Finally, the sun – and we have the notorious mistral winds to thank for blowing away the rain. That’s what we were told today by Lourmarin artist Liliane Marco, a close friend of our home exchange partners Sandra and Paul Beckett. Madame Marco invited us to visit her for refreshments in her home just outside the village on the road to Cucuron, and it was a highlight of our trip so far.
Like good Americans, we arrived exactly on time at 11 a.m., and Liliane soon offered us tapenade, a Provencal dish of finely chopped olives, capers and olive oil, and glasses of pastis, the anise-flavored liqueur and aperitif (thanks, Wikipedia). She was exceptionally gracious and welcoming, and we haven’t spent two better hours in Provence.
Liliane is a long-time Lourmarin resident and an accomplished and well-known artist. She showed us many paintings in her studio and throughout her home she shared for three decades with her late husband and fellow artist, Jules-Henri Lengrand. You can Google them and find videos of them at work at the Images du Luberon website.
We decided to have a leisurely Provencal lunch of local meats, cheese, olives, vegetables, salad and bread at Moulin de Lourmarin, a converted 18th century olive mill that’s now the village’s premier hotel. The website is worth a visit: moulindelourmarin.com We had made reservations for dinner the next evening but were delighted to receive Liliane’s invitation for a return visit for tea at that time, so we’ll dine at Moulin early in the week.
The 40 mph mistral winds made for wind chill temperatures too low to contemplate, so after a quick walk through Lourmarin to see in sunshine what was dark the day before, we headed back to La Jassine. That drive through the mountains to Bonnieux and Roussillon will have to wait yet another day.
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