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| Holiday Villa, Tourtour Sept. 1994 |
I remember the holiday as being cold at night, warm in the day - and Tourtour being a touristic village high in the clouds - and populated mainly by German and Dutch tourists, the 'Tabac obligatoire' and a restaurant catering more to Schweinshaxen and Uitsmijters than Bouillabaisse.
In other words: a global village already in 1994.
Once upon a time it was a little French village with typical Provence houses clinging precariously to the edge of nowhere.
Potected by the castle in the centre, the view from Tourtour towards the south remains breathtaking, though. The pirates of the 16th C would have had little more than a snowball's chance in a warm place to arrive unobserved.
Surprisingly, the public 'lavage' was still in use, taking its water from clear and utterly cold mountain streams.
This is the forecourt of the house we had rented and it was a wonderful, albeit very lonely, base for our excursions.
The Oleanders were in full bloom, displaying their blood-red flowers all around the house.
Behind us was a large meadow, that probably had been the feeding ground for a few cows belonging to the ruined farm a little higher up the hill.
This was the topic for another of my Tourtour paintings from 2010.
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