"Les 3 Souquets", an Olive Oil Boutique and Santonnier Workshop Near Sablet

We have been traveling to Sablet several times a year for the past 11 years. You would think that by now, there would not be anything new left for us to discover, but that is not the case. It seems that we find someplace new every time we are in Sablet.

Sablet

"Les 3 Souquets", a santon work shop and boutique offering for sale, products from the region, including all things olives, such as fresh olives, olive oils, and tapenades, made from green and black olives, is our latest discovery.

Fortunately for us, "Les 3 Souquets" is located on D-977 (also known as Route de Vaison La Romaine) near the turnoff for Sablet. The workshop and boutique are the creation of Denis Voeux, a santonnier and owner of a small grove of olive trees, in the neighboring village of Séguret.

Les 3 Souquets

I do not know if Monsieur Voeux was a santonnier who became passionate about olive oil, or vice versa, but at "Les 3 Souquets", there is evidence of both. There are a variety of olive oils from various AOPs ("Appellation d’Origine Protégée") in France and elsewhere as well as fresh Picholine and Tanche olives available to taste and purchase.

Every year, Monsieur Voeux takes a tour of the Mediterranean Region's olive oil AOPs and chooses what he believes are the best from the most recent harvest to sell in his boutique. He also has bottles of olive oil he produces from his small grove in Séguret which falls within the Nyons AOP.

The owner of "Les 3 Souquets", Denis Voeux with Shirley

For santon newbies, santons are hand-made clay figurines that depict the colorful people, traditional trades, activities and costumes of Provence as I told you here. In Provence, they are set out at Christmas in a Provençal creche (nativity scene). I love them and have a small collection that I set out at Christmas time.

If you are fortunate enough to come to his workshop on a day that Monsieur Voeux is working on santons, you might be able to see how they are baked in a red hot oven or how he hand paints each one of them. He says he was enamored with santons from a young age and finally gave in to his love of making objects from clay and modeling them.

Every santonnier has their own style, usually the way to tell one santonniers' work from another, is by looking at the faces of the santons. One of the unusual features of Monsieur Voeux's santons, are his faces, they are all people from Monsieur Voeux's life. The first face he modeled was that of his grandfather on his mother's side of the family. Quite a few other people from his life have since joined the nativity scene. His most recent creation was a santon with a face modeled after his uncle.

Santons by Denis Voeux

In France, olive trees are planted along the arc of the Mediterranean Sea, between Nice and Perpignan, Marseille and Nyons. It is said that there are 100 different varieties of olive trees grown in France, of which 20 are important for the economy of the region. As I said earlier, Monsieur Voeux travels throughout the various olive oil AOPs to selection the best for his boutique. As you can see below, he has a large number of excellent olive oils available.

Olive oils on display at Les 3 Souquets

If you are in the area, and interested in learning about Santons or how they are made, or anything to do with olives or olive oil, make sure you stop in to visit the "Les 3 Souquets" boutique. After tasting quite a few different bottles during our visit, I bought a bottle of Monsieur Voeux's own Nyons production. It was really nicely balanced for me. Tell Monsieur Voeux that Michel from Sablet told you to stop in.

"Les 3 Souquets"
1471 Route de Vaison La Romaine
84110 Séguret
Tel: 06 18 56 57 02
denis.voeux@wanadoo.fr

Tis the season for Santons

You know I love santons, the hand-made clay figurines that depict the colorful people, traditional trades, activities and costumes of Provence. In Provence, they are set out at Christmas in a Provençal crèche (nativity scene). Up to now, as I told you here and here, the santons we own are on display all year long as decorations at our homes in Windsor, California and Sablet, France.

I have been talking to Shirley about buying santons for an authentic Provençal nativity scene for our home in Windsor, California. So when we are in Provence, I have been checking out every santonnier atelier (workshop) we pass and look at every display of santons we come across in local shops and I have been consulting an expert.

My expert is my own cousin Annick who lives near Aix-en-Provence. While she is not a santonnier (santon-maker), she knows a lot about how santons are made, their history, and who are the best santonniers in Provence. She and her daughter set up a beautiful Provençal crèche in their home every year. She says she owns at least 400 santons.

I have learned that the Provençal crèche have been around for centuries, but the importance of santons (the word comes from santoùn, which means in provençal "little saint") began immediately after the French Revolution in 1789. Churches at that time were forcibly closed or converted into other uses such as storehouses. Large nativity scenes were prohibited too, and so intimate nativity scenes in private homes assumed a key role in keeping alive religion and tradition.

Last summer, Shirley and I agreed that we would buy santons for a Provençal crèche when we returned to Sablet in October. So one Friday, we arranged with cousin Annick to rendezvous at one of the santonniers she likes at her workshop called Oustau d'Antan in a little village called Jonquerettes, about 15 miles east of Avignon.

Oustau d'Antan

Santons can range in size from 2cm to 15cm and come in two types: santons d'argile (figures made entirely of clay) and the slightly less common doll-like santons habillés (figures wearing cloth costumes, with hand-made accessories: baskets, fishing rods, etc).

The new collection for 2016 by Oustau d'Antan

Come November and December, the santon-makers present their new collections at santon fairs throughout Provence. It is the event of the year for all lovers of santons who come to add to their own collections, purchase gifts, or simply admire the santonniers handiwork and their colorful figurines.

Shirley, cousin Annick and I at the santonnier

The traditional crèche is composed of a cowshed, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus (who is placed between his parents on December 24, at midnight), the donkey, and the ox who are warming Jesus with their breath, some shepherds with their sheep, then, at the epiphany, the 3 wise men. I should mention that when my French cousins saw my nativity scene on Thanksgiving Day, they immediately told me that it was too soon to have baby Jesus in the manger or the 3 wise men nearby.

The addition of figures representing country life and craftsmen drawn from a Provencal village of two centuries ago derived from the idea of Provencal inhabitants on their way to the Nativity. Some bear presents: the miller with his sack of flour, the poor old woman with nothing more than a bundle of sticks for the fire, a farmer's wife with a rabbit and a basket of fresh eggs. Others simply arrive: the mayor, the bandit, the street musician, even the parish priest.

Santons and accessories on sale at Oustau d'Antan

As the santonnier explained, when she makes a new figure, she works with a fine-pointed instrument, painstakingly modeling the face and clothing. When the clay piece finally meets her standards, which could take hours, she uses it to create a plaster mold. That original mold, in turn, will used to make figures which line the shelves of the workshop. To make the figures, she places a glob of clay between the two halves of a mold, squeezes them together and -- voila -- a wise man.

The wise man will spend about 12 hours in the workshop's kiln and then she will paint them. Then, the santons come alive as the vibrant colors are applied: Mary's red dress, the basket-maker's blue shirt, the orange tile rooftops of the villagers' homes.

The santonier of Oustau d'Antan showing us a special piece

The patron saint of santonniers is Saint Francis of Assisi, who first began staging nativity scenes with live models in Italy in 1223. Soon afterwards, Christmas crèche with model figures began appearing in churches.

Award winning collections by Oustau d'Antan

We were told that many of the artisans santonniers base their figures on the characters in a famous Christmas play written by Antoine Maurel -- the brigand, for example, who kidnapped the blind man's son; Roustido, who arrives late because he's hard of hearing; Pimpara, the knife grinder, who can always be counted on for a story.

Santons and accessories on sale at Oustau d'Antan

For parents and children, santons offer a chance to create their own Christmas world at home. Each year they add to their collection, choosing their favorite characters from among those offered for sale, buying houses, trees or windmills to provide a village setting.

Santons and accessories on sale at Oustau d'Antan

When we got to Oustau d'Antan, Annick was already there. She had with her a beautiful cowshed and a windmill (see below) she had handmade and painted for us as a gift to help us start our Christmas crèche.

The santons we already have are larger so-called "santons habillés" (figures wearing cloth costumes) which don't normally appear in nativity scenes. So we chose the more typical size of 7 cm or about 3 inches tall for the figures in our crèche.

The Holy Family in Annick's cowshed with the three wise men and shepherd with his flock of sheep

Village characters on their way to the Nativity

Village characters on their way to the Nativity with their gifts

More villagers with Annick's windmill

Most of these figures were bought at Oustau d'Antan. We added a few we found at a shop in the center of Vaison-la-Romaine which carries a nice collection of santons made by various santonniers from Provence. We will follow the tradition of adding a few new santons to our collection every year.

As you probably know, we have 5 curious and energetic grandchildren who range in age from 2 years to 10 years. So to protect our precious santons and cowshed and windmill, we set up our Christmas crèche on top of our fireplace mantle. This is not ideal so in the future when they all are a little older, we will set up in a more traditional place.

If you are around Windsor, please feel free to stop by and take a look at these beautiful handmade and painted figures from Provence. Happy Holidays everyone. Its the season for Santons.

Oustau d'Antan
Santonier-Crechiste
220 Impasse des Alpilles
84450 Jonquerettes
France
Tel: 06 11 65 71 83
website: www.santons-oustau-dantan.fr
Email: oustau.dantan@hotmail.fr

Kitchen Decorations??

I usually write about pretty villages, historical monuments and food and wine on Our House in Provence. This morning I want to show you some of the "decorations" in our kitchen at our house in Sablet. Now if you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I love food and like to cook and entertain so it won't come as any surprise that the kitchen is my favorite place in the house.

Although we rent our house by the week to visitors when we are not there, we have furnished and decorated our house as if we lived there full time. We love everything from Provence so we have lots of pottery and artwork from local artists throughout the house and we add to our collection everytime we are there.

I love santons, the hand-made clay figurines that depict the colorful people, traditional trades, activities and costumes of Provence. Shirley is not so enamored with them as me but she is a good sport and we have some pretty santons on display in the kitchen. Now I know that santons are normally put out at Christmas as part of a traditional Provençal crèche (nativity scene) but ours are on display all year long.

A close up of some of our santons.

A maker of santons is called a santonnier and the creation of santons is essentially a family craft, handed down from parents to children. Santons are fashioned in two halves, pressed together, and fused. When the figure is completely dry, it is given a gelatin bath to harden the figure further and to provide a surface for painting. Faces are painted first, then hair, clothing and accessories such as hats and baskets are applied with an adhesive.

Shirley has taken a liking to pintade guinea hens and we have added a small flock to our collection of santons. Handmade in Provence of clay by Heidi Caillard, these guinea hens have round bodies and tiny heads and come in a variety of colors.

A close up of more of our santons.

We also have one painted parrot made of wood perched on top of a utility closet in the kitchen. I know nothing about how this parrot was made or where. It came into our possession by way of a dumpster diving friend by the name of Allison. Allison is one of our servers at Bistro Des Copains and while she was visiting Sablet a while back, she found this parrot in a dumpster and thought it would be the perfect "decoration" for our kitchen.

Like I said, we keep adding decorations and more santons, pintades and other pretty hand-made items from Provence will find their way into our house. I doubt that we will ever have a flock of parrots.

Bonne journée mes amis et à bientôt. Have a great day, chat soon!

Marché de Noël, Avignon

I have not spent Christmas or New Years in France since we lived in Strasbourg when my father was a doctoral student at the Université de Strasbourg more years ago than I like to admit. I remember Strasbourg as a magical place during the Christmas season.

So I have been looking forward to seeing and experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the holidays in the Vaucluse, the region in Provence where our home in Sablet is located.

As you know, we have our children and grandchildren with us so all of our activities are planned around what Avery (4 years), Dylan (3 years), Caedon (2 years) and Madison (7 weeks) will enjoy or at least will not be out of place plus we have to plan for meals and nap times.

An obvious choice was to go to the Marché de Noël - Christmas Market in Avignon. Since we are 10 in all (6 adults and 4 children), we have two cars and drive in caravan everywhere we go. As you can imagine, it is quite an ordeal to pack bags for two moms with diapers, wipes, drinks, snacks, toys and other miscellaneous items for 4 kids and then get them buckled into car seats.

The Avignon Christmas Market is set up in Place de l'Horloge, the center of activity in Avignon near the Palais des Papes. We parked in the garage at Les Halles market, a covered market with about 40 vendors that is open every day except Monday, a short distance from the Place de l'Horloge.

The Christmas Market is a collection of small white shops set up by the city of Avignon in front of the Hotel de Ville. Vendors offer Christmas decorations, gifts, regional foods and artisan's products plus vin chaud, a warm spicy red mulled wine. We wandered around the shops, tried the vin chaud and bought a variety of Christmas ornaments for our Christmas tree.

This scene of bears sitting in the snow delighted the little ones as we walked into the Christmas market.

The kids were very excited to see the big carousel with the horses going round and round and immediately ran toward it asking "can we go?"

They showed their pleasure at riding the horses on the carousel with such vigor that papa couldn't resist paying for them to go around a second time.

The City of Avignon sets up a traditional Provençal crèche with santons (Provençal: "little saint") in the Hotel de Ville every year. A santon is a small hand-painted, terracotta nativity scene figurine produced by artisans in workshops in Provence. The santons represent various characters from Provençal village life such as the baker, the winemaker, and the farmer wife with eggs.

The crèche in the Hotel de Ville was set up by the Marcel Carbonel workshop in Marseille. It shows an imaginary landscape decorated with Provençal villages, fields and hills and includes more than 500 santons.

The crèche in the Avignon Hotel de Ville is large, nearly 600 square feet. The five pictures which follow show the crèche from left to right.

Along side the crèche in the Hotel de Ville, there is a Table Calendale - Christmas Table set up with the thirteen desserts which are the traditional Christmas dessert in Provence. The Christmas supper ends with 13 dessert items, representing Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles.

Enjoy! A bientot.

Provence for the Holidays; Looking for Ideas!

We are ready for Christmas here in California. The tree is beautiful, simply decorated by wife Shirley, only one tree this year, rather than our usual two. We are staying slightly low key this year because we are all leaving for Provence right after Christmas.

When I say all, I mean everyone including daughters Tricia and Stephanie, their husbands Alvin and Earl and our four adorable, if I say so myself, grandchildren Avery (4 years), Dylan (3 years), Caedon (2 years) and Madison (1 month old).

We have a few santons set out which I bought a few years ago in Les Beaux. I bought them for display at our Bistro Des Copains but we don't have the space for a creche at the Bistro so we have the santons at home.

The only family member staying home is Abbi. Abbi is a 150 pound Newfoundland. She is as sweet and loving as she can be; yes she does drool some, especially after she eats, drinks or runs. Abbi thinks she is human and never likes to be more than a few steps away from us even when we sleep.

Abbi will be home watching over the house, we think it would be complicated and hard on Abbi to travel in a plane so she doesn't get to come to Provence when we go.

This will be our first time in Sablet or anywhere in Provence at Christmas time or for New Years. The last time I was in France at this time of year was back in 1966 and 1967 when we lived in Strasbourg while my father was a doctoral student at the University of Strasbourg.

We don't have many plans so we are looking for suggestions for things to do. We are looking forward to catching up with neighbors, meeting with friends in Villedieu and of course spending time with our French family. I am especially looking forward to meeting several of the bloggers I follow who live in the Vaucluse.

So what are good things to do or see at this time of year in the Vaucluse? We will have two cars so we can go different places but we are looking for some things to do that our grandkids will enjoy. I know for one thing, we are going to Avignon's Place de l'Horloge so they can ride the carousel.

As you probably know, we are co-owners of a small bistro called Bistro des Copains in Northern California. Most of my family love food and wine so if there are special food and wine events, special markets, that would be right up our alley. I want to find truffles where should I go?

Are there any special or unique celebrations to bring in the New Year? Any ideas or suggestions would be most appreciated! We wish you all Happy Holidays!