For Lady M

A few weeks ago, Lady Marchmont blipped a picture of a photo from her past, when travelling in Eric in 1994. She said at the time that it was taken at Lacoste, then, as she looked at some of my views, she began to wonder.

I can now say categorically that they were at Lacoste. This morning we went across there for coffee - as you do! And, with iPad in one hand and camera in another, we tried for a copy of the picture. A few changes have occurred in the almost 20 years interim, but it is definitely the same place. The gap between our car on the right and the other one is where Eric was parked all those years ago. Hope you like it Lady M!

Lacoste is another of the hilltop villages like ours. It can be seen in the distance in this view taken from outside our house. It is very different in character though. Bonnieux is a place where a lot of people still live. There are many shops and other facilities. It gets full of visitors and becomes a bustling place with cars, vans, cyclists and people vying with each other for road space.

Lacoste on the other hand is much less populated by locals and in the cafes you will hear many more English and American voices than you do French. One reason is that much of the village belongs to the US-based Savannah College of Art & Design. It is a lovely village to wander around, with little alleyways and cobbled pathways and lots of interesting doors.

The 9th century Château de Lacoste, which you can see at the top of the village in both pictures, was where the notorious Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) retreated in 1771, when his writings became too scandalous for Paris. The chateau, where de Sade hosted orgies, was eventually looted by revolutionaries in 1789, and the 45-room palace remained an eerie ruin. In 2001 designer Pierre Cardin purchased it and created a 1000-seat theatre and opera stage. It’s only open during the July festival and some of the building still remains a ruin. You can see that it has become more habitable by comparing both Lady M's picture and mine.