Lourmarin

September 30th, 2009 by | Country: France | No Comments »

Riding through the narrow roads nestled in magnificent mountains of Luberon region always leads us to incredible treasures.  For instance, today I came across a charming town called Lourmarin.  This town is a “key link” between the alps and the Mediterranean which is known as the “combe.”  This town has buildings built right next to each other like any other villages in Provence.  This is one of the unique urban design in Europe as most places in the US have buildings totally spread out.  I absolutely love admiring the windows in this town as there are beautiful flower pots resting by the windows and the shutters are absolutely colorful.  Another beauty of this town is that there are quite a few unique boutiques rather than mega-corporation stores.  Thus, this givs me the opportunity to see products that are unique to the village and also one of a kind.

Aside from visiting the village, my art history course trekked to the chateau of Lourmarin, a calste that was first built in 12th century.  This castle was built in three states:

Fortress: built in 12th and 13th century by the Baux family.

Chateau Vieux – built in the 15th century by the Agoult family -> the Baron of Sault and forcalquier.

Renaissance wing – “Chateau Neuf” – built in 16th century by Blanche de Levis-Ventadour

Stepping inside the old chateau was like traveling inside an art history textbook as I was able to see the architecture structure during the Renaissance era.  In this part of the chateau, there is an arcade with pointed arches surrounding the balcony.  As I looked down from the balcony, I saw a beautiful courtyard and according to the tour guide, during the summer time, there are art exhibitions.

Then I proceeded to the kitchen.  Being in the kitchen was like traveling to the past.  A large wooden table rested in middle of the kitchen.  Pots and pans in shiny bronze hung up on the wall.  According to the tour guide, all of these beautiful copper kitchen appliances came from Apt, a city about 10 km from Lourmarin.  The tour guide also mentioned that when Robert Laurent Vibert, an industrialist and historian, brought the chateau to preserve it, he decorated the kitchen with furniture and paintings from his collection which he got on his voyages since the kitchen was empty.

After viewing the kitchen, I went to a large room which I thought was the ballroom since there was a grand piano.  Apparently, it’s a dinning room.  However, there were concerts in this room according to the tour guide.

Then I headed up the stairs by taking a spiral staircase.  Spiral staircases were a common architectural design during the Renaissance era.

I was proceeded to a magnificent bedroom that was designed in 18th century.  There were elegant furniture including cupboard, shelves, table and chairs.  It reminded me of visiting the Versailles in Paris.

After viewing the bedroom, I visited the reception room which had tiles dating back to 1920.

Unfortunately, my class didn’t have the time to visited the rooms on the 2nd floor which had a music room and a painting room.

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