* Chic Provence *

03 April 2013

The Côté Bastide way of life...

You may ask yourself why people today are so drawn to the simple, to the rough-luxe, to shades of grey, taupe & linen, to honest, handcrafted things, to natural materials with a clean and nostalgic feel. I think that the genius behind Côté Bastide is their ability to recognize this yearning in modern times for simpler, more tactile and sensual experiences of our youth.

Whatever the reason, we love the Côté Bastide aesthetic at Chic Provence. On our Chic Provence Design Tour next month, a visit to their stunning showroom and shop in Aix-en-Provence is the first stop after we visit the Provençal Market, so we can soak up and inhale the simple, pure, clean and sensuous atmosphere. We are looking forward to getting things for our homes there... small things we can carry home in our suitcases... such as candles, soaps, kitchen linens, tableware. And I might have to order one of those chandeliers for my kitchen! :)

The art of living Côté Bastide

" We come into the world with immense naiveté, auspicious of its wonder. Like a thief of emotions, we greedily pass through our childhood, accumulating a mixed treasure trove of new experiences and intense feelings, and then we become an adult. And, almost immediately, we forget. Yesterdays image fades away, surrendering to today's rhythm of conventionality, where we no longer have the time to exist, and no time to spare. Côté Bastide drew its inspiration from forgotten lessons.

The profound desire to reawaken our dormant senses, to regain lost sensations, and to re-capture our wonderful memories, in a word, to remind us of the simple pleasures in life. The rare and yet familiar scent of an age old rose, the charm of hand-crafted earthenware, the craftsmanship of cinnamon bundled and tied, contact with a pristine cotton sheet. Côté Bastide rediscovers the daily pleasure, to be enjoyed, shared and never to be forgotten."

{ quote from the website Côté Bastide }

02 April 2013

Conservatoire de la Couleur

In Provence in the Vaucluse, there is a magical village, perched on a golden hillside, that is drunken with exuberant color, called Roussillon. The houses, the quaint shops, restaurants, and the churches are themselves finished in reds, ochres, burnt oranges, yellows, apricots, every building a different shade of sunshine.

In Roussillon, there is a center dedicated totally and completely to color: its creation, its use in decoration and art, its history. This place celebrates, honors, teaches about and preserves color with a fervent reverence usually found at the finest conservatories of music... and it is called the Conservatoire des Ocres et de la Couleur.

There, you can take workshops in Color for Interiors, Using Natural Materials to Dye Fabrics, Making Your Own Pigments for Watercolors, How to Color Cement, How to Create a Tadelakt Finish, and many more very interesting topics for beginners, professionals, young and old alike.

Yes, the ateliers are taught in French. So you can either learn French, or come with me on a design tour and we will interpret for you! We will be visiting Roussillon and the Conservatory this May, and can't wait to tell you all about it!

01 April 2013

Lafourcade: les jardins provençaux

This spring, we have added to our Chic Provence Design Tour 3013 an exclusive visit to the Provençal gardens of the well known and extremely talented landscape designer, Dominique Lafourcade. I am so excited to see her work in person after seeing so many images. Her exquisite garden design plans, carefully laid out, drawn and beautifully watercolored, are as if by magic, transformed into actual landscapes. She is remarkable: trained first as an artist, she is a self-taught landscape designer, and is married to the incomparable Bruno Lafourcade, the architect of great renown in Provence, with whom she collaborates.

I have always been awestruck by great landscape designers. Imagine the challenge of working with materials that are chosen knowing that they will begin to change the minute they are installed. It is such a completely different milieu than interior design, where once it's done, it's done... a sofa chosen, upholstered and installed probably won't change, grow, and be clipped over time, and does not depend on water, sun and fertilizer to thrive! The dynamic, ever-changing metier of gardens is fascinating to me.

Enjoy these gorgeous images of Dominique Lafourcade's work as photographed in Provence. As stunning and frankly unattainable as they are for most of us, there are a few "takeaways" for the rest of us would-be garden designers that I have found in her work. Of course, her genius is in making it all look effortlessly chic! Below the pictures are some notes from what I have observed from looking at her galleries.

1. She creates "rooms" in her gardens, petit destinations at the end of a pathway promising a enticingly comfortable spot to relax

2. She uses boxwoods extensively... to delineate those little rooms with small hedges, create "walls" and pathways

3. The boxwoods are also used as sculpture...usually perfectly round shapes...that look wonderful either in pots are in the ground

4. She creates rhythm in the gardens...the sculpted boxwoods, long rows of cypress, an allee covered with wisteria...she creates rhythm and repetition with garden elements

5. She incorporates a water feature whenever she can

6. She masses flowering plants for maximum effect and keeps the garden structured and simple

7. She loves to incorporate a little folly in the garden...a feature such as a sculpture of a boar, a little cottage...meant to disarm, charm and delight

8. Often she builds in a "potager" or kitchen garden, for its practicality in providing fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices to the French garden

***

I hope these pictures inspire you to find ways to create beauty in your own garden or outdoor space. It seems that her garden ideas are scalable all the way down to a small patch or a patio. A few boxwood topiaries on the patio, masses of same blooms, a water feature, an enchanting spot to relax. These are the little moments that become enchanting elements of wonderful garden design.

What do you think? I will, of course, write more after I see her gardens in person next month. Until then we can all dream of fields of lavender bound hard by geometric borders in boxwood when we wake up and look outside our chateau window!

{all images via the Lafourcade image galleries}