Linda Dannenberg

Excerpt from Departures Magazine, November-December 2003

There is Provence, of course, and then there is “Provençal,” once a humble adjective. While Provence, over the last few millennia, has been content to stay put, remaining a powerful draw to seekers of the sensual sojourn, “Provençal”--virtually everything that talk of Provence conjures, from the chic-rustique homes and lifestyle to the sunny, savory, herb-fragrant cuisine--has gone out and conquered the world. When I came to Provence twenty-one years ago to create a book on French Country style with Pierre Moulin and Pierre LeVec, founders of the Pierre Deux French Country empire, the craze for all things Provençal was still in its infancy. Today, a generation later, the craze is a well-entrenched global phenomenon.

Over the last year I’ve had the opportunity and delicious pleasure to spend several months back in Provence producing a new book. In the course of my research, seeking out the best of all things authentically Provençal, I came to visit dozens of regional shops, ateliers and markets. From fabrics to faience to furniture, antique and new, I was thoroughly impressed by the high quality and diversity of many of the items being offered. This is not to suggest that everything is great; bad stuff is out there, too, not surprisingly, given the vast tourist market that floods the region seasonally. You need to know where to look, and what to look for, to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I returned home with notebooks filled with sources for authentic elements that work together to compose une ambiance provençale, wherever you might find yourself in the world. The addresses dot the map of Provence, and could, in themselves, comprise an intriguing itinerary. A shopping expedition in quest of the best of Provençal style--carved armoires in honey-hued walnut, 18th and 19th-century limestone mantels, embroidered linen tableclothes in subtle hues of wheat, cream and sand--would take you through some of Provence’s most beautiful countryside, from the heady reaches of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie--a hilltop village famous for its faience in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence--to the sun-washed splendor of the Rhone Delta. Provence is a cornucopia of regional treasures; below, a pocket guide on where to find them.

FURNITURE
During the 18th century glory years of French furniture design, much of the best of Provençal furniture came from the wealthy Bouches-du-Rhone region--the environs of Arles, Avignon, Beaucaire and Tarascon--and it is in this region today that you’ll find some of the best antique dealers. Here and elsewhere, you’ll discover that many of the top dealers nowadays also create their own line-for-line reproductions, using old techniques and classic aged woods. The attics of everyone’s dear old tantes and grand-mères are pretty much picked clean, and authentic 18th and early 19th century Provençal furniture is getting tougher and tougher to find. Today even the region’s most glamorous houses proudly display handsomely crafted reproductions among the antiques.

F. Dervieux, 5 rue Vernon, Arles; Tel.: 04-90-02-39; www.dervieux.com. For more than 100 years, the name Dervieux has been synonymous with quality and authenticity in Provençal furniture, both 18th and 19th-century antiques and fine reproductions. In a spacious, 18th-century townhouse in Arles, Fréderic Dervieux offers richly patinaed examples of classic antique Provençal pieces, such as the panétière, an elaborately sculpted cage for storing bread, designed to hang from the kitchen wall; voluminous armoires, once part of a young bride’s dowry, traditionally carved with hearts, doves, flowers and wheat; the buffet à glissants, an elegant, and now rare, two-tiered cabinet with a traditional buffet bottom and a recessed tier on top with two ornately carved sliding panels. There are also smaller pieces. “Here is a splendid early 19th-century verrier--an étagere for glasses,” says Dervieux, taking me on a short tour of his shop’s highlights, “very charming, quite rare, with escargot feet and two little drawers.” It was indeed a little beauty, but un peu cher at $5435. I didn’t leave empty handed, however. I coveted an unusual 1950’s Vallauris ceramic cheese plate with a tromple l’oeil bamboo and palm-frond base and a delicately formed wrought-iron handle. It became mine for $62.00.

Catherine Ligeard, rue de la République, Goult; Tel.: 06-72-71-08-27. In addition to high-end antique dealers, Provence abounds with charming brocante shops, modest emporiums that are roughly a cross between an antique shop and a good second-hand shop. The typical brocante shop carries an eclectic mix of furniture, bibelots, kitchenware, paintings, and old photos, usually spanning the years of the late 19th-century to mid-20th. Even the smallest villages usually have one or two brocantes and some are very good, with carefully selected merchandise at quite reasonable prices. One excellent address is the tiny shop of Catherine Ligeard in the captivating Luberon village of Goult. “I’ve always loved antiques...all these little objets with former lives. My mother would have liked to be an antique dealer, so in a way I am fulfilling her dream. When I buy things for the shop, I buy things that I love, and sometimes it breaks by heart to sell them.” Ligeard always has something I want, one visit tempting me with turn-of-the-century painted brass sconces ($150), and embroidered linens ($20 each for linen towels cross-stitched with the initials of a friend) , another visit with a rustic 19th-century tole lantern ($80) and an early 1900’s beveled glass frame holding a photo of a wistful young World War I recruit in the French army ($50). They all now reside in my living room, and I think of Ligeard’s brocante shop, and the little village of Goult, where I spent several weeks, often. If you’re stopping in Goult, plan to have lunch on the terrace of the popular Café de la Poste, across the way from Ligeard’s shop; reserve ahead (04-90-72-23-23).

Monleau, 44 rue Nationale, Vallabrègues; Tel.: 04-66-59-20-17; www.monleau.com. Artisans have been crafting traditional rush-seated chairs in the village of Vallabrégues, about a 25 minute drive south west of Avignon, for centuries, and many of today’s ateliers themselves date back to the 1800’s. One of the oldest, founded in 1872, is Monleau, a fifth-generation company with a large catalogue of chairs and a world-wide clientele. Here you’ll find 18th-century style radassiers seating two or three, broad Louis XV-style bergère armchairs, stools, and children’s chairs. “In spite of some modern improvements, like electricity and good tools,” says Eric Monleau, the current director, “we still work the old fashioned way, with men turning and finishing the wood and women weaving the straw seats.” Monleau’s most famous creation--the chaise Camargaise, better known as the “Van Gogh chair”--is a small, simple, rush-seated side chair produced by the atelier since 1872 and painted by the artist in December 1888. Still in production, it sells for $116.

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