Big Black Bee, Soriana, Route to Fouras, Hollyhock Welcome, Excursion to Bordeaux Graves Winemaker Friends, Roman Ruins, Food and Family

A most amazing all black bee in Anne's garden enjoying Delphinium.

Did a forest walk with Anne and these unfurling ferns struck me like dragon heads!

We went to see her horse Soriana. Weather has been too bad to ride much .

Anne and Soriana having a conversation...

and a smooch.

Soriana lives in a field with two other mares. Above is a Frison horse belonging to a young rider.    

On June 3, I drove 4.5 hours to Fouras in the Charente-Maritime - the West Coast of France north of Bordeaux. Along the autoroute some places to stop for gas also offered an elaborate array of charging stations put in by Tesla. But my Tesla is in CA so I could not take advantage and got some gas for my  hybrid Toyota Prius Plus instead. Storms along the way made it a less than pleasant drive but I made it! and my car got washed!

Pulling up to park in front of the Chambre d'hôtes where I usually stay I opened the door literally right into this friendly cheerful hollyhock, tucked into the sidewalk. What a welcome! (waited for a sunnier day to photograph it). I am here to visit an artist friend Tilman Eichhorn who several of you have seen either in person or via photo. He is German but has lived in France for 50 years and much of that was in le Perche where I met him in 2017? He moved to Fouras in 2018 where he can swim in the sea everyday except in the depth of winter. He loves it here and I can see why. 

Fouras is a seaside town of 4000 people and so so charming. Hollyhocks everywhere. They will be very tall by true summer. 

The roses here are exceptional too. With all the rain they bloom generously.

As do the geraniums too.

There's a little patio right off my room that looks out to the garden. They have three cats and here is one spying something aloft....

I drove around the afternoon and came across this classic mix of wheat and field poppies....these happen all over France and I love the look of it.

This view is oh so similar to one I put on my photographic card series in the  80's. It is so consoling to see that some things don't change!

The covered market in Fouras is a sheer delight - small, so easy to manage and in all weather, and given the rainfall quotient the lettuces get to Peter Rabbit "in his dreams" size! 

In a separate covered market building next door, all the fish and shellfish arrive! I took a stroll around to see it all and purchase some Julienne filets - one of those Atlantic ocean fish with delicate but rich flavor. Yum.

The local Charente-Maritime strawberries called Charlotte.

On Saturday June 5, Tilman and I drove the 2 hours to Landiras to visit the Labuzan family who make the Bordeaux Graves we bought in 2019 and think is very delicious. and happy it's organically produced. And happy they decided to put my etching of a grapevine in winter on their label. Madame Labuzan is Béatrice Bliard, the daughter of Champagne maker Jean Bliard.  

 Béatrice and Tilman had the Escargots à la Bordelaise which came in that adorable red enameled-iron marmite - oddly enough neither of them could tell what exactly was in this preparation besides the snails but it was good!

Son Victor Labuzan started with a fresh pea soup which looked delicious. Pierre Laduzan and I had the house made foie-gras which was a big treat to say the least for a first course and oh so French.

By contrast, Pierre and Victor had a  
Burger for the main course! So there it was - the American standard - being offered right along side glorious fish ( I had swordfish), elaborate chicken dishes etc. Surprised me, but of course in a good restaurant the burger was far from fast-food.-

This was the restaurant's Signature Dessert - crunchy hazelnut and chocolate and cream layers - I did not have that one but admired its architecture!

Above is the Pistachio Creme Brûlée Beatrice and I had. The pistachio flavor was all through it, natural pale green, and thin. The top was nice and crunchy crisp as it should be, and not too sweet. Yum!

We decided to drive home a different way up through the Medoc region, and take a ferry across from Le Verdun to Royan,

Royan was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt in the 1950's. Coming into Royan the skyline is punctuated by a very modern cathedral - Église Notre-Dame de Royan which was built between 1955 and 1958. It was designed by a team of architects: Guillaume Gillet, Marc Hebrard, René Sarger, and Ou Tseng. It was too late in the day to go exploring Royan unfortunately.

One end of the little deck outside my room at the Chambre d'hôtes.

Tilman's landlords have a gorgeous garden and lots of raspberry bushes. Yane picked these for an apéritif dinatoire at their house last Sunday evening. She asked how many berries I thought there were in the bowl. I said 350 and she said, no, 250 - she counts as she picks. They were so ripe and warm right off the bush. The four of us ate them all! 

I like to sculpt the radishes for a more festive look. 

Yane is always trying something new in her garden. This strawberry plant is going to grow upwards on the pole. She gave me the first two berries to eat, lucky me.

Here is Yane Wissing, painter, drinking the Champagne Vincent Bliard Rosé that I brought right from the sourse, Vincent Bliard makes it from his very best grapes and it costs 15 euros more than the white but for special occasions, it's worth it. I only bought 6 bottles.

Yane is a very generous person always giving people things. She gave me a small painting similar to this one. She uses acrylics and is trying out a plastic spatula as a tool. She paints in all sizes and prolifically. I must say I was inspired. Yane's husband Jean-Yves is a photographer but has unusual ways of printing his photos and they become like paintings and often quite large - playing with light and water. You can see examples on his web site:  www.jeanyveswissing.com 

On Monday we went to Saintes, a place famous for it's Roman ruins and long history as a populated place. We walked all over the city.

A lot of the walls seemed to be composites of different centuries.

L'Arc de Triomphe - I believe this has been rebuilt from fallen pieces as it is now near the Charente river and I doubt that is where it was originally. The larger size version in Paris was inspired by this Roman one. 

How fun to see the whole thing upsidedown in the river!

    

The lushness of France in Spring is so soothing and luxurious feeling to someone like me who comes from the drought landscape of California. I love the softness of all this foliage around. 

Here is what is left of a Roman amphitheatre that held 15,000 people who came to watch the gladiators and the lions. Simply boggles the mind to imagine all that happening on the very spot one is standing now thousands of years later. I believe the phamplet said 90 A.D. 

Of course one has to eat! This was my first course at lunch that day - an elaborate mix of  gravlax and cooked! radish, roasted onion, minced bell peppers and a bit salad.

That evening we went to an oyster place right out on the skinny spit of land that Fouras calls "La Pointe de la Fumee".... or Smoke Point - perhaps a name from the old days when ships came in coal-fired and smoking.....not sure

Lovely combo - oysters, a glass of Chardonnay, lemon, rye bread and butter. All for 10 euros. Oysters are their business so that is all they sell and also serve.

On Thursday we went to see La Corderie on the port in Rochefort. I have been here before but wanted come back as it's such an amazing place....a long building some 400 meters where people handmade the ropes needed for the sailing vessels and they had to be very long indeed to handle the immense sails on large ships, so they needed a long building to make them in. This was mainly used in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The bold way it is designed with this motif of coiled rope holding up the building every few meters is very striking and appropriate. 

There is a new restaurant we were told about with rooftop dining right next to the port. These clouds begged to be photographed. 

An amuse-bouche or nibble while one waits. Whatever it was It was so complicated I can't tell you was in it but I fell in love with the world's tiniest beet leaf on top!

My main course was a vegetarian Paella - novel idea and I am seeking vegetables wherever I can find them. It was good on the Saffron rice.

Tilman had the octopus which was served with special tiny steamed potatoes from the Ile de Ré, not far away.

 My dessert was made of fresh apricots soaked in Cognac! My oh my!

They even have a glass elevator to capture the view doing up and down. 

 That evening my hosts at the Chambre d'hôtes, set up for another apéritif dinatoire - we all brought things and Yane and Jean-Yves came too. We sat under the cherry tree full of ripe fruit and were welcome to pick and eat them before the birds got them all. We were six painters around the table!

Now that's a branch full of cherries!

Yane is telling a story, Jean-Yves is picking cherries and Tilman laughs.

Here's Lop-lop on the prowl.

In Fouras, on the pedestrian street, is a most wonderful Italian épicerie or food shop and I wanted to take everything home.

Tilman is a good cook himself. Here's his ratatouille and Dorade or Sea Bream.

On Wednesday we went to the Ile d'Oléron off the coast from Rochefort. 

Shops and art studios now reside in what were fisherman houses.

A painter friend of Tilman, Anne Zablot, was having an opening that evening right on the port, so we went to see her abstract paintings which are very lively and robust.

The next day I packed up and left to go back to Anne's in le Perche. And stoppng on the autoroute I saw yet another kind of charging station. Europe is really ready for what's needed if we are to clean up this climate!

I arrived at Anne's to discover her huge peony bush had really exploded in bloom.

This is one huge 5-inch-across poppy in two tones - what will Nature think of next?

This is the evening view out of Anne's gite where I stay.  These images are certainly oil painting fodder I will be working from in the next months. I am totally inspired and sincerely hope I make it happen. Please nag and inquire! Thank you.

On Friday I had lunch with Pierre-Yves Bonnot who you have heard about in my blogs for years. He's such a good painter and friend. And some of you even have some of his animal portraits of your pets. He is working on one of my Siamese, Sky. We met at the Hotel de Montligeon in La Chapelle Montligeon. Pierre-Yves also does interious design and has re-done the interior of this hotel as far as the dining room and bar area. It looks a lot better than before for sure. And P-Y shows his paintings there too.

Before I left Anne's to go to Paris, I took a series of photos of her for her professional use on book jackets and other things. Since many of you know her I thought I'd put one here on the blog. Just spoke with her on the phone and she had returned from a 2 days horse ride with a group- they went through the big forests and passed in front of manor houses and even went to a small brewery and had an IPA beer before lunch. She was VERY happy. Riding her Soriana makes her happy like nothing else.

I drove to Paris early afternoon Friday and after 2 hours of driving I arrived to  my apartment building to find a firetruck blocking the entrance to get to the parking underneath....I had made a date to go to dinner with Michelle at 7PM and it was 6:50. Also, what happened? A fireman told me they would be out in 10 minutes and I saw them bring a woman to the truck but she was walking and conscious so I guess it was not too bad. Another lesson in not cutting the time too short to be somewhere.

More family visits this weekend. Last Jean Belin's great -granddaughters Aster and Lilas come over and I finally met Lilas'a boyfriend Gregoire.

Michelle was there too. Sorry I did not get a better photo of G . He is taller than Jean Belin was....amazing....I have known the girls since they were born and their mother, Isabelle, since she was 8. Scary to realize that means I am getting really old.

This morning Michelle and I went to see Emilie About ( Jean's granddaughter) and their new baby, Héloise. Above is one of the more charming street signs I have even seen. 

Here's Héloise at 2 weeks old. What a cutie indeed!  The atmosphere around this new life is invigorating and joyful and so I loved being in her presence for a few hours and got to play with her teeny weeny feet. Also got to see Claude, Emilie's mom, and Fanette, her sister, Dimitri, Emilie's partner, Raphael, their son who is Olive's age. 
When I met Jean Belin in 1981, I had no idea I would end up with all his relatives who treat me now as family even though Jean passed away in 2003. I love and appreciate these people and they certainly make my life more varied and richer. 

It's late on Sunday. This was one huge blog post. Hope you didn't fall asleeo reading it. I leave Paris on Wednesday and will back in SB that night if there are no surprises. 
These last six weeks have been wonderful in so many ways and I have spend time with so many painters....

If something happens during my last two days here, that is too good not to share, I may add a P.S. post. We'll see. Hope you are well and that the fog has let up. 
Love to all, Tana