“While France produces the tiniest amount of oil in the world (less than 2 percent) most of it today is of very high quality. So high that the nation now has five regions that are distinguished with the strict appellation d’origine contrôlée label.” [via]
The Provence visitor should definitely visit one of the 220 olive mills [...]
Posted in history, offers, villages on April 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
a new page was added => link above – next to the home and about sections – with maps of the region. Relevant regional maps will be added peu à peu.
Posted in history, tagged architecture, mistral, orientation on March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The mas is almost always oriented south, in order to offer protection from the mistral. Windows are narrow, there are only few or no ones on the north side, to offer protection from the heat in the summer and from the cold winters.
[via]
The mas is extended each time the family grows and housing for a new generation is needed or when the farming activities are diversified in profitable times…
the bigger the mas, the wealthier the farmers family.
Posted in history, tagged magnanerie, mas, silkworms, south, specific on March 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A magnanerie is either a specific type of mas or a room within the mas dedicated to the breeding of silkworms (magnans in the occitan dialect). Most of the time, the magnanerie is situated in the higher floor of the mas. Different types of magnaneries are to be found in the different southern french regions. (engraving: A. [...]
Posted in history, tagged mas, mazet, provence, small on March 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The mazet is the cousin of the alpine mazot. The literally “little mas” is a shelter for cattle in the pasture, and a storage place for farming tools.
Posted in history, tagged bastide, farm, mas, provence on March 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A mas is a largely self-sufficient farm, which can produce its own fruit, vegetables, grain, milk and meat. It was usually constructed of local stone, with the kitchen and room for animals on the ground floor, and bedrooms, storage places for food on the upper floor. Not every farmhouse in Provence is a mas. A [...]
