Giant Moreton Bay Fig playing host to a fabulous array of Staghorn ferns in the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne

In the natural landscape trees, which often host a variety of bird and other plant life, are admired for their form, their shape and their colour. It was the colour of their green, the luxuriance of their foliage, the formation of their crown, the thickness and height of their trunks that was most important to the ancients. Whether tall, stout, large or old they became symbols of life and knowledge, as old as life itself.  They are to be found naturally on great mountains, in misty river valleys, alongside lakes large and small, rivers, creeks and waterfalls. They are made of wondrous wood, hailed as nature’s building block. They provide an energy source, prevent erosion, produce an ecosystem for other plant material, as well as create shade and shelter for humans and animals.

Trees are awesome, they are nature’s fortress and humankind’s friend. At Melbourne there are some of the most sensational and beautiful specimen trees indigenous to this land, as well as exotics purposefully introduced into Australia. Many of its parks and gardens contain fabulous trees, which are now over 100 and 150 years of age. They have been given the room to grow as they would in nature and are valued and conserved.

Fawkner Park on busy Commercial Road South Yarra opposite The Alfred, one of Melbourne’s largest hospitals, was established in 1862 on 41 hectares of land owned by John Pascoe Fawkner. It remains substantially unchanged from its original design, providing a place of solace and peace for those in between appointments opposite. Running parallel to Commercial Road and its footpath there is a giant avenue of Oak Trees. Having to travel along this huge Melbourne block (blocks are much bigger than Sydney or Brisbane) the other day I veered off the footpath and traversed a huge expanse under the shade of these wonderfully mature trees.

It was pleasantly cooling, and I could not understand why those walking on the footpath had forged on when they could have entered this graceful and elegant pathway to reach the same destination. Pausing in life to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak, or just to be visually aware of the rich heritage of our surroundings in Australia today is important. So many people laboured in the past to create the beauty we now enjoy. They never expected to see the end result of years of planning, because they were visionaries planting for the future.

Each day on my walk I traverse the paths and byways of the lovely Botanical Gardens nearby the Yarra River, where some of the trees are so spectacular that they quite literally take your breathe away. Massive Moreton Bay Figs brought down from Queensland in the latter years of the nineteenth century, are getting to that wonderful ‘gnarled’ stage in their growth habit, where their branches seem to reach out like giant arms ready to enfold you in their grasp. The gardens are full of giant trees and in the months ahead I hope to visit most of them. On my way to the gardens I have to travel underneath the sole surviving Golden Elm introduced to this city.

Planted on the corner of a busy intersection near a bridge over the Yarra River, the footpath for pedestrians has been re-routed so that you completely circumnavigate this giant tree with its wide spreading habit. The underside of its cooling canopy can be observed in peace and quiet from a park bench placed strategically underneath. It is beside the path and near to the edge of where its outer branches reach.

The tree is cared for by The Friends of Elms in Melbourne. It certainly adds to the quality of life for those who live nearby (lucky people) as well as those who pass by it on foot on their daily commute. When you are underneath the sunlight in summer penetrates the dense foliage with rays of golden beams of light. It is very inspiring to look at how those conserving it have so beautifully shaped its ‘undercarriage’.

In winter it is a different story, as the leaves it carries fall and let the light of life in. At that point it looks like a giant piece of incredible architecture moulded by time and shaped by man. This is surely one of the most the perfect of all the true shade trees, with its eye-catching golden foliage that returns to its branches each spring, bright and pale lime-green.

The Golden Elm is especially renowned for its tolerance to air pollution, so it is good for sustainability. Standing on the corner of two of Melbourne’s busiest roads in excellent health would seem to prove the point.

The other day when powering by I stopped to talk to a tourist from America’s south. She was sitting on the bench with her watercolour notebook open and a small palette of gentle colours at her side, painting the view from within.

She said she was overawed by its powerful presence, and that sitting there was like being inside a giant green protective cavern, where you felt surreal and inspired and she just had to record its magnificence.

She also said what a surprise Australia was and that she had not ever realised just how close our two cultures were, especially in our preference for plant life.

One of a pair of beautifully shaped trees in the courtyard of a small shopping mall in South Yarra

At Melbourne there are also some beautifully shaped trees in the courtyard of a small shopping mall on Toorak Road at South Yarra. Haven’t been able to find out what they are yet – have asked the shopkeepers who they don’t know, so will grab a leaf next time I am going by to see if I can identify them. They provide a fabulous addition to the aesthetic of the space and their great weeping habit has been underpruned.

A true shade tree is deciduous by nature  and it is meant to be tall, with its great arching branches and dense foliage. This enables the tree to filter sun in summer when it is so intense, protecting humankind from its powerful rays and dangerous effects. It then conveniently sheds its leaves for winter, allowing the sunlight in so that our bodies can absorb supplies of Vitamin D at a time of year, when the danger to our health is at least less.

The Golden Elm and Plane Tree are of value in that they provide incredible shade and continue to have a role to play in Australia, alongside native trees, at least in city landscapes.

When Napoleon came into power as Emperor in France he had great avenues of trees planted on both sides of the road as well as on each side of villages. This was so that his troops, when marching on their way to and from various posts and stations, other countries and to war, could be shaded or lie down and shelter, while the village provided them with food and sustenance.

This practical application of trees has proved to be aesthetically pleasing in the nearly two centuries since. When you drive through the French countryside the first thing you notice is this ‘planned’ natural phenomenon (pictured right).

One of the greatest of the shade trees planted spectacularly in France is the Plane Tree, which was beloved by the Romans and the people of Provence in southern France, where they arch and meet creating great tunnels of green to traverse on a hot summer day.

The variety known as London Plane Trees feature dramatically here at Melbourne. They reach out and meet each other forming great arches of greenery, whose cooling effect is best felt on a plus 30 degree heat day.

The Plane tree is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and grow to 50 metres. They are very tolerant of local conditions and have adapted well to the Australian climate in Sydney and Melbourne, where they seem to thrive. They form wonderful avenues and have been a significant aspect of our cultural history.

Separation Red Gum, Botanical Gardens Melbourne

The Separation Tree in the Botanical Gardens is a large River Red Gum, a tree of the genus Eucalyptus, one of about 800 varieties. In nature it is an important shade tree in the extreme temperatures of inland Australia and plays an important role in stabilizing river banks.

It also marks the spot where on the 15th November 1850 citizens gathered to celebrate the news that Victoria was at last independent from NSW. Brisbane would follow in 1859. These were significant events in Australian history so the tree has attracted a great deal of attention. That is until 2010 when some idiot vandal ring-barked it, and it is now not expected to survive.

Symmetrical Natural Shape of a Horse Chestnut in the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne

What is it about trees that stir emotions sometimes good, sometimes bad. Fear of trees is passed down to us from mythology of the European middle ages, when criminals hiding out often in forests from the authorities placed various types of man made paraphernalia in the trees to ward off the locals and stop them from finding their lair.

It was still evident back in 1970 in Sydney when, on the day we were moving into a ‘spec built’ house my father came to help and within a few moments of his arrival passed by with an axe over his shoulder heading for a small grove of rapidly growing native eucalypt trees planted on the foot of a sloping bank near the footpath.

We had been pleased to see them when purchasing the property for we knew in years to come they would provide shade for passers and in the meantime practically hold the soil in the bank together to prevent slippage in extreme rain events.

Gnarled bark of a Horse Chestnut in Botanical Gardens at Melbourne

He was most distressed however when I stopped him, saying he did not want them to have a chance to fall on the house and kill us all. While trees have, and are blown over onto houses in storms, loss of life is minimal compared to ‘crossing the road’.

When I said we were willing to take the risk to keep them because they were a fair way away from the house he said he could not understand, but eventually gave in to my wishes. Visiting the house on Google Maps recently just a handful of the originals have survived and they are indeed now shading the footpath, but fear has probably driven a decision to fell the rest.

Hollywood Actor, Writer, Producer and Director Woody Allen (1935 – ) says, ‘Only God can make a tree’ — probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on‘.

View the Golden Elm at South Yarra as its leaves return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5q77noOYts

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Quote* Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931), Lebanese born American philosophical essayist, novelist and poet

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Tea mania swept England, as it had earlier in France and Holland. Tea imports rose in weight from 40,000 pounds in 1699 to an annual average of 240,000 pounds by 1708. Hyson was so highly favoured during the 18th century the British Tea Tax was levied at a higher rate for it than any other variety. The first shipment of tea reached London via the East India Company, which Queen Elizabeth 1 had founded. Camellias, the International Camellia Society tells us were named for Georg Josef Kamel (or Camellus), a Moravian (Czech) Jesuit priest and botanist, who worked in the Far East.

Carolus Linnaeus in Laponian costume, 1853 painted by Hendrik Hollander (1823-1884) replica of a painting in Estate Hartenkamp, courtesy University of Amsterdam

Star above Star a modern variety is truly beautiful, with a soft pink flush around the edges of a creamy white flower. The stamens are rich, profuse and golden yellow while its leaves are green, glossy and its growth habit charming.Star Above Star flowers do not shatter easily. It is excellent for hedging, as a specimen tree in the ground or, in a pot. It has upright medium growth with strong foliage and flowers from mid April until September. Importantly, it can withstand morning sun in winter, unlike most of this amazing plant’s many other varieties that thrive in cooler districts of Australia.

Swedish Naturalist Carl von Linne or, Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) was the founder of the modern scientific nomenclature for plants and animals. He established the name Camellia in the system he devised for classifying all plants in the west. His Systema Naturae of 1735 was where Moravian Jesuit botanist George Joseph Kamel, or Camellus, name was recorded. In the Yunnan area of China the camellia is a floral emblem of the province holding the same place in the hearts of its people, just like the kumquat and peach fruits do in other parts of China. It blooms at the time of the lunar New Year (February/March) and is exchanged as a New Year’s gift, symbolising prosperity and long life. The first living Camellia Japonica plant did not arrive at London aboard a company ship until the very earliest years of the eighteenth century.

The first C. Japonica was produced by 1739 in the glasshouses of enthusiastic amateur Lord Petre at Thorndon Hall, Essex in England. By 1760 a plant of C. Sasanqua was flourishing in the royal gardens of the King of Naples at Caserta, and by the early nineteenth century camellia lore had become well established.

‘Just as the dawn is the harbinger of morning, and the sun does not at once reach his meridian glory, so the camellias advance upon us by degrees in beauty. We cannot but view, with admiration, the diversity and elegance of this beautiful family of plants, which the all wise and bountiful hand of God seems to have formed for the delight of mankind’ In China the camellia as a decorative plant was celebrated widely in its art forms, but mostly from the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) onward.

While the camellia plays no part in written ancient Japanese history its influence is felt strongly both in legend and tradition. The Grand Shrine of the creator-goddess Amaterasu Omikami (ancestress of the present Imperial family) is located deep in a wood of camellia trees. The Japanese borrowed a great deal from the Chinese, like the Romans did from the Greeks. They have a cultural custom of sweeping out bad spirits at New Year. In China they use a traditional branch of flowering peach to perform this ceremony. In Japan they substituted a flowering branch of camellia.  And, camellias were also used in many other ways in ritual court ceremonials.

By the 1830’s the fame of this quite beautiful flower had spread. Not only all over England, but onto the continent where it became popular in countries such as Spain, Portugal, southern France and Italy. At Chatsworth House at Derbyshire in England in 1840 gardener Joseph Paxton planted two specimens in a great glass case where they still bloom today. During the Victorian age in England, and its colonies, the camellia began to be associated with the age of formal elegance. Its cool serene beauty was very much in tune with the studied pose of a nineteenth century dandy and fashionable debutante.

The novel by Alexandre Dumas La Dame aux Camelias of 1848 also created a scandal. So that brought the flower to popular notice. Then when he made it popular as an opera by Verdi called La Traviata camellia madness reigned until around 1870 in England when quite suddenly it fell from favour nearly forgotten until following WWI. The arrival in Australia of the first camellia was heralded in engaging terms in a letter from John Macarthur Junior at London when he was writing to his sister Elizabeth.

She was outback in New South Wales where her brothers James and William were administering the estate of Camden Park. ‘I wish’ Elizabeth said in correspondence ‘to convey to you the Camellia Japonica the most magnificent flowering shrub…ever been introduced to this country. The flower, which is red as the rose or white as driven snow, is the most perfectly beautiful that can be imagined’.

The plants arrived from England in February 1831. They still flower today at Camden Park House, which became the first great source for propagating camellias in Australia. Similar to Huntington Botanical Gardens in America where many camellias grow. Camellias are quite simply spectacular when in bloom. They were prized in Japanese gardens from the 14th century. And, in the gardens of Kyoto temples there are many ancient trees estimated to be about 400 years old. Camellias are mentioned in 17th century books about how to arrange flowers. And, while known to botanists during the early eighteenth century, they were not generally seen in the west until 1869 when they were imported by Dutch traders.

Camellia Chrysantha - Golden in form and colour

In Australia, northern California and southern states of the USA camellias are a huge success in areas that resemble its natural habitat. In Australia during the 20th century artist Paul Jones recorded the Camellia Chrysantha, a gold camellia from Guanxi province in China.

This sensation of the camellia world grows from 2 to 5 metres in height with dark green quilted leaves, with flowers that bloom throughout winter a pure and golden yellow. The history of camellias in Australia  however is more aligned with Professor E.G. Waterhouse (1881-1977) a linguist by profession, who became one of the world’s foremost authorities on the camellia.

He raised and named many popular varieties. He founded Sydney’s famous Camellia Grove Nursery in the suburb of St Ives (It has moved since) President also of the International Camellia Society Professor Waterhouse wrote a history of the flower in Australasia in Two Volumes, 1. Camellia Quest and 2. The Magic of Camellias, both of which have since become collector’s items. Named and propagated by him many camellias went on to world popularity and forever will be associated with his name.

At ‘Eryldene’ his now famous house at Gordon in Sydney, he raised hundreds of seedlings, achieving great success. Eryldene was nearby to a very glamorous house my family owned for a number of years. In its garden there had been fifty six camellia trees planted of various varieties, with advice from Professor Waterhouse to the then owner who was a friend.

Underlaying them were countless varieties of azaleas and over them was planted a canopy of exotic trees. The camellias and their companion plants complimented the house well. It was a Hollywood style design from the 30′s, or Art Deco period. It had a round bay window with round panes of glass, the owner being head of the time of one of Australia’s biggest glass manufacturers. We always kept camellias in a float bowl at the front door, providing a wonderful welcome for visitors and adding to a very romantic ambiance. Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011-2012

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Roman fresco with banquet scene from the Casa dei Casti Amanti (IX 12, 6-8) in Pompeii

In western society we are inheritors of a legacy from Ancient Greece and Rome that despite the passing of over 2500 years is still potent. Through their ideas the desire to capture the essence of fine living was born. Today that art of living has evolved since the development of the domus in European antiquity to a residence in America and Australia, through a diverse and special mix of peoples and their cultures.

Ancient Greek gastronomy developed out of a practice of sacrificing domestic animals to a variety of gods. Afterwards, as one would expect in a democracy, the carcasses were equally proportioned and sold at market. During the fifth century before the Christ event herbs, spices and honey were added to heighten taste.

As documented in the literature of this period, cookery was considered a very important skill, because the Greeks understood it to be one of the basic arts that sustained human life. Romans of the first century embraced Greek ideas and art forms with great passion. Roman orator Cicero [106 BC -43 BC] believed that ‘to style the presence of guests at a dinner table’ lay at the heart of Roman civilised life ‘because it implied a community of enjoyment, a convivium, or ‘living together’.

Reconstruction of the Octagonal Room - Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea

Following the decline of the Republic and ascent of the Empirical system at Rome a shared meal became a vehicle for display, ostentation, rank, hierarchy and for flattering and influencing people, in a setting they could exercise the art of conversation. Roman Emperor Nero (37-68) enjoyed fine living with great gusto. When he entered his just completed residence, the Domus Aurea (or Golden House, built in 64 AD, he is said to have proclaimed, as he gazed upon its many splendours, words to the effect, ‘now at last I can live as a human being’.

Author of a first century best seller Satyricon, Gaius Petronius (27-66 A.D.), was Nero’s advisor in all matters of luxury and extravagance (his unofficial title was arbiter elegantia). He described guests arriving at a banquet as being requested to remove their shoes at the door, have their hands washed in iced water, no mean feat prior to refrigeration, while their toenails were trimmed to the sounds of a chorus singing. Perhaps today we may consider the last just a little excessive.

We do know that Nero’s guests reclined, along with their host, on couches enjoying conversation and cuisine prepared by chefs, who achieved some fame. His vast banqueting hall revolved in harmony with the rhythms of day and night, the ceiling opening to reveal the heavens as perfume and gifts showered onto guests.

The advent of Christianity created a challenge for those at the top because by now there was a well-established tradition of fine living throughout the Roman world.

The Apostle Paul struggled to attend gatherings where rich men and their friends were served different food and drink to those of a ‘lower status’. It was a dilemma he felt he could not resolve so in the end he decided the wealthy had better eat privately.

Paul advised the Corinthians [1 Corinthians 8: 9, 10] when asked should they eat meat sacrificed to idols by suggesting they should be careful about exercising freedom of choice in case it became a ‘stumbling block to the weak’. And, that if what he ate caused his brothers to fall into sin then for his part, he would never eat meat again. Powerful words with a meditative deep inner meaning that reflect Paul’s strength of mind and purpose.

There is a huge gap of reliable documentation from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, when the demise of eating in a reclining position also came about, until about the fourteenth century in Europe. Communal living by Christian monks and nuns meant communal eating, often to strict rules of silence, with an aim of feeding the soul.

Prolonged periods of peace also meant the aristocracy gentry and merchants could establish great houses in the countryside and along with it invented the concept of ‘eating outdoors’ or, having picnics, which became something new and exciting as described by fourteenth century French nobleman Gaston Phoebus Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn (1343-1391).

He summarized his life’s achievements: “I have delighted all my days in three things. The one is arms, the next is love, and the other is hunting.” He added, “There have been far better masters of the two former than I am.” Such humility, is definitely to be applauded.

For Kings and noblemen of the fourteenth century hunting was so much more than just a sport. It was a game of chance in which the thrill of the chase was far more important than the desire to put food on the table.

An artful aristocratic diversion, the hunt ended with man proving he held power and sway over the animal kingdom. A complex event involving strategizing for success with highly valued, well trained dogs and fighting fit falcons hunts were often held on religious days.

They started with a feast for breakfast, as well as an analysis of the droppings of the potential prey to ensure it was both fit and worthy to be hunted at all. Then the hunt was on. The glorious day ended with everyone joining together in a celebratory meal and fittingly Phoebus himself died, as he should, during a bear hunt.

Fifteenth century Florentine author and philosopher Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499 revealed his thoughts about a meal that it ‘embraces all the parts of man, for it restores the limbs, renews the humours, revives the mind, refreshes the senses and sustains and sharpens reason’.

Throughout the fifteenth century in Italy dining at table was strongly symbolic of a good society one in which strong social relationships were forged, ideas exchanged and mutual respect established.

In England by the sixteenth century the head of a powerful household sat at the head of his table facing a fanciful portal crowned with trumpeters who heralded the exact moment the food, led by the marshal of the hall carrying a white staff appeared.

At the grandest banquets, a household officer on horseback emerged from underneath a screen that protected guests from draughts from the doorway and rode into the hall to announce that dinner was served. What fun.

At Hatfield House, home of the famous Cecil family, the ornately carved screen was crowned with the Cecil crest and family motto Sero Sed Serio “late, but in earnest’, surely one of the best mottos of all time.

Its painted decoration and a great panoply of decorative devices had been plundered from Turkish rugs and old Medieval manuscripts imposing a visual richness.

If a house during the Tudor period in England, included a Long Gallery hung with portraits of the family, famous patrons or friends it was the mark of a settled and civilized house; an Elizabethan magnate could contemplate their character or otherwise be inspired by their virtues. Owning such a house became important to practicing the art of fine living.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century the French court changed its philosophy from an ideal based on chivalry to one of refined manners.

The most influential teacher of architects in France during this period was Germain Boffrand. He revealed ‘the character of the master of a house…can be judged by the manner in which it is arranged, decorated and furnished’.

By now the art of fine living embraced a well-planned sophisticated garden as well. At Vaux le Vicomte Louis La Vau 1612-70 [architecture] Charles Le Brun 1619-90 [interiors] and Andre Le Notre 1613-1700 [gardens] spent five years building a chateau designed by the three for the glory of one, their patron and illustrious client the Minister for Finances, Nicolas Foucquet. It is at his Chateau, Vaux le Vicomte, that the French classical style was born.

Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre created this extraordinary ‘palace of the sun’ as described by the ancient Latin poet, Ovid for his patron, Apollo, The Sun King.

Here at last was the perfect place for a man of substance and his family to dwell; large, imposing, but not huge; with painted wood panelling, colourful carpets, painted illusionary ceilings, carved and gilded furniture, fabulous ceramics, superb textiles all made for the most splendid of man-made environments.  I know that when I visited to view its splendours I could have easily moved straight in. It was not over ambitious, but comfortable, cleverly disposed and in keeping with its times.

At Vaux le Vicomte Foucquet practiced the art of fine living well, eating his meat from a service that included a new fancy fangled invention called the fork, without fearing the accusation of depravity still associated with that practice only a few years earlier.

The publisher Charles de Sercy described Vaux’s gardens in 1652 as the place where ‘Foucquet made art and nature engage in a pleasant contest’. The genius of Le Notre lay not only in his invention of a new style, but in his absolute mastery of a repertoire widely used, at least in its many parts.

It was bringing them together in a controlled harmonious form that was not only pleasing but also a perfect place in which to practice the art of seduction.

Vaux was built for the enjoyment of the countryside while not giving up the pleasures of the city…something England did not emulate at this time as they concentrated on building country houses for sport and display, rather than as a place to practice the art of conversation.

The Baroque style from Vaux le Vicomte became a potent force that influenced the whole of the western world when guided by Louis XIV, he began expanding his father’s hunting lodge nearby the village of Versailles using the combined talents of Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre.

The Kings of France lived in the chateau of Versailles, which became a centre for political life from 1682 until 1789. It is today an amazing place to visit with its some 2,300 rooms and over 60 staircases. In its day it cost the equivalent price of what we would pay now for a modern city airport. It was an object of universal admiration in its time, enhancing French prestige on the world stage.

France’s appearance and way of life changed forever during the reign of Louis XIV the Sun King. Many great towns throughout France underwent metamorphosis and the landscape altered forever as Louis XIV devoted himself energetically to all his building projects. Today little remains of his other splendid palaces at Saint-Germain and Marly?

Well cursed as an extravagance when it was under construction, and accused of having ruined the nation at the time of the revolution, the chateau at Versailles stands today as a monument to French achievement and the many milestones reached in its historical and cultural journey.

Over the years since it was finished the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles has reflected many great moments in the history of the world. At the time Colbert, Louis’ 1^st Minister and master of ceremonies used it to launch the Royal Mirror Company. Its success gave considerable momentum to the glazing industry in France and increasingly the public became aware of the decor possibilities of a mirror. They enhanced the art of living well.

Despite all of the work Louis was to complete at Versailles it was always called le Chateau, (which means Gentleman’s seat) never le Palais, remaining the home of a young man, grand without being pompous, full of light, air and cheerfulness just like a large country house.

According to the Oxford Dictionary the term enlightenment means to be free of prejudice, ignorance or superstition. Grand Tourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe were busy discovering the ruins at Rome and an expansion of knowledge revealed that ancient artists and writers had been accustomed to free expression, with religion and honour paramount to society’s daily existence.

This revelation affected the social and moral values of many European societies who were travelling in ever increasing circles in ‘search of the truth’. They began striving for aesthetic perfection wanting to emulate a new ideal; classical perfection.

As a result small temples in a landscape became focal points for those wanting a place of ease and repose.

By the turn of the nineteenth interiors as described by Jane Austen in her novels, presented an image of a sublime world. China, glassware and silverware displayed the family coat of arms proving to those who sat at table with you that your lineage was not only important, but also could be traced to ancient (the inference was more important) times.

Simple white starched linens with drawn thread work were surmounted by elegant vases made of glass, filled with fresh flowers picked from the garden loosely, but consciously arranged and placed on great tables. These were made from the new rage timber, mahogany with their elegantly fluted legs inspired by the columns from a Greek classical temple.

Women’s dresses emulated Greek statuary although some, endeavouring to appear like the goddesses on Greek temples by wetting their dresses, succumbed to pneumonia… because by now death was preferable to not being seen as part of a fashionable scene involved in the art of fine living.

William Morris (1834-1896) self-professed leader of the modern movement said ‘If I were asked to say what is at once the most important product of Art, and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House’.

Building a house in the country made to appear as old and as venerable as the countryside itself, was what everyone was striving for. If you couldn’t build one you clamoured to be acquainted with those who owned a wonderful old pile. The aim was to affect an invitation to join a country house weekend where the art of pleasure was a very serious business and the art of fine living practiced with confidence and style.

‘Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality’ said English author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900. He resented social injustice and the squalor that was a direct result of the ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism of the Industrial Revolution. His influence on the next generation of artists and craftsmen who led the way toward establishing Le Style Moderne was to be profound.

The agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century removed land as the chief source of wealth in England and by 1901 the money to pay for a country house had to be made in urban centres of trade or, somewhere else in the Empire, like Australia, where the English style and way of life had been transported. World War 1 marked a great divide in the age of the moderns bringing artists face to face with an alternative; either a clean sweep or hope of a reformed society, or alternatively the retention of a privileged art in the service of an elite and moneyed class.

After WWII a focus on art and design coming together again was rejuvenated. At Sydney, the unofficial capital of Australia, a quiet revolution in the art of living well has meant that its interior designers have finally come into their own. Stunning textiles instead of paintings are appearing on the very best walls. Smart eye-catching antique carpets are teaming brilliantly with wide plank nailed timber floors.

Despite the GFC, storm and tempest, floods and fire most owners remain optimistic. Good old Petronius, with his eye for detail and best in life, would have loved the whole concept of a one stop shop and having access to a fabulous design resource like Residence Australia.

During the last decade those who have set the scene for an art of fine living have reinterpreted late nineteenth century European Modernism with great enthusiasm, making it appear all brand new.

Great interiors today are innovative, convenient, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, technology savvy and above all energy efficient. Sustainability, recycling and quiet elegance have become hallmarks of an interior that will both inspire and nurture its occupants, so that they can enjoy an art of living well.

Carolyn McDowall, ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011, 2012

*Quote by Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

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During the seventeenth century at France King Louis XIV ordered architect Louis le Vau and gardener Andre le Notre to produce a tiny pleasure pavilion in the grounds of Versailles near the artificial lake. Built to practice the arts of seduction, the so-called Trianon de Porcelaine was lavishly embellished with ceramics in the Chinese taste. It was pulled down when Louis’s mistress Mme de Montespan fell from favour. In its place the Grand Trianon was built for the King to entertain family and friends.

By the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions. Fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors, where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate cross over of cultural influences. Fans were among the earliest imports of the English and Dutch East India Companies and perfectly reflected the femininity associated with this movement, which combined flirtation with fantasy and frivolity.

On the scale of things a very few people in England or Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese, so their vivid imagination took over. When combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a design style that was very fetching. It was the European evocation of the Chinese. Our divine teapot is from from the Saxon porcelain factory Meissen, who invented European porcelain. Their Chinoiserie designs were all at once fun, fantastical and frivolous, yet quite sophisticated and enchantingly pretty.

Chinoiserie had a complete lack of pomposity and used clear bright colours, which had both amusing and fantastic qualities and displayed a preference for asymmetrical design. This aspect offered everyone a rest from the formality and relentless perfection demanded by the classical legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. It was about having fun.

In a little Salon in the Chateau de Craon the scenes painted delicately on the interior walls and ceiling in a delightful circular chamber were typical of the work of the French designer Jean Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808). Many of his designs were used on the newly popular small-scale feminine furniture and placed the emphasis on Chinoiserie as a style of luxury and refinement.

A beautiful Prussian blue vernis martin writing desk with Chinoiserie decoration was made for King Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour’s for her Chateau at Bellevue. The artist she patronized Francis Boucher delighted in rendering designs for her, including a painting of the sophisticated pleasures of the beau monde who are disported in a park as members of a pleasure seeking Parisian society.

Chippendale Frame on Painted Mirror on Chinese Wallpaper at Saltram

In England Thomas Chippendale and John Linnell both master craftsmen, were inspired by Chinese symbolism and motifs in the development of styles of chairs.

Chippendale’s mirrors in the Chinese taste were also highly sought after, their delightful whimsical decoration was delicate and had great charm.

Fabrics were imported from the East, satins and embroideries from India; painted silks from China were treated like wallpaper and lined an alcove. They were costly, but popular with those who could afford them.

Toile de Jouy

Less expensive was Toile de Jouy a cotton fabric produced in France and decorated with engraved copperplates of little vignette Chinoiserie scenes. Shops were filled with all sorts of delights for men and women of fashion to choose from as the style was taken up all over Europe.

In the Green Salon at Drottingholm and in the Oranienbaum, the summer palace of the Czars of Russia Chinoiserie reigned supreme. Catherine the Great remodelled an enfilade of rooms so that her guests could stroll through a sequence of Chinoiserie interiors.

A love of things oriental fitted into both the French and English garden genres at this time. There is a Chinese Tent preserved at Boughton House, which is a unique example of a collapsible garden pavilion made of oilskin, produced in London in the mid eighteenth century. It was also used in the garden of the London house of the Montague Douglas Scott family and can be seen in that place in a painting by Venetian artist Canaletto entitled View of the Thames.

Surprise was the key to the success of Chinoiserie pavilions and follies. On your journey your pulse would quicken as you came across some delightful building in which, unlike the house you lived in that had to conform to a conventional life style and its demands, you could allow your imagination to run free and create a total fantasy. The love affair with the exotic orient with its tales of a Forbidden City and exotic splendour provided a focus for tales of the fantastic. In an ancient Chinese Garden one of the most important characteristics to observe was the laying out of paths in curves and counter curves with circular moon gates.

Rare example of Chinese enamelling on a Royal Worcester white blank plate by Chinese artist Po Hing, courtesy Martyn Cook Antiques, Redfern Sydney

The Chinese House at Harristown in County Kildare in Ireland was built before 1738 for the garden at Stowe in Buckinghamshire. It is one of the earliest such pavilions in Great Britain. It was taken away in 1751 to Wooton House nearby until the 1950’s when it was taken across the Irish Sea to County Kildare.

Chinese enameling on porcelain eventually became so desirable in 1870 the Royal Worcester factory brought to Britain a Chinese enameller called Po Hing to England so that he could complete an especially commissioned dinner service for them. Po Hing was Cantonese and painted the tableware in his native style.

Now and then a plate from this service turns up on the international antique market. They are a reminder of time when the east was still a mystery to many and confirmed the idea that it was not only exotic but also difficult to access.

Unlike other styles that deteriorated to be replaced by another, Chinoiserie has never really left us. The western fascination for the east and its abiding images has endured although it continues to change to suit fashionable trends and politically correct poses.

These days it is more about a focus on food and the merriment enjoyed as it is shared in a mingling of the various traditions of a peaceful western multicultural society.

Plant hunter Robert Fortune recorded in his 1847 publication Wanderings in China ‘but the curtain, which had been drawn around the celestial country for ages, has now been rent asunder; and instead of viewing an enchanted fairyland, we find, after all, that China is just like other countries…’

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011 – 2012

I went to dine
With a friend of mine
Who dined off porcelain plates
Of a kind so rare
That it stirred your hair
To think of their possible fates

For some were Ming
and others were Ch’ing
(Whatever those names may be)
And the food was divine
And the wine, the wine
Intoxicated me.

There were ices – those
Were of famille rose,
and coffee of famille noire,
and a choice dessert
of famille verte
Preceded a choice cigar.

But alas for the end
Of dinner and friend
For he happened his eyes to raise
As I started to rub
The burning stub
On a bit of his finest glaze.

He was perfectly nice,
But as cold as ice,
As he rang for my coat and hat,
For Ming is a thing,
And so is Ch’ing,
That mustn’t be used for that.

This delightful poem signed S.D.C. was found on a scrap of paper in a book on second hand glass….

Related posts:

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2. What is an Antique?
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The Emperor Qianlong in his study (Before 1767) Artist: attributed to the Jesuit Priest Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and Jin Tingbiao (active at Court 1757-1767)

Many know about Salem in Massachusetts in America, mainly because of its association with witches. However one of its greatest treasures is the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). The roots of the museum date to 1799 and the founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes, who had achieved what once was impossible, sailing beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum.

Recently the PEM had a show that revealed the contents of the Emperor’s Qianlong’s private retreat deep within the Forbidden City. There were some ninety objects, including murals, paintings, wall coverings, furniture, architectural elements, jades and cloisonné.  The Emperor Qianlong  (r.1736-1796) was one of Chinese history’s most influential figures. He was among the richest and most powerful men in the world during his life time. A connoisseur, scholar and devout Buddhist, within the forbidden city Qianlong created a luxurious garden compound to serve throughout his retirement as a secluded place of contemplation, repose and entertainment.

I first learned about the PEM in an unlikely place, Brisbane, Australia during the last year of the twentieth century. At Milton in Brisbane, where I was working at the time in an Antique Shop, we held an exhibition of Chinese textiles and many people came not only to look and purchase rare pieces, but also to show us theirs. One family turned up with a sea chest full of fabulous textiles and objects, which had been brought out of China early in the twentieth century at the time of the Chinese Revolution by a merchant sailor member of their family. It included a fabulous uncut Chinese silk Imperial Yellow Robe, which was still on the roll where it had been placed after it had been woven.

Chinese Rank Badge of a Scholar

An elderly friend, Jim Forbes came to visit and advise. Jim was a member of the renowned American Forbes family, whose wealth had its origins in the China trade that took place between North America and China during the nineteenth century. He had an innate understanding of the culture that surrounded the Emperors in the Forbidden City. Throughout the exhibition he often called in to view and talk about the textiles and the time they had been woven.

He told us about the Boston trading firm Perkins & Company who had sent many young men, including his great grandfather to participate in their business activities abroad. Perkins & Co., like many other Boston trading firms in the early nineteenth century, had sent ships to China to obtain tea. They paid for it by exporting to China, from Boston, large quantities of silver, furs, manufactured goods, cloth, wood and the deadly opium along with any other items they thought the Chinese market would absorb.

The Forbes family founded and were involved in the running of the Museum of the American China Trade at Milton, Mass., on Boston’s South Shore. Until the 1980′s it was curated by a Forbes great-grandson, Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes, who was an expert on Chinese porcelain and a relative of our Brisbane based expert.

He often went to visit him to discuss special finds and view the family collection. It was housed in one of the family members 1833 Greek Revival style house in ironically, Milton in Mass. In 1984 it merged with the The Peabody Essex Museum leaving the house in the management of the Forbes House Charitable Trust, which now operates it as the Captain Forbes House Museum.

The Forbes House Museum is located at: 215 Adams Street Milton, MA 02186

The PEM is about helping people to access and assess their relationship to creativity, or to help refine their ability to interpret art and culture.

The collection is diverse and cross cultural and includes African, American, Asian, maritime, Native American and Oceanic art. The focus is on enjoying a lively conversation through creativity across time, place and culture.

Their goal is not to hang art on the walls and then tell you what to think. Deep and far ranging, the collection is meant to open windows onto the world and other cultures to learn how people live, work and celebrate.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM),
East India Square (161 Essex St Milton) Salem, Massachusetts
Contact: 01970 978-745-9500

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010 – 2012

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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The rose is a universal flower. It stands for medieval romance as well as modern lovers; with its dramatic combination of beauty and fragrance. It reminds us of war and peace, of Greece and Rome and the pagans and Christians. Rosa Chinensis, the China rose and the tea rose, Rosa Odorata, form the basis for most of today’s modern hybrid roses. Rosa Chinensis arrived in Europe during the early years of the eighteenth century and Rosa Odorata in the early nineteenth century. Both are old in Chinese history and art and were developed for centuries before their descendants reached European shores.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century at the Chateau Malmaison nearby to Paris Empress Josephine employed botanical painter Pierre Josephe Redoute (1759-1840) to record her plant collection. Previously a painter of flowers to two Queens under the Ancien Regime, with Empress Josephine’s direction Redoute became known as the ‘man who painted roses’. Among the roses Redoute recorded were the four so-called China roses from which most modern roses descend. They were Parks Yellow tea-scented China, Hume’s Blush tea-scented China, Parson’s Pink China and, Slater’s Crimson China. They were known collectively as the ‘Stud Chinas’.

Redoute’s finest achievement is generally considered to be the publication of his masterly work Les Roses (1817). As a general rule China roses flower almost continuously on smallish bushes. Their flowers are loose and informal, although often nicely pointed in the bud. In temperate climates they are virtually evergreen, although frost tender in colder areas. Most French roses bloom for a comparatively short period.  Their beauty is fleeting, but they always charm.

During Empress Josephine’s lifetime the Chatéau Malmaison was a showpiece for many kinds of exotic plants and animals from around the world. In all over 200 varieties of roses were planted between 1804 and 1814. They have been categorized: one hundred and seven were forms of Rosa gallica, thirty two were Centifolias, eight were Damasks seven were Albas, twenty were China’s and the remaining number came from a wide varieties of different species, including the petite pimpinellifolia.

The menagerie included a kangaroo, an ostrich, and a trained orang-outang that wore a coat and skirt, curtsied and ate at a table. But it was the roses that were Josephine’s first and foremost interest.

Thanks to her efforts the techniques developed at Malmaison formed a foundation that has since been improved, simplified and added on to so that today home gardeners can grow spectacular show roses without the resources of an Empress.

The roses at Malmaison included the lovely Souvenir de la Malmaison, a rose that came into existence long after the days of the Empress Josephine. It is a Bourbon rose, whose blooms are large, the palest flesh pink, deepening to the centre but pale when they open.

Tradition has it the first Bourbon rose was a chance seedling that sprang up amongst a mixed hedge of R. Chinensis and “Autumn Damask” on the then, Isle of Bourbon, early in the nineteenth century.

The bush is low and twiggy, under one metre high and it is sprinkled with blooms for most of the year. The class itself is vigorous, comparatively hardy and can be relied on for an autumn flush of blooms, which differed from the blooms in Josephine’s time.

Rosa Old Blush

Since gardens became the province of all people, the rose has been grown in gardens from the suburban villa to the country cottage orneé.

In history it was grown in the royal palaces of the Near and Middle East, on all the royal estates in Europe and England and profusely in the gardens of the Mughal Emperors of India long before they attracted notice in the President’s garden at the White House in America.

In fact the rose appeared on earth long before man. A fossil imprint of a rose leaf estimated to be about 35 – 40 million years old was reputedly unearthed in Colorado. This fossil rose leaf was sold at Auction in 2010. by The Green River Formation.

It provides a rare look into the flora and fauna of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah from over 35 million years ago. Many ancestors of today’s plants can be found as well preserved fossils in the ancient lake basins throughout the region. This fine specimen with excellent venation is a leaf from the Rosaceae family; possibly an ancestor of today’s rose species. The leaf measures 5½ x 4 inches and is well centered on a limestone matrix measuring 13 x 9½ inches.

Botanists believe roses evolved as early as 60 million years ago, probably in Asia, and then spread across the world. It is also believed many of the islands of the Mediterranean were once densely covered with roses. And, then there was the so-called Rose Red City, Petra in Jordan…

Match me such marvel,
Save in Eastern clime,
A rose-red city – half as old as time

Botanically the genus is first cousin to such well-known plants as prunus (plums) malus (apples) rubus (berries, such as blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries) cotoneaster and spirea (May) sorbus (rowan). Despite the wide range of species available surprisingly few have been used in modern breeding. Other species are either incompatible for breeding with our moderns, or else their virtues are completely overwhelmed by a dominant disadvantage, such as excessive thorniness or, susceptibility to disease.

The earliest written record of a rose appears on Sumerian tablets some five thousand years ago, with a sculpture of the same period depicting a golden ram caught in a thorn bush, on which blooms a rose. The first recorded painting of a rose was on the walls of the Palace of King Minos in Crete at Knossos. This rose was later identified as a Damask rose.

Divine Rosa Gallica - rich, red, romantic

The two earliest varieties of Rose were Rosa Gallica and the Damask Rose. The hardiness of Rosa Gallica is indisputable; the plants renewed their vigour by suckering freely in all directions. The rich coloring of this low-growing suckering rose, its fragrance, medicinal properties and general hardiness made it a treasured plant for centuries.

The wild prototype with its rich fiery flower, from which all Gallica roses derive, came from countries at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. They were rubra (red) and highly esteemed. Described in very ancient texts as being semi-double in form, this was the rose of the Persian Magi and Median fire worshippers, who used it in in religious ceremonies twelve centuries before the Christ event.

Nearly all other varieties at this time were pale and pink, and there were extensive plantings of roses in ancient gardens. Arab physicians used its dried petals for both its astringent and invigorating properties. The petals hold their scent to an amazing degree and fresh blooms were steeped in oil for the preparation of that fragrant volatile essence known as attar of roses.

The Persians considered the rose the most beautiful of flowers and called it gul, which became the generic term for flower. A rose garden is called a gulistan. The history of the damask rose reads like the tales of the Arabian Nights.

For century’s writers, poets and artists sung its praises and extolled its beauty and fragrance. The Phoenician saint who established Christianity in Persia carried the rose to Abyssinia where it became known as the Holy Rose or sancta and they still found in Abyssinian churchyards today.

Traders along the old caravan routes carried it to Kashmir, Afghanistan and India. In Asia Minor, following the expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem in 1187, Sultan Saladin used 500 camel loads of rose water from Damask Roses to purify the Temple of Omar, which had been used as a Christian Church.

There is the story illustrated in Persian literature that centers on the rose. It is one of many poems and tales concerned with flowers.

The story goes that two rival physicians quarreled fiercely about the efficacy of poisons. They eventually agreed to put their theories to the test. The wiser of the two swallowed an antidote with the deadly pill given to him by his rival. He then picked a spray of roses and breathed a spell onto it. Before handing it to his opponent whom, greatly fearing the power of the spell, smelled the roses and fell dead from the terror.

The rose was the symbol of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. She chose it as her personal emblem, as did Dionysus, the Greek God of wine and revelry.

In the Iliad Greek author Homer described the shield of Achilles as decorated with roses. It also told the story about how Aphrodite came by night to anoint Hector’s body with rose oil before it was embalmed, after he had been slain by Achilles.

Sir John Chardin, when describing a rose bush he saw in Iran in the seventeenth century wrote,

‘It bore upon one, and the same branch roses of three colours. Some yellow, others yellow and white, and others yellow and red’.

The citizens of the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean love roses. The name Rhodes comes from Rhodon, the Greek word for Rose. They adopted the rose as their symbol and stamped it on the coinage of the realm. The coin from ancient Rhodes was minted around 325BC and the rose was recorded on over one hundred and two different coins until Rome conquered the island in the first century before the Christ event.

Thou art the smile of the gods,
The pure joy of mortal man,
All grace adorning

Romans were the most lavish celebrants of the rose.  Their heroes were garlanded with roses, and the graves of their soldiers decorated with roses at a service called Dies Rosationis. When the rose was out of season in Italy, the avid Romans, unable to endure any absence of the flower, imported them from North Africa and as well as rose scent from Arabian and Indian merchants.

Cleopatra is said to have soaked the sails of her ship with rose water so that as she departed from Antony, ‘the very winds were lovesick’. The Romans are attributed with introducing the rose to England.

The venerable Bede, an Anglo Saxon scholar, theologian and historian possessed a copy of Pliny the Elder’s 160 volumes Historia naturalis of 77 AD. It has a chapter devoted to roses. The Isle of Albion, as England was known in antiquity, might have been so called because of the white roses with which it abounded.

Rosa Alba

Rosa Alba is one of the first roses cultivated in England. Its growth habit is tall and upright, which in some cases exceeds eight feet, and so they are useful for background planting and informal hedging. They have very distinctive gray-green foliage with plum overtones. It does not sucker as freely as some other roses used for stock purposes.

It requires to be pruned lightly, or not at all, if it is to develop its full beauty. For smaller gardens it can be cut back to produce more compact growth however that will inhibit flowering so that you produce a smaller number of quality flowers, rather than a large profusion of blooms that virtually drip from the stem.

During the Middle Ages troubadours went from castle to castle singing tender love songs and stories, comparing lovely ladies to a rose. The civil wars fought in England in the name of Roses ended in 1485. The White Rose of York was probably Rosa Alba maxima and the Red Rose of Lancaster Rosa gallica maxima.

n 1553 at Hampton Court in the garden there were four hundred rose bushes. In England’s Heraldic tradition there are four different rose devices. The most usual is the rose with five petals and a bold boss of stamens, with the five sepal points showing between the petals. If the sepals are emblazoned with a different colour than the petals, the rose is referred to as barbed. If the boss is different the rose is described as seeded.

The Tudor rose is double, with the white and red petals of the houses of York and Lancaster. The rose of Edward IV is a rose with Rose en Soleil cognisance a sun’’ rays spreading beyond the petals. There is also the slipper rose, which when surmounted by the royal crown is the badge of England. It has a short stalk with two leaves attached. Elizabeth 1 had a Tudor Rose with the legend, a rose without a thorn and there is the famous portrait of her adorned with roses.

Nicholas Hilliard (1537-1619) was one of the first English miniature painters. He excelled in romantic portraits such as that of the anonymous Elizabethan gallant standing pensively in a rose garden.

The rose was also associated with the Jacobite cause. Bonnie Prince Charlie is said to have worn one in his bonnet as he marched triumphantly to Derby and they were engraved on wine glasses made of lead crystal as a secret sign to those who were in sympathy to his cause. Queen Anne, whose reign in which England and Scotland were united, had for emblem a rose and thistle growing from one stem and it figures on the king’s color of the second battalion of the Scots Guards until this day.

Roses among the ruins of Port Arthur in Tasmania

In the eighteenth century in England bans on decorative textiles from the orient created an obsession with chintz called ‘indiennes’ by the French. The English actor David Garrick bemoaned the seizure of his wife’s rose chintz bed hangings. For the next one hundred years contraband chintzes were smuggled into Europe and chintz spies lurked everywhere. So there was much celebrating when in the 1850’s the ban was lifted and roses appeared everywhere again.

Captain William Langdon left his home in Somerset in England and sailed for Hobart Town. A veteran of the Napoleonic wars, he applied successfully to Governor Sorell in 1823 for a grant of 1500 acres on the Clyde river and built a substantial house which he named Montacute for the English house of that name where his father had been rector.

He brought with him a red rose and while Montacute is now in ruins, much like Port Arthur in Tasmania which is now a wonderful country for growing roses, especially those of the China variety.

Cabbage and Moss roses descend from Rosa Gallica and other varieties of these shrub roses come from marriages between Rosa Gallica and the roses from China.

Eighteenth century Rose covered Chintz

People, generally speaking, do not know what the ‘Moss’ refers to. They get their name from a curious effect caused by a mutation, which enlarges the glands on the sepals and stalks of the blooms, giving a characteristic moss-like effect.

The development of the first hybrid tea rose in the mid nineteenth century was a notable triumph in rose breeding. Their colours, shapes and sizes vary enormously, sharing a heritage of superlative beauty.

The Queen Elizabeth is considered by many rose growers to be the finest of the floribunda hybrid tea roses. It is remarkably vigorous and disease free cultivar that bears small clusters of flowers on long, almost thornless stems. Dainty Bess is one of a small number of hybrid teas whose buds open into five petalled blossoms like those of wild roses.

Some of the loveliest roses are the old-fashioned bush roses. Of them architect Edwin Lutyen’s gardener friend Miss Gertrude Jekyll said

‘these were the roses that so often appear in the pictures of the Dutch flower painters; and in more recent years it was these flowers, now old fashioned, but always adorable, that, amid all the thousands of more modern kinds, held the admiration and inspired some of the most beautiful work of Fantin-Latour, whose genius and sympathy enabled him to show on his canvases, not only their intrinsic beauty and dignity, but also a sympathetic suggestion of their relation to human life and happiness’

Slater's Crimson China Rose...a rose for all time

Valentino-Rose Handbag

From the very beginning husband and wife gardening team Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West intended that the garden at Sissinghurst in Kent should be filled with roses. They genuinely believed old-fashioned shrub roses gave them more in return for a given amount of labour and expense and they enjoyed their profusion, generosity of spirit of a plant that gave of flowers with great gusto. They loved their untidy, lavish performance with walls to frame their exuberance.

A rose between two thorns is likened to a gentle person between two plain, evil or ill-tempered ones. And, a rose by any other name Romeo’s other half Juliet would tell us, would smell as sweet.

American writer Gertrude Stein observed…
‘a rose is a rose is a rose’….

‘Come live with me and be my love
And we will all the pleasure prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields
And all the craggy mountains yields
And I will make thee beds of roses
With a thousand fragrant posies
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle’

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle, 2011, 2012

*According to French couturier Valentino

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For three thousand years the Greek God Apollo was the deity who deflected evil and brought forth light. His sculptural image in a pool in the garden of Louis XIV, the Sun King at Versailles depicts him powerfully, in the soft glow of the morning light, gathering up his reins to ride on his daily journey across the sky bringing light to the world.

Apollo has continually changed in our collective imagination to suit the times and needs of those seeking to achieve greatness by using him as a symbol. It is not a surprise that he was selected by Abe Silverstein when they were planning a mission to land men on the moon at N.A.S.A. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to be the symbol of a program that would take men into space. He later said that “I was naming the spacecraft like I’d name my baby”.

As the God of light and music Apollo was beloved by all the gods, who sought to keep him safe. He knew about truth and prophecy,  medicine and healing, poetry and the arts and, much much more. He was a well rounded figure, much like the astronauts chosen for the Apollo space program.

The 60′s was the age of those who dared to dream a dream and then went out and made it happen. Apart from the actual space program throughout the 70′s, and into the 80′s, the final frontier of space was conquered constantly during the childhood of my three sons (sounds like a TV show). They were born between 1968 and 1973 and, during their childhood had a wonderful bevy of sci fi television shows and movies to inspire them. Lost in Space, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica to name a few.

Then there was the famous Star Wars trilogy with Luke, Han and Leia facing the forces of evil and proving the power of a force for good. No 1 son has a considerable collection of material relating to his passion for knowledge about all things space and space travel. We enjoyed revisiting it when we watched the twelve-part television HBO mini series co-produced by Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Brian Grazer and Michael Bostick in 1998.

A drama/documentary From the Earth to the Moon won both an Emmy and Golden Glove Award. Made with wonderful attention to detail, it presents the landmark Apollo expeditions, which began in 1961 and ended in 1972. I find it hard to believe that this series was never shown on Television in Australia. As part of the baby boomer generation when these events were really happening, like the rest of the world our fledgling family were glued to the radio and television constantly.

We took an active interest in the reports and visuals of the Mercury and Gemini programs, which led to the establishment of the Apollo missions. And, we cheered, along with America, as its new visionary president John F Kennedy on May 25, 1961 declared a national goal of “landing a man on the Moon” by the end of the decade. He said…’we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’

John F Kennedy came from a background and family that had lived through two world wars and a depression. So much about the hardship of those times were still fresh in the collective family, and social memory. He also knew that challenging and inspiring creative people with a goal and date was the first and most powerful tool in propelling them forward to use their imagination to invent the future. Watching this series has proven his point, and more. During the years of the 60′s we all took an active interest in the exploits of American astronauts both in and out of their Apollo modules.  I Dream of Jeannie about the astronaut who found a girl genie in a bottle following a splashdown kept everyone laughing and dreaming until it really happened.

Who can forget where they were when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on earth to step out from what appeared to be a very flimsy lunar module – LM (‘lem’) onto the dusty moon’s surface, taking that giant leap for mankind. We felt the same deep emotion as the American allies we had learned to admire and respect during the years of World War II, when they spent so much time in our homes and hearts.

One extraordinary recreation of events was when the team on the ground were given a box full of totally unrelated objects and odds and ends of clothing copying those on the spacecraft. They were trying to bring Jim Lovell and his crew home after Apollo 13 had a major malfunction. They made a square fitting fit a round fitting in record time so they could filter the air and reduce the deadly carbon monoxide fumes threatening the astronauts lives. How they achieved it out of scraps of nothing was truly amazing.

If ever imagination was called upon at every level it was during this mission. Continually the team in space and the guys on the ground were challenged by circumstances no one could have foreseen. In the end by working in congress and by using both imagination and knowledge the boys were brought home. As Eugene Kranz their flight director believed, ‘it was their finest hour’.

We are today enjoying the advances in technology incidental to the development of rocketry and the experience of manned spaceflight. These include advancing the use of a unique fastening system invented by Swiss engineer George de Mestral who imagined Velcro from events following a hunting trip. Many other industries benefited too, including avionics, computers and advanced telecommunications. Then there was the detailed systematic checklist, devised to ensure the astronaut’s safety after the tragedy of the fire in Apollo 1. This has been a role model ever since for all such systems that secure the safety of thousands of people traveling.

The Apollo mission sparked interest in many fields of endeavour, including the discipline, art and profession of engineering. It was all about acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge to help design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and invent processes that in the end safely realize a solution that suit the needs of society. But it would not have happened without imagination.

The astronauts have been a study for psychologists about how humans cope with stress. The three-man team of Apollo 12 Charles (Pete) Conrad Commander, Dick Gordon Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean, Lunar Module Pilot drove matching Chevrolet corvettes and were renowned for their wisecracking routine. They were however able to apply themselves completely when required and lived through a serious incident when the Saturn rocket they were riding into space was hit by lightening.

Astronaut Eugene Cernan was the last man to set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo program. He said

“We went to explore the Moon, and in fact discovered the Earth”.

The Apollo program could not have been achieved without those who imagined it simply because it had never been done before. Importantly it has left physical facilities and the many machines developed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums for future generations to learn from, and improve upon.

When he won the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1921 German born American scientist Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) said, ‘The important thing is not to stop questioning… curiosity has its own reason for existing… ‘Imagination - it is more important than knowledge…which is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand’.

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

*Ardent socialist and playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) lived a life of literary criticism with a lightness of touch that made stark realities palatable. 

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View of Arles with Irises in foreground by Vincent Van Gogh

You could not ever accuse the French of being afraid of colour. In Provence you discover that it is a perfect expression of their love of nature, because it is from nature the colours of Provence evolve.

The painter Vincent Van Gogh took a room at the Hôtel-Restaurant Carrel in February 1888.  He made several painting excursions around the village of Arles producing images of the harvest, the wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area. Van Gogh moved to Arles when he was ill and his works from this period of his life are richly draped in yellow, ultramarine and mauve. His portrayals of the landscape surrounding Arles are of fields and avenues and they excel in their intensity of colour.

The Yellow House at Arles by Vincent Van Gogh

Like Monet in Normandy, the light in Arles excited Van Gogh. However it was very different from the paler silvery iridescent sky that Monet knew.

At Arles from the Yellow House he rented, Van Gogh found the countryside of Provence full of vibrant light and his appreciation for its beauty is seen in the range and scope of the work he rendered while he was there.

Provencal interiors are always warm and welcoming reflecting the needs, desires and the spirit and style of the individuals of Provence in a particular time and in a particular place.

The early houses of the countryside in Provence were built of stone. They originally housed stock on the ground floor to protect them from the harsher elements, while the family dwelt above. Dormer windows set into the roof led to a loft, where fodder and food was stored so it kept fresh and clean. This enabled the family and the stock to survive the harshest of winters.

After a time the occupants found that the fodder acted effectively as insulation helping to keep the family warm below. And we thought insultation was a modern invention.

All the houses in Provence from pre Roman times until the twentieth century were constructed from local materials. These were sometimes in character with their neighbors, but always in harmony with the land. Wooden louvred shutters were kept closed in the sunny hours and only opened in the evening to let in the fresh, cool night air. A ubiquitous pair of French doors, led into a courtyard where a grape vine covered the trellis providing both fruit and shade.

Roofs were usually made of terra cotta tiles hand moulded and produced from local clays. The colours of the earth give the rooftops of its villages a rich mosaic look, full of texture and life.

Interiors all over Provence vary but usually all have the following features -

Staircases: these were simple affairs fashioned out of stone and terracotta tiles and in the last few hundred years had the added feature of a wrought iron handrail.

Hand Hewn Beams: Wood was always expensive and in short supply, because it was needed for the beams. These were hand made massive and sturdy, providing rustic charm while supporting the floors above.

Floors: Mainly tiled, the most popular being terracotta because local clay was always in abundance. Easy to maintain the floors were left natural or glazed and they came in all shapes and sizes. Being of the earth and nature they had the advantage of remaining cool in summer and retaining the heat in winter.

Fireplaces: As in all the regions of country France these were for hundreds and hundreds of years, at the heart of the home. They were used as the cooking centre and main source of heat. They symbolized security and well being, and often contained storage niches for condiments and pots.

An enormous fireplace in a farmhouse would have beehive shaped openings into which casseroles could be set with coals from the fireplace and cook slowly all day while the farmer, his family and workers tended the fields.

Ceramics: From the eighteenth century brightly coloured ceramic tiles adorned kitchen counters, bathrooms, walls and tables. The first Faience production house in Provence was founded at the town of Moustiers in 1679 by Pierre Clerissy, a faiencier.

Moustiers is an ancient village that clings to the cliffs in Northern Provence and it is one of the greatest centres historically. Clerissy was descended from an ancient Provencal family, who had been potting from the middle ages using hand throwing or hand modeling techniques and following artistic traditions.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pottery produced in Provence was mostly blue and white, inspired by oriental porcelains coming in through the port of Marseilles.

It was during the eighteenth century that polychrome glazes were introduced revolutionising production. The abundant supply of clay in the region, which when covered with a white glaze, gave the faience a characteristic vibrant glow

Copper pots and pans: As in Normandy, they were an essential part of any Provencal kitchen.

Doorways: A special feature was a beaded curtain treatment for doorways, allowing air and some light in while keeping flies out. And here in Australia we thought this was an ‘Aussie invention’ – we just made it from whatever was to hand, including plastic strips, corks and bottle tops.

Petrin, or dough bin

Furniture: This evolved from the thirteenth century into a refined and distinctive style. The timbers used first were pine, then walnut, which dominated from the fifteenth century. With a warmth to its lovely patina, walnut responded well to the chisel and awl. Even though walnut trees were plentiful during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were highly prized, and often given as part of a bride’s dowry.

Other fruitwoods included olivewood and pearwood, which was often darkened to replicate ebony. There are also cherry, chestnut and mulberry, with willow for the chairs. The English loved French walnut, but its supply was often disrupted by European wars, and they had to look to other markets for supply. English eighteenth century furniture made from French walnut is highly prized and very expensive.

Designs were filled with sensuous movement by way of exquisite carving evoking a play of light and shade, with expressive lines and soft angles and as always the function or purpose for which it was designed was the main factor.

A panetiere (or breadbox) above a Petrin or dough bin with its urn and fruit basket motifs, were a traditional paring.

Together with the Tamisadou they were an integral part of any country household. The Tamisadou was an unusual piece of furniture like a two door cabinet, created to refine and sift flour. Today originals are quite rare to find and unique to Provence

Chairs, were simply designed with rush seats and came in different designs suitable for different purposes. Some had high backs and low seats, some were especially designed for wet nurses or nursing mothers while others were amply proportioned intended for grandmothers.

They were also made into banquettes holding three or four people, designed for chatting, traditionally placed near the fireplace, and sometimes decorated with hand painted flowers, and cushions of the colourful Indienne cottons (Provence 3).

Tables were rustic, solid, and functional,  mostly rectangular with drawers or pull out slides, for feeding about twelve people in comfort, if not in style. Smaller utilitarian tables for writing, gaming, sewing, halls or night tables were essential this one with a central X support and stretchers reminiscent of the Louis XIV style

During the nineteenth century richer households commissioned canopy beds (lits a l’imperiale) with silk curtains suspended from a dome attached to the wall Mostly, beds in Provence were simple affairs bedrooms not ever having been a major design focus.

As in other regions of France the Amoire was a splendid piece of furniture, one of a families most cherished possessions,, whether in a humble or wealthy home.

The eighteenth century in Provence, as for the rest of Europe and Britain were glory years. The land rich, fertile and profitable, providing prosperity through active trade. More sophisticated pieces of furniture were influenced by Paris fashions, appearing, as the Provencal furniture makers responding to the sinuous curves of the rococo, and the lyrical elegance of furniture of the Louis XV style.

The Residents in Arles, Beucaire and Tarascon in the Rhone region, could afford to pay more for fine furniture, produced by the local craftsmen and two styles particularly distinguish this area known as Arles and Fourques.

Arlesian pieces have their emphasis is more elaborate and ornate carving, with curved lines and lavish floral detail on delicate, low relief, such as garlands of roses, flower buds and olive branches and called fleuri, or flowered.

Fourques was a smaller simpler town which produced furniture with deeply sculpted curves and undulating moldings with little or no decorative motifs, and with less carved detail and ornamentation.

Louis XV Bergere, comfortable for conversation with curvacious cabriole legs

Louis XVI Bergere, with its classical straight legs

Louis XV designs were simplified with perfect proportions, and today are highly prized. Comfort and convenience meant comfortable well stuffed Bergere chairs with a detailed carving on the front apron and on the knee of the cabriole legs.

Louis XVI designs reflect the change to the neo classical style with their straight fluted legs that take their form from a column.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, design became exaggerated, losing some of its elegance, harmony and balance. Then the turn of the twentieth century saw mass production of furniture in the north marking the decline of the Provencal regional style and the demise of French provincial design in general.

Unpretentious, warm and welcoming, the interiors of Provence today reflect the heritage of Provencal life and the Provenceur’s enjoyment of the simple pleasures of life; the sharing of good food, the local wine and the art of good conversation.

The style of Provence in every domain represents a view of French country style, which has been transmitted internationally. This earthy, fertile, sunbaked region of France for many is the very essence and at the heart of French Country style charming visitors and influencing decorators worldwide. This is something we can all share wherever we are in the world. Provence is all about celebrating la joie de vivre, or the joy of life.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh, Provence

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Provence, Provence, just by saying your name many believe they can almost savour the piquant freshness of your renowned goat cheeses and taste the enticing soft bouquet of your delicious local wines. Your French country style is very much admired world wide. It has developed through the people, the produce of the land, and the practical elements necessary for everyday life.

Provence is a region in southern France that has clear and clean air when, from time to time it is swept from the north, or northwest by the Maestrale or mistral wind. It plays an important role in creating this cleansing climate. It is c’est magnifique when the mistral dies down and cloudless skies and luminous sunshine appear. Then we can enjoy viewing the suns rays reflecting off waving fields of golden wheat, or flowering crops of precious lavender while its soothing perfume wafts over us on a gentler breeze.

From a lofty vantage point high in its mountains you can view the beauty of a peaceful valley below where the river Aigue Brun (aigue being the Provencal word for water) winds its way through verdant valleys. Then you can journey along a gently winding road to the highest heights where you can stop at a small restaurant hidden away in a scenic spot. There you can join people from all walks of life savouring the delights of the local cuisine in an atmosphere of congeniality. It is a happy, relaxed atmosphere in a place where time seemingly stands still.

Every marauding army in history has more than likely passed through the same spot. While you are there you will become aware that you are really only but a small dot on the amazing history of this ancient place. The Franks, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Saracens, the Normans and the Romans all came, saw and conquered.

Around 125 years after the birth of Jesus Christ the Romans gave this extraordinary territory its name, which came from the Latin word Provincia. Its rugged terrain provided safe passage between the city of Rome and its Iberian territories. Since the first century, it has been very Civilised – at the beginnings of art.

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal peoples from the Iron Age who inhabited much of Europe by four centuries before the Christ event. Together with the Liguriens, the original inhabitants of the Cote d’Azur, they melded together establishing more than thirty towns.

They traded vigorously both with the peoples who came from the sea, the Etruscans in the north of Italy as well as the Greeks at a trading post, which we now know as Marseilles.

The Romans wanted to be part of this thriving trade. Not liking unsavory religious practices, which included human sacrifice, through a series of wars they conquered the Celtic-Ligurien races to take Provence for themselves.

By the 1st century the Romans controlled most of Provence and with it, the people, the commerce and trade.

Aix en Provence had natural springs and the Romans established a system of aqueducts that carried water from natural springs into the town and their bath houses, bathing being such an important aspect of their daily health ritual.

Aix takes its name from Aquae Sextiae – the waters of Sextius, who was the subduer of the Celts. Many fountains encrusted with limestone and moss decorated with dolphins still remain as a symbol of empire departed.

When the Romans finally withdrew they left behind many rich architectural remains. The Fort de Bukes (Buoux) set in the south range of the Luberon mountains looks down over a precipitous valley like so many others in which the people of Provence fell prey to any tribe that happened to be passing.

Mist in the Morning in the Luberon

Provence is roughly divided into three areas, that of the mountainous areas towards Italy, which are poor, isolated and austere. Then there is the coastal and Maritime area along the Mediterranean, containing all of the important ports such as Marseilles, Nice, Cannes and Toulon. Then there is the area around the Rhone, where in its valleys tall slender cypress shade farmhouses with herb gardens that come from Roman heritage

The style of Provence represents a view of French country style, which has been transmitted internationally.

This earthy, fertile, sunbaked region of France for many is at the very essence and heart of French Country style. It continues to charm visitors and influence  designers and decorators worldwide. When climatic extremes, such as the notorious mistral wind strike they wisely retreat indoors and bolt their shutters.

This is a land where magnificent avenues of plane trees provide a link from the road to the Provencal garden. The height and length of their planting may impress the visitor with the extent of the owner’s dominions.

However the reason they are there was not that because the Renaissance nobles who planted them were not concerned with the Mediterranean climate, but in fact were more in need of wood for the gun carriages of cannons, ship masts, rifle butts, furniture and even matches. Whether public or private these great avenues today afford fabulous protection from the fierce summer sun. They create softly filtered light and provide a strong sense of a protective enclosure, producing a pleasurable effect.

Country roads throughout Provence are bordered in graceful trees, providing shelter on relentlessly hot Provencal summer days.  Many of these were planted during Napoleon’s reign as Emperor in France. On his order they were planted in great stands and set each side of a village on all the  main routes to and from Italy. This allowed his troops to lie down and rest in the shade and for the villagers to provide the food and sustenance they needed. Their mature beauty today enhances the look of the Provincial landscape.

The hill villagers in Vaison La Romaine fortified their town by using the terrain as their defense. Clustered around the summit of limestone hills it has been continuously occupied since mediaeval times, the houses in alleyways no wider than a pair of passing oxen. They were built when the need arose, and improved upon only when the pocket permitted. The builders paid less heed to architectural conventions of symmetry than to a pressing need to make the most of limited space.

During Spain’s occupation from the 12th century we could assume that the influence of leather work and metal work on furniture first started.

Provence until the end of the fifteenth century was a group of states entirely separate from France.  It had its own language, government and a sense of style, with deeply rooted ideas and philosophies first founded in strong traditions.  They kept goats and ate fish, grew herbs in abundance, as well as olives which were introduced by the Greeks. With the fabled vitis vinifera grape vine for stock they made wine and became great consumers of wild boar as well as truffles.

The oak forests of Provence would have been prime truffle territory then as now. The little slivers of this celestial fungus harbors many of the amusing stories of the region. They were often obtained by nefarious means or through a local truffle fair not listed in any tourist guide.

For three hundred years from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century Italy continued its influence of the area by negotiating binding commercial treaties linking Genoa, Florence and Venice with Provence. Oriental goods passed through its most important port Marseilles. East Indian merchant ships unloaded cargoes of exotic goods such as silks, spices, inlaid and lacquered furniture, and precious porcelain from Cathay. All of these had a very great influence on the designs of local craftsmen.

At Fontaine de Vaucluse the silver tones of olive trees contrast strikingly with the hues and rough texture of rocky outcrops that litter the mountains in the South Range of the Luberon.

As we approach the ancient village of Gordes in the Luberon Mountains we come across the old abbey of Senanque standing in an extraordinary setting. The harmony of the brown stone of the roofs, the white stone of the walls, and the violet of the flowering lavender, makes for a striking contrast with the plateau whose rocky outcrop was once littered with borie, or the dry stone huts used by shepherds and early Christian hermits.

Evidence of the traditions inherited from classical antiquity are still strong in Provence.

At the Jardin de la Fontaine in Nimes is one of the most famous and elegant shrines of the Roman world. It was resurrected by King Louis XV (1710-1774) who surrounded it with a great garden preserving its heritage for the glory of France, and the use of its people.

In this wonderful public space is a marvelous mixture of French and Italian influences, drawing the two cultures together in a dramatic feature that has a complex series of monumental steps and levels leading to the Roman baths where you can still today both soothe your spirit and refresh your soul.

Today the people of Provence continue to both nurture the land and harvest the sea treating each new arrival with the same resigned equanimity they do for the annual invasion of at least one and a half million holidaymakers.

In Provence a graceful flow of the earth’s natural elements is in evidence – human, geological, botanical and architectural. They emphasize the layers of its unique history in a place that is now one of peace, joy and contemplation.

It is a place where man and nature have seemingly come together in complete harmony.

The mistral may not howl down your chimney, but the exuberant spirit of Provence and innate style of France’s peoples can be yours if only you dare reach for it.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

*Vincent Van Gogh, Provence

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