Blue Sky Living

Gender swapping ad-sales

The great Blue Sky Living advertising sale has begun. This time last year I was so dubious about my ability to do telesales that I drove around the Luberon and Les Alpilles for three months, walking into various estate agents, hotels, and boutiques and just hoping that the boss was around. Then I just hoped that I was such a novelty - I presumed I was the only English travelling salesman in Provence - that out of a mixture of sympathy and genuine belief in my business plan, they’d advertise. Strangely enough it worked.

A year on I felt my French was good enough to do some telesales. Here’s how the first conversation went…

A very wet year

You can’t help but feel sorry for the Provence tourist board. Trying to capitalise on the success of the Ridley Scott adaptation of Peter Mayle’s book A Good Year, the board invited 10 of Hollywood’s finest location scouts and script writers for a tour of the region.

Imagine the sales pitch - “come and film in the light that inspired Cezanne. Provence’s crystal clear winter skies are unparalleled throughout the world, once the late summer storms are over sunshine is almost guaranteed. Provence really is a corner of Paradise….”

And so they came, but instead of traipsing through the grapes in their shorts, and smearing sun block on their fast reddening noses, they huddled in their macs under slate grey skies. Every morning they woke up it was the same, rain, rain and more rain. There has been so much of it that a new stream has sprung up at the bottom of our garden and the neighbouring children have even managed to catch a shrimp. According to the people in charge of the Luberon national park rainfall this year is at a 25 year high.

Watch out for a remake of the Kevin Costner film Waterworld, set in Provence.

Weird festival of the year

The French are undoubtedly the kings of the quirky festival. They don't think twice about driving flocks of sheep through town centres or a spot of bull running and for almost every fruit and vegetable there is inevitably a fete in its honour. This week though saw the beginning of one of the strangest festivals ever in the Luberon village of Gargas.

Bertrand Salens the owner of the Cafe des Artisans has created his own festival devoted to that classic article of clothing - the g-string. 17 artists participated creating themed g-strings. The winner of the fete was Thierry Rey who created the disco string. A fashion show is planned for next year.

 

Please email or post details of any other weird festivals you have encountered. Thanks Jamie

Happy Halloween

 

In season Lourmarin is so busy it becomes a no go zone for many of the year round residents. Parking spots are impossible to come by and the streets are filled with crowds of red-kneed tourists. When a simple trip to buy a baguette can take over half an hour it becomes easier to head up the road to nearby Cucuron.

Fortunately out of season the village is a delight and nothing illustrates this as well as the Halloween celebrations. All the shopkeepers stay open late and have baskets laden with goodies hidden behind the counter. The village children, dressed as goblins and ghouls, rush from door to door powered by the all mighty sugar high from all the the free sweets on offer. For the parents its a great social occasion. Everybody is out on the street and its difficult to move more than 5 metres without meeting someone you know. The feeling of community is very strong and amid the torrential rain this week - the Rhone nearly flooded - it was a nice reminder of why we live here.