Chez Pascal Palun: Recoup' & Treasure

Love it or leave it, the Provencale "brocante, linen and found object" look is here to stay. Maybe as a reaction to the frantic, digitized and depersonalized world we all inhabit now, and certainly fueled by an economy that encourages us to all "make do with what we have", as well as a desire to save the environment, people respond warmly to old things that are resurrected, refashioned, and given place of honor in homes.

Pascal Palun has long been a favorite of mine for her wire sculpture chandeliers. She lives in and works in Avignon; her influence is worldwide. Her chandeliers hang at l'Escale and adorn the home of John Malkovich. And according to my friend, Jaclyn at the gorgeous blog Haute Home, even Anthropologie taps her immensely creative ways with old things for their imaginative store displays and identity.

Now a peek into her own home. She has furnished it with things she has found at flea markets, garage sales and on the street; found objects that have weathered through to find their way into her heart and home. For Pascal, living with old things is "not looking backwards..on the contrary, it's a way to reconnect with a history, to give to old things new value and another dimension..it's the mysterious difference that exists between an electric lightbulb and the light from a wax candle."

Her glamorous wire and fantasmagoric creations are the result of an aesthetic formed in Pascal by her grandfather, who was a bricoleur (handyman) and taught her to repair beautiful old things, and her father, whose passion for automobiles gave her a taste for mechanics and manual work.

What do you think of her home in Avignon? Do you love it or leave it?

photos above are of Pascal Palun's home in

Avignon and are the work of Joanna Maclennan for

Living Inside

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above are photos of Pascal Palun's

atelier in Avignon where she does her

magical work

these photos appears in

Cote Sud, December 2007

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for help creating a beautiful new look

for your home or event virtually

anywhere call or email me

kit@kitgolson.com

650.302.6883

Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design

les Inondations: Flash Floods in Provence

The usually placid and lovely Arturby River in southern France has swelled with heavy rainfall and yesterday left its banks. The middle of the village of Draguignan in the Var has been destroyed and twenty lives have been lost. My heart goes out to the people who live there and who love France as much as I do.

While we in America still suffer for our beloved Gulf Coast, our thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones and homes near the Cote d'Azur.

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Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design

Tres Chic Provence in Greenwich, Connecticut

If you are very lucky you will find yourself catching up with wonderful old friends enjoying un petit dejeuner at the lyrical l'Escale on the water in Greenwich on a beautiful early summer's day. The food is Provencale..I had delicious eggs with trufffles..but for me the real feast was visual.

Impeccably designed and perfectly executed, the restaurant features old reclaimed floor tiles and a limestone fireplace salvaged in France and brought over here. The wire chandeliers are artlessly elegant (more on those in another post coming soon!) and the soft palette..beige, cream, white, dusty blue.. creates an inviting and very chic place to linger over un cafe.

That's exactly what we did. Come join us!

gorgeous reclaimed French tile floors

a shimmering, elegant take on the hip French country look

the darkened entryway with dusky blues, distressed

painted pieces and those wonderful stripes

glass front cabinets, crystals on the wire

chandelier, and sparkling tableware perfectly

suit the subdued elegance of linen, white and terra cotta

ready for your enjoyment, a simply set round

table is quintessentially Chic Provencale

blue and white stripes on the ceiling of the

entryway lend an air of "vacance" and relaxation

immediately upon entering

massive limestone fireplace brought over

from France presides perfectly over the

charming, welcoming "salle a manger"

the requisite Louis XIV linen upholstered settee

in the blue-striped reception area welcomes

(all photos from my iPhone)

"le poisson du jour" perhaps, Madame?

500 Steamboat Road

Greenwich, CT

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Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design

"Un Petit Vacance" in New England

We Californians visit New England with the excitement and fervor usually reserved for old European cities. We are thrilled to see a welcome sign on a house stating its origins as 1726, or to visit an Observatory (how quaint!) built in 1805, or the town limits sign saying "Founded in 1629". And don't even get me started on those Witches Houses in Salem..:)

compass ceiling of the Portland Observatory

where my great (7th) grandfather mounted

his telescope in 1805

the Portland Observatory, built in 1805 by my ancestor,

Capt. Lemuel Moody, a sea captain who had been

captured by French pirates in the Caribbean and

imprisoned on St. Kitts!

In Portland, Maine, we were drawn to the highest point, Munjoy Hill, to climb the 65 ft. tall Portland Observatory, built by my great-to-the-7th-power grandfather, Captain Lemuel Moody, as a way to launch the communications system he devised to alert the merchants below that their sea cargo was about to arrive. After soaking up the views, we wandered the waterfront and found wonderful artful things for the home at Foundry Lane.

Where Capt. Moody sat and looked at the

sea, waiting to spot incoming oceangoing vessels

and raise the signal flags to the wharfs below

the spiraling stairway and the cubbyholes

where Capt. Moody stored the signal flags in

1805

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We found that early June is the perfect time to visit Marblehead, Massachusetts. We stayed for a few days at the old Boston Yacht Club there, falling asleep at night to the clinking of the rigging on the 1,000 sailboats moored in the harbor below.

On Memorial Day, we were lucky enough tag along behind the fife and drum corps as they marched through the streets on their way to the sea. At the edge of the bay, lots of saluting and speeches were given, wreaths and flowers were thrown into the ocean, then the musketball rifles were hoisted to shoulders and three separate rounds shot out to sea to honor our military dead. It was quite moving, and when the local high school band struck up "The Star-Spangled Banner" it did bring tears to my eyes.

flag and bugle in the local museum in

Marblehead, Massachusetts

the venerable old Boston Yacht Club where

we stayed a few nights

the early morning view upon awakening in our room!

history in flags of the BYC, founded 1846

the way to the coffee shop for morning blueberry pancakes

we wished we had thought of one of these for getting

up and down those hills!

art deco sailing trophy cup on display at the BYC

our "spit & polish" deck for enjoying coffee in the morning

and drinks at sunset at the BYC

early metal chandelier in the museum

at Marblehead...I love it's spare and lively look!

there were a few of these "de rigeur" paintings of

schooners and vessels at the BYC

charming display of Americana at the

museum in Marblehead

um..really??

the fife and drum corps took their job very seriously;

those musketball rifles actually work!

a picnic site waiting for the weather to warm up

just a bit from the early June chill

some people cannot visit this part

of the world without devouring

one of these red guys!

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In Salem, we visited the home of one of the judges who sentenced those unfortunate young women as witches in those dark and scary years around 1623 in this little outpost village. The house was surprisingly..modern..with its lean and spare aesthetic, worn bare wood floors, simple and elegant furnishings, four-poster bed, and high ceilings.

this tall, clapboard house stained nearly black

was the home of a judge in the Salem witch trials

in the 17th century

architectural detail for 17th century

Salem, Massachusetts house

old village map, Salem and environs

found in the 17th century Salem house,

this intriguing vase would be right

at home in our modern times

a simple vignette includes dough bowl and pewter platter

from the 17th century

this wonderful French wallpaper was found in the 17th century

Salem house and could still work in contemporary settings

who today doesn't love the canopied four-poster bed?

I love these 17th century exterior windows in Salem

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............................

for help creating a beautiful new look

for your home or event, in the San Francisco Bay Area

or virtually anywhere else,

call or email me

kit@kitgolson.com

650.302.6883

Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design