Yes, I am very familiar with Provence and the landscape along the Mediterranean coast. I have been there many times in reality and in my dreams. I will hopefully call this wonderful place a more permanent second home some time soon. But what is it that I think of when I sit in my cold German home and meditate or daydream? You will not believe me, when I tell you that it is stone that foremost comes to my mind and plays an important role.
When I close my eyes and wander to the South of France it is the rugged coastline with steep cliffs and small coves with crystal clear waters that I see. It is also the hilly landscape at times very steep with perched little natural stone villages atop with sheep or goat grazing in the fields. It is vineyards, lavender, poppy and sunflower fields or olive groves reaching as far as the eye can see, with only occasional dry stone walls creating a visual border.
And as I talk about Brocante of course I must also mention vide-grenier. There is a difference but there are also a lot of similarities. In a vide-grenier market usually the sold goods are from private households while a Brocante usually indicates that professional sellers offer goods.
Translated word by word vide grenier means emptying your basement or attic. But the stands nevertheless offer old and used houseware, garden tools, vintage clothes. And then you can also find vide maison, where a complete household gets dissolved through a private sale.
Stone is an essential component of the dry Mediterranean earth all along the Riviera coast. It is available in abundance and it comes for free. Mostly unnoticed, it can be found everywhere. You would not believe how stony the earth in my garden is. And not just small pebbles but large stones whenever you start to dig. In the very beginning of my gardening spree when I started to cultivate the land I would arduously collect and free the ground of stone. My neighbor Jean-Pierre laughingly invited me to come to his potager and help him. He chuckled when he told me that even after ten years of consistent plowing of the ground and picking up stone, the earth continuously turns up more. I still continue to collect and eliminate the stones. I cannot leave them. But nowadays I know there will be more to come.
It is limestone in rich colors of yellow, beige and sometimes almost orange or red. The stone is porous, sometimes smooth but more often with rough and sharp edges.
The Provence which today is the area of the departments Bouches-du Rhones, Var, Alpes-Maritimes and Hautes-Alpes is known as one of the oldest human settlements dating back to 600 before Christ. Greeks and later Romans first inhabited the region and are believed to have brought along the tradition of stone masonry. With an abundance of stone provided by the ground, houses, walls, churches, and the land was built and prepared for growing.
The regions and areas along the coast are dominated by hills and steep and sloped land. Early on it was necessary to terrace the land and use stonewalls to create even space for agriculture and minimize erosion and the danger of landslides as woods have been cut down over the centuries. Dry stone walls line fields and paths. They invisibly structure the landscape.
Very often these artistic and century-old dry stone walls go unnoticed. For a very long time I too gave them only fleeing attention. but as I do enjoy and disco to wander, soon enough I discovered they are unique, artistic and an important landmark of the Mediterranean, provencal landscape. And in addition a very simple solution to recycle and use the resources given by Mother Nature. Thus solving the challenges of urbanization uneven or sloped land or the setting of boundaries to property individually owned.
Using what is in abundance locally available: stone! This is the basic recipe of a drystone wall. The wall itself is built without the use of mortar, but just the skillful creation of a small base sometimes below earth level to create stability and then stacking the stone. But what seems rather simple is until today a specific trade ( artists building dy stone walls are called murailler) alongside the traditional masonry trade. The ability to create a strong, well stacked and stable dry stone wall that will withhold the seasons, nature and time takes skill, education and experience. Dry stone walls naturally enable the passage of water, they regulate humidity and provide a positive micro climate by capturing and restoring heat, while eliminating the cool of the night, which is essential when growing wine or crop. The average living duration of a dy stone wall is estimated to be hundred years but if I look at the walls in the area where I live I believe they can get and are much older.
The French call a restanques a dry stone wall that creates a terrace. These restanques grew as the population regionally expanded and more space was needed to extend the available land for farming and growing crop. Restanques form terraces that can be planted and withhold erosion. These stone walls are usually two meters high and five meters wide.
My french mas is bordered by two consecutive restanques, partially planted with olives and local trees..
The highest situated restanque holds the bee hives of my neighbor Jean-Pierre, nicely placed along the length. The bee hives are positioned towards the back wall, which radiates the warmth of the day and embraces the hive.
The bees are situated in a place overlooking the meadow below and I make myself believe that they love where their home is and that this is the reason why they produce the best honey you have ever tasted.
When taking an even closer look at the dry stone you will soon recognize that these walls with their cracks and uneven appearance are the ecological home to many plants and animals. The Cote d´Azur prides itself on 300 days of sunshine. With very heavy Mistral winds in January and February but of course also any other month of the year and very little rain during the summer months these dry stone walls hold humidity for cactuses and other plants that can withstand the heat and are home and protective shelter to small animal such as geckos, lizards, beetles, ants or small mammals that live in the natural space between the stones. What seems wondrous is that plants grow and crawl out of these walls seemingly without earth or available water and come a sunny winter day with a bit of patience you can watch lizards finding a spot in the bright light and drinking in the warmth of the winter sun.
Taking the road uphill behind my French home I climb first a small road which gets narrower as I ascend and then turns into a stoney path and soon enough the garrigue and pine trees or strawberry trees appear left and right (if you read more of my stories/ blogs you will hear about all the mediterranean species of plants that make this are so unique) . It is then that the landscape gets more wooded that the first borie appears in plain sight. It is a little hut made completely of stone, rounded on top with a stone roof and only a small opening to enter. The walls measure a minimum of 50 cm. These bories are approximately 2,5 metres high and approximately 2 meters in diameter. In former times they served as protective shelter for up to 4 people such as shepherds, workers in vineyards. The bories close to my home are there to protect you especially in the wooded areas if you are caught by a wildfire. As beautiful as they are to look at in this landscape I rather not get surprised by fire.
Now that you know why stone is part of my daydreaming you might be curious to read more about the stone which is a key architectural element of our French house. Read more about stone inside and outside of our house. Floors, terraces, facades…in one of my next blogposts to come.
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