A few weeks in Provence
No stay in Provence would be complete without some landscape and village photography, especially if your wife is with you doing watercolor painting! So, taking a break from old stones (although there will be some of those...), here are a few of those shots I took in October 2024.
Mollans-sur-Ouvèze
Although it is at the exact same latitude as Vaison-la-Romaine (which is indisputably in Provence), and a mere dozen kilometers from it (not to mention on the same river!), Mollans-sur-Ouvèze’s claim to being a Provençal village is disputed. It lies in the département of Drôme, not in that of Vaucluse, and the mere fact that the southernmost part of Drôme insists on calling itself “Drôme Provençale” is enough to make purists smirk: Vaucluse doesn’t need to call itself Provençal, everyone knows it is. If southern Drôme feels that need, it just shows how hard it’s trying to attach itself to a province with which its ties are in fact dubious...
Whether in Provence or just not far from it didn’t prevent us from paying a visit, and the part of the village that’s just around where the old bridge crosses the river is lovely, picturesque, and does have a Provençal air to it. The name of Mollans’ most famous fountain, however, gives a clue as to why we are not really in Provence here, historically speaking, and in spite of what local tourism marketers would have you believe...
The Fontaine du Dauphin was built in 1713, but the lovely curved wash house that’s behind it is from the 1860s.
A few weeks in Provence
No stay in Provence would be complete without some landscape and village photography, especially if your wife is with you doing watercolor painting! So, taking a break from old stones (although there will be some of those...), here are a few of those shots I took in October 2024.
Mollans-sur-Ouvèze
Although it is at the exact same latitude as Vaison-la-Romaine (which is indisputably in Provence), and a mere dozen kilometers from it (not to mention on the same river!), Mollans-sur-Ouvèze’s claim to being a Provençal village is disputed. It lies in the département of Drôme, not in that of Vaucluse, and the mere fact that the southernmost part of Drôme insists on calling itself “Drôme Provençale” is enough to make purists smirk: Vaucluse doesn’t need to call itself Provençal, everyone knows it is. If southern Drôme feels that need, it just shows how hard it’s trying to attach itself to a province with which its ties are in fact dubious...
Whether in Provence or just not far from it didn’t prevent us from paying a visit, and the part of the village that’s just around where the old bridge crosses the river is lovely, picturesque, and does have a Provençal air to it. The name of Mollans’ most famous fountain, however, gives a clue as to why we are not really in Provence here, historically speaking, and in spite of what local tourism marketers would have you believe...
The Fontaine du Dauphin was built in 1713, but the lovely curved wash house that’s behind it is from the 1860s.