Before Everyone Else Is Up in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

One early morning in April we found ourselves walking through the roads and alleyways in l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, in Provence. We stopped in for un cafe et une croissant, then wandered through the quiet streets before the hustle and bustle of the day. Peeking into store windows and watching the locals get the day going, here is what we saw:

a sweet topiary window display

coffee and croissant

and the newspaper to start the day

I love a lot about this window; the lamps, the table

the colors, the shadowy painting... my reflection:)

the burly gendarme and his burly dog

get their morning going

couldn't wait 'til this antiquaire opened!

General Charles de Gaulle's speech in 1940

the "general store" in town before the day's rush

of customers

the Easter delectables in the window

of one of the confiseries

what's so funny chocolate bunny? :)

this antiquaries was just setting things up on

their terrace by the river

pillow covers pieced together from vintage French

linens of many types

the coolness of cement in a shaded garden terrace

peeking in another antiquaire

a doorway of local home; the colors

of apricot and lavender I love!

a cool spot to stop and rest a moment

a stolen kiss between the betrothed!

***

{all photos taken with my iPhone}

merci pour la visite! .. Kit

Dessert Blanc Bleu

***

HELLO EVERYONE!

{Blogger has been driving me crazy lately. What is UP with Blogger? anyone else having nightmares with fonts, formats, etc?}

This evening is the first real summer one we've had. All summer long we have been freezing as soon as the sun goes down. But this evening... at le crepescule, it was lovely.

How could we NOT have dessert in the far back corner of the garden? How could we not use the beautiful hand-stitched blue and white throw over the table? how could we not cut dahlias and roses from the garden and toss them into a silver pitcher? and of course we had to bring out the beautiful Rosenthal bone china we use so infrequently. Then we realized we must bring out the old French fauteuil that is covered in needlepoint blue & white by Chris's own grand-mere with her own two hands. Incroyable!

The result is this little vignette that will forever remind me of our first warm evening of 2011.

merci pour la visite! ... Kit

I'm linking up with Between Naps on the Porch

for Tablescape Thursday!

A Little Southern Beach Cottage...

...would be a lot fun right about now... a tall icy drink, palm trees swaying in the breeze, the screened-in sleeping porch, laughter and dogs barking in the distance... these are the things of the endless summers of my childhood. Although our cottage wasn't quite this adorable, it was the real thing... wooden cottage on stilts set back in the dunes in the palmettos at Indian Pass Beach on the Gulf Coast, with a wooden walkway leading to the front screened porch. With the sun hot overhead, as children we were not allowed outside between 10 am and 3 pm, so my four brothers and I played endless games of monopoly and cards, built forts and put on plays and art shows.

Those summer vacations are now more a state of mind than anything else. Wanna come play?

colorful vintage beach pails

pale seafoam breadboard walls trimmed in

white are the quintessential beach look

simple shelves made from found beach wood

cooling blues and whites among the mossy beach oaks

Fifi Flowers painted this very cottage; you can

buy this at her etsy shop here!

painted floor screened porch with colorful rattan furniture

is charming; the porch ceiling is painted blue to scare

away the spirits... of course!

the adorable cottage above is

one of the Mermaid Cottages on

Tybee Island, Georgia, near

Savannah where my dear

cousin Claire lives and

my mother was born

halfway between

Saint Vincent Island

and Cape San Blas

lies Indian Pass Beach

where we spent long

summer vacations

the incomparable white powdery sand of my

childhood summers on the Gulf Coast

St. George Island

***

Thanks for visiting!..... Kit