Aged Beauty of Mirepoix, France

You can tell, can't you? I'm thinking Southwestern France these early, almost Fall mornings. We were so fortunate last year when a month-long visit enabled us to see the exquisite Southwest and Provence areas in perfect Autumn weather, day after day.


Looking back over my photos, I've felt the urge to 'play' with them even more, adding some effects to enhance the aging which is quite natural in that part of the world. The ancient buildings are not razed in order to fill in with modern glass and steel cubes. The wooden windows are not often replaced with PVC frames. The shutters are not fiberglass, they are heavy wood with iron closures. They have been painted many times and have hung forever on those stone walls.



The doors, ah, the beautiful doors. Hiding what? Families who have stayed, generation after generation. Each perhaps re-painting the original heavy door. Choosing their color carefully. Making it bright and welcoming. The iron door knocker, often a hand. Sometimes a sign to warn, 'beware of the dog'. A vine softening the hard, worn stone.




Entrance to the market square.

What is aging if not old. We should enjoy the process. The wrinkles, the crumbling, the bumps and crevices. The fading, muted colors. Why change what is history for the ages when it can be this beautiful?

All images from the picturesque town of Mirepoix, a late thirteenth century bastide built around one of the loveliest surviving market squares in France. The square is bordered by houses dating from between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

A lovely place to visit.

Village Life

Early morning in the French village is anything but bland and colorless. Once you've started your walk through the narrow streets and headed out towards the vineyards and farmland, your senses are overwhelmed by the colors of the landscape. Besides the vines changing from green to red and gold, the old buildings, painted doors and shutters, stony roads, the everyday things, all appear to have soaked up the sunshine, even in the shorter days of Autumn.

Join me on another stroll through the village of Caunes-Minervois in Southwestern France where my brother and his family live.

Looking back toward the village.

One villager must have a penchant for the tropics - a palm tree in the land of vines!

Beautiful home in a converted barn.

Would love to peek behind the blue door.

French pumpkins are gorgeous.

Vegetable garden near the 9th century abbey - amazing amounts of veggies were still being harvested even in October.

The village laundry, now closed and may re-open as a bar!

One of many Caunes pink marble village fountains.

Texture ~ stone, wood and of course lace.

Which way now?

Will I ever run out of photos taken in France last October? If you're wondering I can assure you I still have more to share.