What is Provençal?

This week we started some major works at Villa Dæsch. Fixing the roof in the old house where we had some leaks. But I’m very much looking forward to the renovation of the studio. We’re installing a kitchen so it will become a loft space where guests can enjoy Provence. Villa Dæsch has enough possibilities to challenge my skills as an interior designer.

It’s my goal to create an encounter of medieval-built walls and contemporary design. Not the Provençal look that has become fashionable over the last years.

Looking back I learned that the Provence was one of the poorest regions in France. A countryside where peasants tried to survive in hot summers and cold winters, growing vegetables, fruits and olives and rearing some goats.  There was absolutely no chance for those inhabitants to care about interior decorating. For them the house should be a practical place. So blue shutters were installed to scare off the flies.  Small windows created a barrier from the mistral and the burning sun. Lavender was a weapon against scorpions.  Food was cooked on or next to the open fireplace.  My neighbour who landed in this region in the late fifties always refers to the Provençal style as no style at all. However this style seems to appeal to many people.

Knowing this makes me smile when I visit the numerous shops selling ‘Provençal’ decoration. Tourists think they are bringing home the lifestyle of Provence, but what they are actually bringing back is clever marketing! Tourism is a major industry.

So Villa Dæsch tries to bring together comfort and contemporary style within its walls of medieval stone.  Adding pieces of design that could be the antiques of the future.  It’s a décor in which we feel comfortable.  Where an old wash- basin meets Rietveld and Starck and still blends in with the ‘couleur locale’. Last week I bought the lamp Trash Me, made of paper, which will fit perfectly in the new loft.

A bientôt!

www.villadaesch.com

The world in a hamlet, the hamlet is the world.

The world in a hamlet, the hamlet is the world.

Little by little I’m starting to get used to writing this blog. I’m still searching for the best way of reflecting on my life in France but there’s only one way to find out, just do it!

As I decided to write this blog in English, I immediately knew this would be a handicap as it isn’t my mother tongue. But I wanted to share the news with as many people as possible. The solution was found in a “ghost reader”, who is preventing me from making too many mistakes. A lovely person I’ve not met (yet) but who was a guest at Villa Dæsch last season. Thanks to her, you’re able to read this in proper English. Susan, I thank you for doing this for me.

Living in Gordes is living with the tourist season, crowded in summer and calm in winter. Our little hamlet, however, is tucked away from such popular hot spots as Fontaine de Vaucluse, Gordes and Oppède le Vieux and is cherished by its inhabitants and guests. It’s a small world in Les Martins with the honey -producing family, who has been living in the hamlet for centuries, and the international community coming from Britain, Belgium, Canada, Germany and the United States and of course us coming from The Netherlands.  Some of them are making their living in France, others are using the house for holidays and receiving friends. We’re sort of balancing in between. We’re using Villa Dæsch to welcome friends and family throughout the year. But we’re also renting the place out to those who want to get to know this part of the world.

In the past years we have welcomed guests from all over the world. Reading the accounts of their experiences and remarks in our guestbook always makes me smile. They are describing the exact feelings I had when I first visited this beautiful part of the world.

So whether we are different in skin or language, we share and have in common the pleasure of the beauty of life in a French hamlet, where there’s time to close the gate and avoid the rat race for a while.

Check us out on www.villadaesch.com or Facebook, and like us!

A bientôt!

Gordes at the end of the afternoon, the perfect moment.