the olive trees of Aups

I'm in France for a month, but I'm keeping busy...

After a cramped and strangely uninspiring overnight flight¹ from Philadelphia, Sacha and I arrived in Nîce this past Friday morning, rented a goofy-looking car, and made our way west to the small and picturesque village of Aups, in the var region of Provence. Our house here is unbelievably beautiful. It’s about 2km out of town, with a swimming pool, big windows that effectively become doors as they open, a covered porch, and a view of the distant mountains that sit between us and the Mediterranean Sea, which is about 35 miles away².

Sacha and I will be living here four weeks, using the house as a hub to explore as much of Provence as we can. We have plans to stay in Nice for a few days, and possibly Aix, Arles, the Camargue, and even just drive/get lost along the French Riviera. Some friends and family will be stopping in at times to stay for several days, and we expect to make a proper vacation of it. But Sacha and I, being the freelancers that we are, we will also be working. Sacha is writing in the morning and parts of the afternoon on Zoom meeting with clients. And I came to France with a pile of notebooks and art supplies, with which I intend to draw sketches of plants and insects and birds for the two stories I recently wrote, as well as concoct a third piece for the series.

As the house is entirely surrounded a variety of plants and flowers, and as ants and moths are our constant companions here,³ and as Sacha and I are identifying birds we’ve previously never heard or even heard of,⁴ I am in the perfect setting for this work. As the ants march around doing whatever it is ants do, and as the birds chatter and whistle all day long, I can imagine stories and situations involving these creatures that would fill volumes.⁵

But, after three days of getting situated, buying groceries, and getting over jet lag, when I sat down on Monday to get some work done, it wasn’t the birds or the bees or the flowers that I got excited about. It was the olive trees.

The dozens and hundreds of olive trees that surround the property, and grow along the side of the road, and behind the house, and in the middle of the garden. They’re all so different, and each seem to have their own personality. So, on Monday, I took my notebook and my pen and for four hours I sat and drew olive trees.

olive trees, a little closer

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The olive trees have no olives right now, sadly. The fruit isn’t ripe until between September and January. Aups, and I suppose much of the region, is olive-happy. There is a fairly large olive producer in a nearby chateau, and smaller producers line the streets into town. An olive co-op sits at the entrance to Aups, where today, for example, they had the doors open and some old guys selling bottles on a table out front.

The market today featured olive and oil vendors, and our Airbnb hosts left a bottle of oil for us that was produced locally. Sacha and I could pretty much be comfortable for life if we were limited to olive oil and garlic, so you can imagine we’re in heaven here.

Practice olive trees. Finding out how I draw olive trees before actually drawing them.

After drawing these trees on Monday, I spent a few hours yesterday writing, and then today I worked on the blog-journal Sacha and I are keeping while we’re here. Insects and birds and flowers will come. But right now it’s time for a little baguette and garlic and oil, and maybe a Pastis on ice. Et voila!

More olive trees, simplified. These were a few miles away in a small valley I found while on a bike ride.

1. Sacha and I noticed that it might as well have been a flight to Fort Lauderdale. There was no “Bienvenue a France,” no nothing that made it feel international. Special. Made us kinda sad.

2. 35 miles, but a nearly two hour drive.

3. Maybe a little too much — the ants enjoy taking over the kitchen area, and the moths keep me alert as they flutter around my lamp at night while I read.

4. Common Chaffinches talk to each other across the meadows, the Eurasian Jay stares at my bike with curiosity, and Eurasian Blackcaps, European Serins, and a Nightingale chatter throughout the day.

5. But, in the end, the story is about a beetle, and it involves other beetles, a spider, a mockingbird, some sparrows, and a pile of rocks. You’re gonna love it.