Saint Remy de Provence and Around: March 2017

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Van Gogh in Paris

Preparing a "France Van Gogh Tour" for the years to come, I enjoyed a lovely week end in Paris to check on location the organisation...

Van Gogh visited his brother Theo in 1873, 1874 & 1875 and settled there from Feb 28,1886 to Feb 18, 1888 where he was staying at his brother 54 rue Lepic next to Montmartre.

Best place to visit on the foot of Van Gogh is Montmartre, his flat, moulin de la galette, some restaurant which he was familiar with stayed alike.
Signpost on display by Moulin de la Galette

And of course, the main piece is the Musée d'Orsay with the largest collection of 27 Van Gogh in a French museum.
The place itself (a former train station) is just worth the visit and specialises in Impressionist artist located on the 5th floor.
Most of Van Gogh's works is displayed on the 2nd floor in a common room with Gauguin but some paintings are dispatched in other rooms of the museum.

Allow a minimum of 2 hours to visit the museum.
You can break your visit in the nice restaurant located on the 2nd Floor or the 2 café (ground floor and 5th floor).
Audio Guides are available in English from the desk.

Musée d'Orsay
open everyday but MONDAY
from 9.30 am to 6pm (late night until 9.45pm on Thursday)
Entrance fee 12 €
Audioguide 5 €
Avoid Sundays, prefer to come early in the morning and buy online to skip the queue
NO BACKPACK allowed even in the cloakroom
Free cloakroom.

Van Gogh trail in Montmartre

Van Gogh was here :)

The spirit of Montmartre

Musée d'Orsay entrance room

Magic of Paris

Melle Gachet in her garden, Auvers 1890

The Auvers Church, 1890

Autoportrait, Paris, 1887

Restaurant in Asnieres, Paris, 1887

The bedroom in the yellow house in Arles, St Remy, 1889

Top right corner of the painting with Van Gogh brother and sister

Auto portrait in St Remy, 1889

Restaurant on the 2nd floor

Café on the 5th floor

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Chateauneuf du Pape wine and more....

Chateauneuf du Pape is the king of the wine in our region.

When one want to discover Chateauneuf du Pape, you better prepare your day ahead.
With more than 300 estates to choose from, tricky to decide which you'll want to go to.

In order to prepare yourself, here are a few tips :
- Don't miss out the White Chateauneuf (around 5% of the production which we keep for ourselves and don't export)
- Check opening time and don't go on Sunday
- There is not ONE type of red chateauneuf but many. Many rules applies to the appelation but one can use any of the 13 allowed grapes in their wine. As for vinification, 3 types are used, the traditionnal, the contemporary and the modern.
- For more details on the terroir and the wine, visit Musée du vin Maison Brotte
- A walking trail is arranged by the Tourist Office near the Place de la Renaissance Car park
- You'll get to know all about the different types of Grapes by the castle (plot with explanation on all grapes)
- For yummy tommy, visit Chocolaterie Castelain

Should you want to taste different types of wine, you better visit several estates or stick to one of the shop in town like Vinadea located in the town centre.

On of my favourite estate is Chateau La Nerthe but many other are fantastic.
The visit of Chateau La Nerthe (12€ incl tasting, reservation advisable) takes you through its 16th C cellars which are amongst the oldest in town.

I also recommend visiting Alain Jaume Domaine du Grand Veneur where you can taste their Chateauneuf and many other appelation they produce.
The winery is one of the only winery around to also offer a full tour of the property (available Tuesday to Saturday).
From 10h30 to 11h30 : discovery of the terroir with the walk admist the vineyard
followed by the winery visit and tasting from 11h30 to 12h30 (10€ per person).
And you can stay for lunch with wine pairing (6 wines incl at 55€, 9 wines incl 65€).
Reservation mandatory.

You can visit Chateauneuf on foot, on ebike (renting in Orange), on 2 CV citroen car...
Several guides offer different types of tours from General to "pro".
And for party of 6 or more, private lunch can be organised in some winery.

So you get it, Chateauneuf is worth a visit and if you have question, please mail me

Below, pictures I took last year

Chateauneuf du Pape on April 10th 2016

Grape bud April 30th

Chateau Vaudieu on April 30th

May 7th

Chateau vaudieu end of May


June 4th

June 18th

June 25th

July 1st


Grape on July 1st

July 9th

July 16th

September 10th

September 17th

September 24th

October 1st

October 8th

October 15th

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Exhibition Paul Rebeyrolle at Musée Estrine Saint Remy de Provence 2017

Yesterday was the opening of the new exhibition at Musée Estrine in Saint Rémy.

Curator Elisa Farran was so happy to share Paul Rebeyrolle's work since it was on her bucket list since she joined the museum 10 years ago and today her dream comes true.

Reknown artist of the second half of the 20th Century, Paul Rebeyrolle who was considered as one of the major painter by philosophes such as Jean Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault, revived the figurative painting after WWII.

Adept of the realism, Rebeyrolle added organic element such as straw, gravel, wood in his painting and the wild life plays a major role in his work.

The exhibition, running until July 23rd, features a large number of animal painting coming mostly from private collections.

If you like Bacon, you should like Rebeyrolle.

The first floor permanent exhibition is this year arranged around colour and emotion in painting.

Musée Estrine
open everyday but Monday from 10am to 6pm (closed from noon to 2pm in April and Oct)
Entrance fee 7€
Joined ticket with the Van Gogh Fondation in Arles 12€
Audio guides can be rented from the desk for the Van Gogh Interpretration Centre

Some history about the Musée Estrine