's extending the current stay-at-home rules until May 11. Then, certain businesses will begin to re-open and others (such as hotels and restaurants), will follow at some point. It's all very wait-and-see but you can learn more in English in the Guardian and on France24.com. From what I've seen here in Provence, most people are taking the rules seriously and have been very compliant. I've been jotting down some thoughts about my experiences this past month (our lock down started March 17) and plan to share those in another blog post soon. But one of the many things I've enjoyed during this chapter is having had more time to read, both online and off, and time to play around a bit more on sites I love such as Instagram.

Two years ago, I published a post called 20 French Instagrammers to FollowI hope you found (or will find) some fun accounts there to enjoy.  (A few of them have since disappeared so I've just deleted them from my original post.) And since IG has become so wildly popular (one source says that as of July 2019, there were more than 16 million Instagram users in France, roughly 1/4 of the population!), it feels like it's time for an update. So here are 20 more people to follow. Some are posting images about isolation, community or healing...others are just putting up crazy-pretty pictures of France. There's food, fashion, flowers, fine art, illustration and more.

It was super hard to choose just 20! If I missed you in this roundup--or missed an account you love--please share the link or the account name as a comment at the bottom of this post. #RestezChezVous, stay safe and let's stay connected!