bondir le nettoyage

Sorry about the lack of updates lately--since we returned from Paris last week everything seems to have jumped into over-drive! I'll be doing some spring (or rather, fall) cleaning here and getting everything caught up since last week. I appreciate your patience!

day thirty-two

Another market day! Today is my favourite day of the week--Sunday, the day for the Isle-sur-la-Sorgue antiques market. It was another bone-chilling morning, and all of the vendors were a little slow to put out their wares. To bide our time before we started shopping, Erica, Caitlin, Janelle, Lexi, Kara, and I went for a coffee inside a restaurant along the river. It was a nice time to keep warm and have some morning chit-chat, and the coffee wasn't bad. Once we were done, we went back out to the market.

I bought a lot of things I needed for class and Vernissage, including several old picture frames, velvet ribbon, and many antique doilies. After convening with Pam, she told us we could go on an additional little field trip with her to Fountiane Vaulcluse, the spring that is the source of the Sorgue river (the second largest spring in the world!). We, of course, jumped at the opportunity, and Erica, Caitlin, Lexi and I made our way with Pam.

Fountaine Vaulcuse is a little storybook village where the paper and textile industries began because of the spring's source of energy. There are waterwheels everywhere and ducks in the river that winds through.

Lunch!

First order of business was finding lunch, so the four of us went to a restaurant overlooking the river and had pizza and hot chocolate (or wine, for me). We then made our way around the village to check out the sights before heading home to work.

day thirty-one

A new addition to the Apt market this morning!

I woke up early this morning for the usual Apt trip, but since my housemates went yesterday with Pam, I was all by my fibers lonesome. It's extremely cold here in the mornings before the sun comes up over the mountains, and today was no exception. I had some specific errands I needed to run in Apt, but the very first thing I did was buy a pair of gloves! They're very beautiful, gray leather with ladylike buttons on the wrist.

My second act of the morning was ducking into a café for a café creme. I chose an inconspicuous little restaurant that wasn't too busy, but still had some customers to show me they were open. I sat down in the corner and ordered my coffee, and then realized I had stumbled upon a scene very familiar to me in my American life: much like Sparta Hardee's at 7:30, this particular café appeared to be the hotspot for the over sixty crowd. I get a kick out of French old people. They are just like their American counterparts, only they kiss each other on the cheek and drink their coffee out of tiny espresso cups instead of styrofoam. While I was sitting there, one couple got up to leave and the man held the door for his wife. She got distracted telling a female friend good-bye, so he was stuck there holding the door open. He looked at me and said something in French with a wry smile. I didn't understand his words, but I understood what he was saying perfectly: "women!"

I found a mirror on my way out and took a little picture of myself for you guys at home. I'm a little leaner and my hair's a little more ragged, but it just makes me fit in with the rest of Europe.

day thirty

Today was a very uneventful day, but I got some things accomplished for Vernissage. Vernissage is the French word for , and it's held the last weekend we're here in Lacoste. It's an opportunity for us to show all the work we've done while we're here, and if we want to, we can price and sell pieces at zero commission. The town gets turned inside out with all of our work displayed in studios, caves, nooks, and crannies.

It's officially fall in France.

Pam took a van of girls to Apt for a shopping run this afternoon. I would like to have gone, but all the spaces were filled. With no one to distract me, I figured it was a good time to get some work done. I was blessed with an entirely empty studio for three whole hours--an unprecedented record, I think. I was able to spread out, play my music, and just get into the sewing groove.

Getting my craft on.

I'm working on a line of pillows and home goods inspired by the French textiles I've seen and collected. They're made from linen and printed cotton that I bought from markets, and embellished with velvet ribbon, trims, and doilies (all antiques). Here are a few examples:

Pillow and pin cushion. The pillow will have a pink velvet ribbon on the linen when finished.


Pillow in progress.

day twenty-eight

Super-soft, camel hair blankets.

It was a very cold, blustery Wednesday--we are exactly half-way through the quarter here in Lacoste. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Today we had another Fibers field trip. This time it was to near-by Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (the town I go to for the Sunday antiques market). We went to the Brun Textile factory, the company whose open house we went to before. We only had access to the showroom, but it was more than enough for me. Brun Textile manufactures high-end luxury goods out of the world's finest natural fibers--some of them extremely rare.

The Brun Textile show room.

The show room contained samples of their goods, and we were given free reign to wander through and touch them all. Our host for the day was Jean-Louis Brun, the youngest generation of the 200-year-old founding family. He is a sourcing agent for the company and is extremely passionate about his work, the fibers world, and historical processing techniques. He is also a vegetarian.

The excruciatingly charming and handsome Jean-Louis handles a 1,000 euro scarf.

Jean-Louis played a short documentary film for us that showed the process of making a shawl from fine merino wool, from shearing to finishing. He also told us about some of their most precious materials, including Siberian Goat that has to be hunted for its hair, not sheared. He assured us that native Siberians hunt the goat for its meat, bones, and other bits, and the hair is a by-product that is sold to Brun Textile. Once refined, it makes the softest, lightest, and warmest fiber in the world. The scarf he let us feel cost 1,000 euros.

Rolled carpets.

After our enlightening visit with Jean-Louis, we headed to Tissus Gregoire, a fabrics warehouse that is very difficult to find. Gregoire is one of the typical French that I have encountered before--a man with fluent knowledge of English, but who will refuse to speak it to you once he discovers you're American. And then makes fun of the French he forces you to speak.

Kara pets a sheep in the Brun Textile showroom (this one's for Aunt B!).

I made only a few small purchases--four small spools of DMC cotton sewing thread, and a 1 kilo bag of kapok to use for stuffing pillows. Afterwards we went to a meager supper and went back to the warm room before bed.

day twenty-six

Wow. It's almost been a week since I last updated. I'm sorry! Things are swinging into busy mode very quickly here in Lacoste. I spent most of my weekend working hard on my assignments. They were due yesterday in both classes, which meant I spent about 6.5 hours in critique! Yikes!

Last Friday we had an all-campus trip to Nîmes and le Pont du Gard. We left bright and early (I conveniently forgot to grab my bag lunch this time) and took the big bus for our two hour drive. We were all so sleepy and out of it on the way there. I fell asleep with my face against the window and each time we hit a switch-back I would lean away and then hit my face again! I'm sure it was eerily quiet with all 49 of us sleeping.

Inside l'Arene

We got to Nîmes and immediately went to l'Arene, a Roman colloseum that is still in standing, working order. It is smaller than the famous one in Rome, but is more complete. It is now used for bull fighting. From l'Arene we set out for la Museé Carrée, a contemporary art museum in the city center. I was disappointed in this museum, as I don't much care for contemporary art, and there were some very unpalatable installations (one included a taxidermied cat in a Ku Klux Klan hood). We sped through the rooms and then went across the street to la Maison Carrée. This is the best preserved temple found anywhere in the former Roman Empire. We sat outside to look at its portico, but the Art History professor scared us into running inside to see a movie being played. It was called "Heroes of Nîmes" and was shown in astounding 3-D. Not so astounding, really. Our 3D glasses were a bit like sunglasses and made it so dark that I couldn't read the English subtitles. I gathered that Nîmes is old and that only men can be heroes.

In the trim shop window.

Pam had instructed the Fibers majors to visit a small trim and notions shop, and we headed there after the movie only to find that it was 12:06 and the trim shop closed at noon. Most businesses take a "French lunch" that lasts from 12-2, so we had a long time to wait. Tired, hungry, and cranky, Janelle, Caitlin and I went to a little street cafe for lunch. We each had a pizza. They were thin crust with homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozarella, and black olives, and were approximately one foot in diameter. We each finished one, and I had a glass of really good white wine with mine.

We felt immensely better after eating and lounging for two hours, so we walked back to the trim shop and encountered the cutest patisserie I've ever seen! They had gorgeously coloured macarons in the windows and lots of artisanal bread. We dropped in to gawk and ended up getting ice cream. I had "caramel beurre salé" which is salted caramel butter. It was the BEST ice cream I've ever had!

Caitlin got chocolate.

We sped down to the trim shop and I bought two small spools of cotton thread and a metre of pretty, champagne-coloured lace. We had to go straight to the bus after that and drove another 30 minutes to the famous Pont du Gard outside Avignon.

The Pont du Gard is an amazing Roman aqueduct-turned-bridge that people still drive and walk across. The river below is a favourite swimming location for tourists, and some from our group took the plunge. The water looked far too cold for me! Caitlin and I sat on the rocks and I knitted and nursed a headache.

Finally back home, we had supper and went straight to bed.

day twenty

Today I had the pleasure of touring OKHRA, an old ochre processing mill in Rousillon. The hills around Rousillon are home to one of the biggest ochre deposits in the world and gives the cliffs yellow, red, and brown striations.

A small mountain of red ochre.


These are the old worker's shirts on display. Before stringent health codes were established, the workers suffered a similar fate as the men working in coal mines.

We were given a walk-through of the old processing areas in the warehouse, then we went on to do a workshop using natural dyes on silk. After my intense course of Images on Fabric, I feel like a pro at natural dying, so today was just sort of a fun day to mess around. Kind of like going back to crayons for a day.

Yellow ochre on Janelle's finger.


Pigments ready to be mixed.

After the workshop we went into the village center of Rousillon to walk about and get some ice cream. Everything there is coated in a thin layer of ochre dust, so the stray cats all have orange fur!

The pictures of Rousillon really speak for themselves.