Chef's Break

Time for a beer before everyone wants dinner. A bar in Place du Cap, Menton.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Individuality

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

The last day of the Fête de Lavande and we end as we began with a photo of a lavender display - (click on link) - but, this time, with a beautiful addition.

Meet Chrystine Cacciaguerra who is a designer and colourist working with her partner, Frédéric Pélissier. Remember the beautiful shop in the village. Chrystine is a designer and colourist who has worked in the environment sector of living and architecture since 1981.

But I didn't know any of this when I took the photograph. I saw a beautiful woman, wearing such original clothes - look at her shoes and silver jewellry. She wears a dress whose colour perfectly complements her fabulous grey hair. She is natural, comfortable in her skin (as the French say). How great it is to see a woman who doesn't feel the need to dye grey hair blonde, to dress in the latest fashions, to carry designer handbags. This woman is an individual, sexy, sensual, beautiful. And it's no surprise to learn she is an artist.

Tomorrow - back to Menton for a day or so - and then we have another Fête, in another village. That's summer in the south of France.

Later in the year, we'll come back to Ste. Agnès - we have the church to visit, the ruins of the Château, the Medieval Garden and of course we have to see the 'view.'

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Alleyway

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

An alleyway in Sainte Agnès. Note the roof supports.

Tomorrow, the last day of the Fête de Lavande and we end as we began - with lavender - but this time with a rather special addition.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Faces

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Faces...at the Fête de Lavande - some we've seen before at the folk dancing.

It seems to me that these marvellous faces could well have existed in medieval times - indeed perhaps these people are descendants of the original families of this beautiful village. So often in a French hill village, families go back through the centuries - families as old as the medieval houses they live in.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Childhood

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Remember the folk dancing? These two children give it their fullest attention. Are they local children, who would have seen it all before, or visitors who have perhaps never seen a village festival like this. Folk dancing must seem a million miles from what they probably watch on television. Are they loving it or wishing they were listening to rap music?

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”
- Elizabeth Lawrence

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Don't!

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Don't - please - don't restore the facade of this cottage. Look at those wondrous colours and textures - perfection.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Window Decor

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

The sun picks out a few heads of wheat in a Sainte Agnes' window - and on the volets (shutters) we see drawings of lavender to celebrate the festival.

It's charming to see villagers decorate their homes and so participate in the Fête de Lavande.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Soap

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

You don't have to go to a Fête to buy Savon de Marseille. It's famous in France, made by hand and usually with olive oil.

The formula of this famous soap was regulated by Louis XIV in the XVIIth century and by the XIXth century Marseille had 90 soap factories. Since 1950 that has declined.

The soap you see in the main photo is made from the Aleppo pine tree and includes 20% bay tree oil.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Glass Artist

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

As you walk through the village, you see this beautiful shop. Enter and you are in a world of glass wonders. Frédéric Pélissier is a true artist in glass. Once inside his enchanting shop you are surrounded by colour, light, reflections, beauty. Just take a look at his website to see.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Pregnant Cat

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Young cat - ancient stones.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Old Lintel

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Let's wander the village for a bit. We'll go back to the Fête.

Here we see an old and weathered lintel in a tiny back street. I wonder how many lives, how many generations, have passed through this doorway.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Philandering Husband

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Each folk dance tells a story. In this one four women dance around one of the husbands (the philanderer) and eventually attempt to tie him up (see the strings in the smaller photo). There is an exchange of flowers - note the woman's expression.

In the main photo, the wife beats up her husband.

In the end, of course it all ends happily with each wife dancing with her respective husband. Not quite real life, I feel...

Of course this is my interpretation of the dance - it could mean something totally different!

The women also carried poles with sheep's wool on the end (see smaller pic) - I don't know the significance of this. Perhaps to bash the philanderer's head and not show any marks!

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Folk Dancers

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Folk dancing just as it was in medieval times.

Tomorrow - the Philandering Husband.

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Baby Donkey

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Meet 4-day old Lavandin and her mother, Gaby. As you can see in the notice, Lavandin was conceived during the Fête de Lavande 2008 and was born 4 days before the Fête de Lavande 2009.

In the lower photo you see a stall just behind Lavandin and Gaby - yes, it's the one selling the donkey sausages...

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - Donkey Sausages

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

At every village Fête you'll find beautiful cheeses and saucissons (a sort of salami sausage).

In the smaller photograph you see saucissons made of sanglier (wild boar) and ane (donkey) - perhaps not to everyone's taste and certainly not the 4-day old donkey and her mother who were not 5 feet away. I didn't tell them...

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Distillation

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

In the main photo, we see the two 400-year old lavender stills (alambic in French). The still on the right makes double the amount of lavender oil to the one on the left.

120 kilos of the cut and dried lavender + 70 litres of water goes into the still. It's sealed tightly with the 'blue band' and the fire is lit.

With heat comes condensation. Vapour from the lavender rises into a coil tube, which is cooled by water. It condenses again and is recuperated through a separator (1st small photo) producing essential oil and distilled water.

When 40 litres of distilled water is collected, the lavender is exhausted and needs replenishing, otherwise it starts to burn.

When the essential oil is drained off, the distilled pipe is blocked off, and the copper pipe is turned downwards (2nd small photo)

Approx 250 mls is yielded from 120 kilos of wild lavender. (1000 kilos of lavender yields 2 litres of wild lavender oil.) Wild lavender oil is more expensive than cultivated oil. 10 ml sells for €5.00. It's considered to be far stronger and is used for medicinal and culinary purposes. In the 3rd smaller pic we see the oil being bottled and finally, the village stall where it is sold at the Fête de Lavande.

Please click on any of the photos to enlarge. Thanks so much to my friend Anita, who lives in Sainte Agnès and took all the photographs and also provided such an easy explanation.

If you missed Anita's photograph of Julien harvesting the lavender please see yesterday's post or click on the link. You can also read of the charming little house that Anita has for holiday rentals in Sainte Agnès - ideal for visitors to Menton who would like to stay in a medieval hill village.

Note: I've posted more photos than usual today but it seemed necessary to explain the process.

Photos: Anita Bingeman ©

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande - the Harvest

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

The lavender is harvested one week before the Fête de Lavande, and as you can see Julien is cutting it with this small scythe. The lavender is wild (not the same as the cultivated varieties we grow in pots or gardens) and is cut from the mountains around Sainte Agnès.

The cutting started at 6 a.m. with 20 villagers turning up to help, including my friend, Anita, who took this photograph. Anita lives in Ste. Agnès and apart from being a super photographer, is a fantastic horsewoman, and was a noted breeder of Arabian horses in the past.

This year 800 kilos of lavender was cut, put into sacks, lugged down to the village (those sacks are heavy) and later spread out in the Salle des Fêtes to dry till the following weekend. Tomorrow we'll see the stills and learn how the essential oil is extracted.

=================

Anita has an absolutely charming little house she rents to visitors, so if anyone is coming to Menton on holiday and would like to stay in Sainte Agnès, let me know and I'll put you on to Anita.

Photo: Anita Bingeman ©

Ste. Agnès: Ruelle

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

An ancient alleyway - stones shiny with the patina of age. Hold on to the rail - it's easy to slip...

The French word for street, of course is 'rue.' Alleyway is 'ruelle.' Isn't that lovely and logical? It also means the 'space between the bed and the wall.'

Ste. Agnès: Fête de Lavande

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Each year the medieval village of Sainte Agnès holds a lavender festival. We'll not only take a look at the Fête but also wander this lovely village which, incidentally, is the highest coastal village in Europe - 780 metres above sea level. As you can imagine it has a stunning view of the Mediterranean.

This pretty display is opposite the village glass maker and we'll be visiting this talented artisan too.

Looking back into the archives, where there are a few posts on Sainte Agnès (September 2007), I see I posted photographs that would be dumped in the 'trash' bin now. Probably that's true for many of us - we buy a better camera, we learn to improve our photography, and we continue our City Daily Photo journey.

Midsummer in Menton: the Young Avocados

Copyright 2009 Menton Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

This avocado tree grows in a Gorbio garden. The fruit is coming along nicely but there's still a long way to go before it's mature. November to January seems to be the time here but I believe much depends on the variety.

If you enlarge the main photo you can very fine lines, probably spider mite.

A gardener friend who grows many different varieties of avocado in Menton told me that the village of Gorbio is too high and therefore too cold in winter for avocados to grow. This tree proves him wrong. I live below the village, ignored his advice and planted two avocado trees three years ago. You need to have two different - and specific - varieties for pollination to take place. They are coming on well and this year blossomed for the first time - so far no avocados but fingers crossed for next year.