Articles by Susan Manfull

July 5, 2015 11

THE MUSÉE EXTRAORDINAIRE CELEBRATES ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Forty years ago, Georges Mazoyer (1925 - 1996) opened his Musée Extraordinaire in the tiny Luberon village of Ansouis. Deep-sea diver, artist, and world-wide traveler, this extraordinarily unusual man spent ten years refurbishing the small space--a former stable--adjacent to his studio and filling it with the souvenirs of his adventures. Encouraged by friends to share his passion for underwater life, the museum was a labor of love that today is carried on by his daughter, Nicole, and her husband... [...]

May 24, 2015 4

BREATHALYZERS AND OTHER CURIOUS ITEMS LEGALLY REQUIRED WHILE DRIVING IN FRANCE

With a trip to Provence on the horizon, I looked into the status of the legal requirement to carry breathalyzers in one’s car. The answer, as I write this post, is that at least one is required. However, don't hold your breath, things could change by August. Such is nature of this law and, to some extent, many of the laws pertaining to driving while in... [...]

May 17, 2015 20

MARC: A SPIRIT FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE IT ROUGH

Marc (pronounced mahr and rhymes with car, like one a Bostonian would park) is not for everyone. Perhaps it is not even for most people, which works well—keeping the universe in balance—as the production of this spirit is so small that most of it never leaves the immediate area where it is produced. I happen to be an enthousiaste passionnée about this style of pomace brandy (that others would just as soon relegate to moonshine) [...]

May 16, 2015 1

Pétale de Rose from Château La Tour de l’Evêque Garners Gold from Decanter

The 2015 Decanter World Wine Awards are in and I just got word from Alain Bonnefoy, of the House of Burgundy, independent fine wines & spirits importer and distributor in New York City, that Château La Tour de l’Evêque Rosé 2014 Cuvée Pétale de Rose took a Gold Medal [...]

May 11, 2015 8

THINGS TO KNOW IN PROVENCE: WHAT IS L’APÉRO?

Recently, I told a group of people we are meeting in Provence that “It all begins Sunday evening with l’apéro,” prompting many of those people to sheepishly inquire exactly how Sunday evening would commence.

What is l’apéro?

It is a derivative of the Latin word [...]

April 26, 2015 5

THE 2014 VINTAGE OF PROVENCE ROSÉ IS ON THE SHELVES…AND IN OUR GLASSES

I drink rosé all year ’round. I encourage others to do the same. Pourquoi pas? As regular readers know, I take every opportunity to bemoan the predictable purge of rosés from the shelves of wine stores come the day after Labor Day. [...]

April 21, 2015 5

WHISPERING ANGEL WINS THE BLIND TASTING BUT ALL EYES WERE ON GARRUS

ver the weekend another Provence rosé lover, Cynthia Fenneman, and I invited some friends over for a blind tasting of five Provence rosés. Research for Provence WineZine, of course [...]

April 12, 2015 3

A BARREL TASTING AT THE TARDIEU – LAURENT CELLARS

Tardieu–Laurent is one of the premiere négociants in the Rhône Valley, and their cellars happen to be located in our favorite village Lourmarin. I began to hear about them soon after we discovered Lourmarin in the late-1990s, a few years after Michel Tardieu and Dominique Laurent [...]

February 23, 2015 13

FRENCH LESSONS HAVE TAUGHT ME MORE THAN FRENCH

French Lessons. There they are again on my list of goals for 2015. I shudder to think how many years [...]

February 9, 2015 2

SLEEPY ANSOUIS: ONE OF “LES PLUS BEAUX VILLAGES DE FRANCE”

In most tourist books about Provence, rarely is more than a small paragraph devoted to the charming village of Ansouis. In some popular books—notably Rick Steves’ Provence and The French Riviera—the village is not even mentioned although, remarkably, the old standard Michelin Guide: Provence includes a full page about Ansouis.It’s no wonder this beautiful village is also referred to as “sleepy and “quiet.” (Read: surprisingly few tourists.) Selfishly, I would like to keep it that way, but having spent a week there this past summer, I could see that it was not the somnolent... [...]

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