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Arrival in the Lubéron

I have resumed a business activity. I sell special products, olive oils, lavender honey, spice and herb blends, lavender prodcts, and cosmetic products of all kinds from Provence to a former friend and owner of a large drugstore chain in Switzerland. My suppliers are smaller family businesses and producers from the Lubéron. These people, whom I have visited in the villages and markets for quite some time now, have become friends. Buying their produce is always a new experience and takes hours, with private family dinners in the producer's home. Provençal cuisine in the Lubéron consists of simple dishes with colorful vegetables, meat, olive oil and lots of herbs.

Parc Naturel: Vaucluse, Lubéron, Provence

They are an experience every time, even the stews are godsends. My biggest supplier is a lavender farmer in Sault, every year I buy the best quality dried lavender flowers from his lavender fields. The festivities that follow last two days and are a special event, after this harvest festival I need a rest for several days.

After the final separation from my great love Michelé and being alone for more than two years, I have finally found a way to organize my thoughts and in the meantime I have worked out an existence again. With my today's business activity I do not earn any more amounts of millions, I can finance however with the sales and export of my Provence products my in the meantime again somewhat increased life expenditure. As a result of my final move to France, I have received from my pension fund, on balance of all claims, several hundred thousand Swiss francs, therefore I had enough equity capital, so that I can now run my business successfully without bank loans. The volume of incoming orders is quite considerable, I have therefore again founded a company, my business premises office and warehouse in Avignon are extremely modest, moreover, I have hired an additional employee to handle the daily orders and send them to my export customers. Never again I would like to work full time myself, my additional administrative office work in Avignon claims at most fifty percent activity, the rest of the time I would like to spend meaningfully in Provence and especially in the Lubéron Nature Park.

My ashes have still not been blown by the mistral to my beloved villages within the last two years that I have now spent in Provence. I am still alive. These villages and the fascinating landscape in the Lubéron have changed my human nature as a result of my long walks and encounters with the Provençal people.

My former life with my idea of success as power, financial wealth and luxury possessions of all kinds as well as social admiration mean nothing to me anymore. My small Provencal house in Lacoste is paradise in the natural park in the heart of Provence. There is nothing more in this world that I would want in addition, here I have found my happiness and complete satisfaction. I have learned to live with nature, to live here is the perfect fulfillment, every day is marked by a new experience, the corresponding seasons are always fascinating. The freedom, pine scent, red wine under plane trees, and long summer nights are like the fairy tale of a thousand and one nights. Spring often begins early in the year and brings numerous flowers everywhere in the Lubéron, the fruit and almond trees bloom, as well as many wildflowers.

Summer is also the time of lavender flowering. The flowering period of lavender in Provence begins, depending on the region, from mid to late June, but in some locations only in July. It then lasts until August, or sometimes a few flowers can still be found until the beginning of September. In autumn the vines turn colorful after the grape harvest. In winter comes the Mistral, a cold wind from the north blows sometimes for days at high speeds of up to 120 km / h, but then also provides a bright blue sky.

Spring bloom in the Lubéron, almond tree, gorse

During this time I do the necessary renovation work on my house and in the evening I enjoy the fireplace and the smell of my freshly split vines and look forward to dinner accompanied by Provençal wines. Where the sun pampers the landscape, top wines also thrive. The focus of viticulture in the Lubéron is on light rosé wines, followed by red and white wines. With this fascination of pine scents, red wine under plane trees, long summer nights and ever changing seasons, I have never spent a day in solitude.

I always look forward to the visit of my family members and grandchildren who spend their vacations with me in Provence. Nevertheless we spend these days with much joy, laughter and satisfaction as well as visits to small villages and in addition Avignon, Arles, Nimes, Aix en Provence and weekly markets, the respective parting is again a relief, the aperitives as well as the boule games with the Provençal friends in my village café are now possible without time limits.

My hikes through the cedar and oak forests of the Lubéron combined with visits to the beautiful mountain villages in the impressive nature in a varied cultural landscape are now the complete fulfillment in my life.

The thoughts of my great love, of Michelé are still present, never can I, even after this long time of our final separation, remove this love happiness from my thoughts, time heals wounds and other perspectives determine the further life, nevertheless there are still days in deep mourning that I have to spend with an immense pain and longing for Michele.

Entrances decorated with flowers in Provence