A violet festival -- the village

This past weekend, we joined our old Paris friends for a fun little annual festival in a village not that far from home.  It was a beautiful day (unlike some past years), it was wonderful to see our friends again, and it's always fun to visit this village.

I thought I'd take you on a tour of the village itself before I shared the weekend festival they just held.

While the village today is known for its arts and crafts (as are most of the old villages around here now), this Medieval town has architecturally maintained much of its old style while keeping up with the modern world.

Tourrettes-sur-Loup

It was originally constructed in a gorgeous setting, and time can't change that!

Cute street plan

Clock tower XV

While this village is around 1,000 years old, it came into its own with many of the current structures constructed in the 15th century.

This modern map of the Medieval street plan was created by one of the local artisans, while this ancient bell tower was created by Medieval artisans who have left their mark over time.

Main Street

Labeled

I thought I would take you on a walk along the main drag, appropriately named Big Street. Perhaps by Medieval standards, it is a big street!

Side road

I love walking around these old hillside streets.  I try to imagine how it must have been hundreds of years ago, then I admire how many people end up personalizing their little tiny space.

The public works people do a fantastic job of maintaining the old aspect of the streets while integrating all the modern creature comforts of today, like water, sewer, electricity, and telephone.   Access to these dwellings often isn't very easy; but once at home, no one is missing out on the modern world.  They manage to create garden space, too.

Here are a few typical entrances common to all the villages we've visited.  I still love them; each one is always a little different from the next one.

Stairway garden

Courtyard garden

Dead end garden

Entrance garden

Here are a few more fun things one might encounter in this kind of village.  Residents may not have much room to play with in this kind of environment, but that doesn't stop them from doing whatever they can!

Miniature cactus garden

Old window garden

Bicycle garden

Dressing up for the party

Beware!

Because they were having a specific festival, here are some of the rather funky decorations they installed around the village, all done with live flowers. 

I don't know if there was a particular theme these designs were following or just the imagination du jour. 

Giant salamander

A happy street

I'm sure that whatever the concept was behind any of these designs, the artists must have felt pretty proud of their work.  They definitely made use of the local flowers currently in season.

Mimosa in bloom

This particular village is known for cultivated violets, but the whole region is dotted with mimosas, which are currently coming into season.  I think that's the same thing called an acacia in the US.

The champagne and orange juice cocktail called the mimosa gets its name from this tree.

Hillside beauty

I'm not sure what purpose this little stone edifice serves either today or whenever it was built, but I found it quite picturesque in its setting.

The vegetation is very Mediterranean.

This village is only about 9 miles/14 km back from the Med, so you can see once again how steeply the mountains pop up immediately from the coast.

What a view!

I'll leave you with this view of the surroundings.

It definitely is a beautiful area we live in, although it can be quite difficult getting from here to there.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of one of our favorite little local hangouts.

So typical

The day is over

Next, we'll attend their little weekend fête, the reason why we were visiting this village at this moment in time.