Never Enough Books and Art Supplies!

Well I can’t help myself – I seem to gravitate to art supplies and books. I have found some more stores in my wanderings in Valencia, as well as two magnificent bookstores specializing in travel in Barcelona and Madrid.

Tot en Art Bellas Artes, tucked in the northern part of the historic El Carmen district in Valencia, is a full service art store. They offer lists of art workshops all over Spain on their web site under “Talleres”, as well as an alphabetical directory of artists. Tot en Art, c/ Corona 35-B, 46003 Valencia; 963 917 265;  www.totenart.com

Yet another art supply store in Valencia is close to the train station and the more upscale shopping area of Colon. Civera is on a side street and is a large, well-stocked store. Civera Bellas Artes, c/Pascual y Genis 24, Valencia, open Monday to Friday only from 9:00am to 1:30pm/4:00 to 8:00pm.

Similar to Auralia (mentioned in an earlier post), Astral is a lovely specialty bookstore offering movies and books about most things alternative – health, energy, gardening, food, spirit, as well as selling a small selection of gems, flower essences, and essential oils. Most of their selections are in Spanish, but you can find English titles hidden in amongst the volumes, and welcoming, helpful storekeepers. So helpful in fact that when I told them I wrote about traveling ecologically and used an example of where to find organic food, I was given a box full of organic “kakis” (persimmons) which were delicious! Located down the street from the Quart Towers (Torres de Quart). Astral, c/ Quart 52, 46001 Valencia; 963 922 057; open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm/ 5:00 to 8:00 pm, Monday from 10:00 to 1:30pm.

If you are on the hunt for English books in Barcelona you can go to Come In ~ Libreria Anglesa (English Bookstore) a couple a blocks form the Diagonal metro stop where most things are English. Come In ~ Libreria Anglesa, c/ Balmes 129, 08008 Barcelona; Tel: 934 531 204; Web: http://www.libreriainglesa.com/cat/index.php

You will find the excellent Altair travel bookstores online, as well as one live store in Madrid and one in Barcelona. While the website is only available in Castilian or Catalan, they sell books in English and other languages as well, with a truly outstanding assortment of guidebooks, travel literature, maps, arts and culture, adventure travel, anthropology and, not surprisingly, the most extensive selection of books about every area of Spain. The store in Madrid is in the more residential area not far from the Casa del Campo park and can be reached by the Arguelles metro stop. Altair, Gaztambide 31, 28015 Madrid; Tel: 915 435 300; open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 2:00pm/ 4:30 to 8:30 pm, Saturdays 10:30 to 2:30. In Barcelona, Altair is on the Gran Via, just over a block from the Plaza de Catalunya so you can reach it by the Catalunya or Passeig de Gracia metro stops. Altair, Gran Via 616, 08007 Barcelona; Tel: 933 427 171; open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm; Email: altair@altair.es; Web: www.altair.es

Color in Valencia

Artists, lovers of color, and people who enjoy art supplies (not always the same folks), you will be happy to know that you have some delightful options in the old part of Valencia city to find a variety of art supplies, or fine art stores called Bellas Artes in Spanish. If you like to buy local products, Titan paints are made in Spain, as well as Greco and Escoda (www.escoda.com) paintbrushes.

Pedro Soriano is both an art supply store as well as a hardware store and has been serving Valencians since 1914. It sits on a street in the shadows of the Torres de Serranos (see R. Vidal listing) and is fun to venture into just to see the old drawers and displays that seem virtually unchanged for almost 100 years. Pedro Soriano, c/ del Serranos 25, Valencia; www.pedrosoriano.es; open Monday to Friday 9:00am to 1:30pm/4:00 to 8:00 pm; Saturday 9:30am to 1:00pm.

R. Vidal is a store overlooking the Turia Park and a couple of blocks from the Torres de Serranos, old towers that are grand remnants of when Valencia was a walled city. A full service art supply store with, among many other things, incredibly inexpensive, lightweight, folding, metal easels. R. Vidal, Blanquerias 8, Valencia; open Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 1:30pm/4:15 to 8pm; Sat 10:00 am to 1:00 PM

Casa Viguer is a narrow, packed-full store in an old building deep in the oldest part of the city and has been in operation since 1886! The windows proudly display pigments and other artist delights. Luis Viguer, Casa Viguer, c/ Corretgeria 22, Valencia; www.casaviguer.com; open Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 2:00 pm/4:30 to 8:00 pm, Saturday from 10:00am to 2:00pm.

Some must-reads for color lovers are:

Color: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay, Random House 2004

Colors of the World: A Geography of Color, by Jean-Philippe and Dominique Lenclos

Rouge Earth

My angel Francois was the Avignon Wine Tour man who just happened on this sunny last day of January to be offering a special tour to Roussillon instead of one of his usual wine tours, and just happened to be at the Tourist Office when I was there inquiring about how I could possibly get to the ochre hills of Roussillon. Francois had one other taker for his special tour, a woman on vacation from Taiwan who spoke some English. I had noticed in every tour information flyer that the minimum number of people was two and I had thought this was just an economic decision on the tour operator’s part, but Francois explained that the laws are strict about taxis versus tour guides and you must have a taxi license to carry only one person, and have a tour guide license for two or more people.
Cameras at the ready, we set off for our tour – first stop was the village of Gordes (see pictures in this post), a beautiful, old, stone, hill village used in the shooting of the film, A Good Year. The second stop was my grail – Roussillon – site of the world’s largest ochre deposits – and the third and last stop was Menerbes, another stone hill village, famous for truffles and wine.
Gordes was pretty well shut up for the winter, but we could still see its magnificence and capture some views including the trademark blue shutters of Provence, which Francois explained repels flies and bees, but not mosquitos.
Roussillon is a photographer’s heaven, especially in the late afternoon when we were there. The deep blue of the sky juxtaposed with the red and orange buildings was magnificent. Francois let me and my tour compatriot loose with our cameras, waiting very patiently for us while we circled the village stopping every two feet to take yet another picture.
The village of Roussillon, filled with various shades of red and orange houses, sits on Mont Rouge and was the center of ochre production until World War II. At the bottom of the village there are walking paths through the ochre cliffs – le sentier des ocres – which are only open during the weekends this time of year (in high season they are open all week), but we could sneak a peek of some of the cliffs and get some pictures. Roussillon is unique in the world and this was surely a peak experience – not to be missed, and I was so glad I did not have to miss it, thanks to my angel.
Fortunately for me, and as it turns out – for Francois and my tour mate - I had done my homework for my Traveling Naturally Guide to France, so I knew there was also a Conservatory of Ochre. Francois was most agreeable and we went looking for it with the map I had from the back of a brochure. We found it about 3km down the road from the village and it was open! The first building in the complex has an extensive bookstore and is where classes are held year round in painting and special ochre applications.
Below and behind the bookstore is the L’ancienne usine Mathieu – a series of museum displays of an old ochre processing factory. We had missed the scheduled guided tour, but were free to explore on our own. Another building in the complex houses the pigment and art supply store – a painter and artist's dream land. Walls lined with jars of natural and synthetic pigments made a colorful and inspiring display. Neither Francois nor my tour mate were painters or had any knowledge about ochre other than the house exteriors we had just toured, so they admired the array of colors and delighted at this discovery.
The conservatory ships the natural powdered pigments to artists and artist supply stores around the world. I got two little bags of the natural ochre and some pastels of the same. The colors range from muted yellows to reds and browns. I confirmed with the salesperson that ochre is no longer mined at Roussillon. The sole remaining ochre mine is in a neighboring village, Gargas.
Ochre is stunning as I hope some of the pictures will illustrate. It has also been used for millennia. Some of the earliest known cave art was drawn with charcoal and ochre and the Australian Aborigines have used it in their art forever. Much of their new art is painted with synthetic ochre colors. I have read that they use the natural ochre for the work that they keep as they consider natural ochre to be sacred, which it surely is.
After our high of Roussillon, we continued to our final village stop, Menerbes. On the way we passed countless vineyards, olive and fruit groves, and some patches of grey lavender, resting until June. We drove through the village of Lacoste, known for its castle that was once owned by the Marquis de Sade and is now owned by Pierre Cardin.
Menerbes is another beautiful, stone hill town. Francois knew it well as it is a regular stop on his wine tours. Menerbes, like Gordes, was pretty well closed up for the season, but the views from the top of the village were magnificent, and we got to peek at the Maison de la Truffe et du Vin for truffle and wine connoisseurs.
The car was pretty quiet on the return drive to Avignon, each of us absorbing the wonder of the afternoon, and the joy of the experience. It was an absolutely perfect final day to a glorious ten days in Provence. I look forward to a return trip when the lavender is blooming, my other grail that I knew could not be realized in this season.
Au revoir Provence.

Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments Appliqués: www.okhra.com
Angel Francois is available at: www.avignon-wine-tour.com. He is extremely informative, courteous, flexible and good-natured and not pushy or overbearing at all – really the perfect combination for a tour guide. If you are traveling to Avignon or any of the nearby towns I highly recommend a tour with Francois. His wine tours motto is, “You drink, I drive” – how perfect is that.

Market Hopping

It seems hard to believe I have been in France only just over a week. In this time I have gone to eight markets. The clear winners are the two Sunday markets – the food and flower market in Nice; and the combination food, artisan, brocante, and miscellany market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.
I had heard and read that the Saturday market in Apt was large and great – well large it was, but not so great. Apt is a small city with a fairly limited old part that is not particularly remarkable, certainly not next to the likes of Avignon and Lourmarin. I suspect that in-season, the market has more to offer, but this time of year there was food, but only one tiny bio stand, and all the rest was filled with one stall after another selling plastic and polyester products not made in France. By combing every turn and back street, I did turn up one man selling herbs, essential oils and hydrosols from “sauvage” herbs (wild grown) – he was lovely but looked a little “sauvage” himself. I also found lavender honey being sold by a local beekeeper. That was the total sum of the really local products stalls. Since I had woken up at 5:30 to catch the bus to Apt for the market I was slightly disappointed. (The first picture on this post is Avignon in the morning, not the night!)
During Lavender season (June-August), Apt is the jumping off point for many of the “lavender routes” which run through the area highlighting lavender farms and distilleries. Alas, I was there on a frosty January morning – no beautiful lavender walks to be had.
All was not lost. The other sites I was looking for in Apt – of interest to painters and color enthusiasts - were two stores that sell natural ochre from the nearby famous ochre deposits in Roussillon, Rustrel and Gargas.
The Society of the Ochres of France is up the street about a third of a mile from the tourist office (526 av. Victor Hugo – www.ocres-de-france.com), but alas they are closed Saturday mornings in the winter which even the woman at the tourist office did not realize until I told her when I returned to find out if the other store was open and where I might find it. She kindly called Ets. Chauvin, on Route de Viton, (http://www.ocreschauvin.fr) before I walked the 1km to find it. I was delighted that they were indeed open. Ets Chauvin is a small, funky warehouse-style store with sacks of natural and synthetic powdered colors lining the walls and displays. The woman was very nice, but did not speak English. I wanted the sampler of local, natural ochres which I managed to convey with my charade skills.
After walking non-stop for four hours in the frosty morning, I was happy to board the bus back to Avignon.
Since the Apt market had been a disappointment, I almost bagged my plans to head to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for the Sunday morning market, assuming I would just see more of the same. Fortunately for this market lover, I decided to go anyway since nothing else would be going on in Avignon on Sunday morning. The bus left at a more reasonable time – 9:30 - and it was a much warmer day. The bus route was different than my last two excursions to Apt and Lourmarin, it took a northeasterly route through a clearly more wealthy area – the towns of Chateauneaf du Gadagne and Le Thor – dramatic old stone villages with Plane-Tree lined roads and even some speed bumps.
Isle-sur-la-Sorgue was beautiful – the old part of the village is surrounded by a little river hence the “Isle” part of the name. The market is held on both sides of the river with bridges crossing between the two sides about every 150 feet. Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is known for their year round antiques, second hand (brocantes) stores and market and they don’t disappoint.
The goods were all of a much higher quality than any I had seen in prior markets and all at fair prices for what they were selling. I did succumb and buy an old blue and white enamel house number sign since they had my number. I later learned that I had gotten a very good deal on it since they have become trendy in the UK and sell for quite a bit there.
I strolled happily for hours with the many others – local and foreign – enjoying all there was to see. Besides the quality brocantes, there were actually products made in France at this market as well as plentiful food. There were two stalls selling clothing made in Nepal with unusual clothing designs and providing good conditions for the Nepalese workers.
People were in cheery moods and the market was quite busy, so walking was more of a shuffle than a stride. The downside to any of these markets is that there are beggars and people trying to get you to give them money for their dogs. Pickpockets are also alive and well. I was stunned by how quiet people can be. I was sitting by the river eating my sautéed vegetables from one of the vendors and as I was turning to get up, I was startled by a young man who had sat down close to me, whom I had not heard or sensed at all. I checked my pockets as I walked away – thankfully I have a lot of zippered pockets in my jacket which are very handy. So as not to call attention to myself I have tended to take pictures with my pocket camera instead of my larger SLR, which screams tourist.
The bus driver between Avigon and Isle-sur-la-Sorgue had on a radio station playing an eclectic selection of tunes from Bob Marley, Beatles, Bluegrass, French contemporary, and really bad English-spoken bubble gum music – the French seem to love that – what is with that?
After regrouping at my Hotel I went out to do what everyone else was doing on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Avignon – walking through the park. Old and young were out taking in the day, flowers were blooming and the cafes in the square were bustling.
French women live up to their reputation – even the not incredibly beautiful ones are beautiful – how do they do that? Is it the water or the wine? The only small consolation I took was that since all the French women are so beautiful, no one will hassle unglamorous old me schlepping around in my winter overcoat looking 15 pounds heavier than I am because of my full pockets, and with two pairs of glasses on – one pair on my eyes, the other sitting on my forehead ready to read something at a moments notice. Really – I am surprised no one has offered me money yet. ☺