Santons and the new season

It’s getting to be time to be thinking about santons and setting up a crèche. Last weekend the santon fair began in earnest  in Le Thor, set up in the salle des fetes.

For those of you who do not know about this Provençal custom, santons are little figures made of red clay which are hand painted and are created by santonniers of which there are many and from different parts of Provence.

I have always loved having these darling little people at Christmas. They represent all of the “metiers” or professions from the region along with certain regular characters like the mayor of the village, the priest, a monk, the tambourinaire (musician) and of course Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. It seems that every year there are new characters created by the santonniers and each have their own style so you can actually recognize if it comes from a certain santonnier. Sort of like art which it actually is!

Anyway, there was a great display in the salle des fetes along with a lottery, food and hot mulled wine. There was also a giant crèche set up

and a display of Solex bikes....the little motorized bikes that lots of French people used to ride ...Jean Claude had one to get to high school and you still see them around but not like before. To me they were like a beret and a baguette...very French!

We of course got tickets to the lottery and a few days later we got a phone call to tell us we had won! Here are our new santons! I’m keeping an eye on Jean Claude there!!!

The crèche set up is so important around here that even the garden store has a special section set up with all the little extras one might need to create a truly wonderful crèche. Moss, paper to look like rocks, little lanterns and fence kits etc. etc. I spent an hour at Bontanic, my favorite garden store, looking at all the great stuff.

Our full crèche is in Portland but we did get a few new items for our mantle in Provence. We got a santon to represent each of our lively grandchildren...I’ll post pictures of that later! À bientôt!

Estonia

 Yes! We are in Estonia....we left Provence on the hottest day of the month on June 28...here we are waiting for the train at the station. Thank goodness the trains have air conditioning because I think the high temperature reached something well over 107 degrees. Really crazy!

Our flight took us through Paris

And then on to Tallinn which was pretty exciting for me and for Maya too...here we are at the Tallinn airport where we saw pictures on the glass wall of a previous festival and JC and I are in the photo! The new festival poster is pretty neat too I think...dance and song are a serious and important matter in Estonia!

Here is a set of candy wrappers specially made to commemorate the festival...

Tallinn is really a great place to wander in. Especially in the old town among towers, weather vanes and hidden courtyards which hold artisan craft makers and small cafes.

One of my favorite spots to visit is the national artisan craft boutiques which sells such artistic and well made...in Estonia...crafts...

The word for this is “Kasitoo”...and the round symbol which is a sole (an ancient style brooch) indicates the products available have passed a strict code of artisanship. Plus, the shop smells of delicious wool, leather and wood...particularly alder which I love. It’s really a sensory pleasure to go into these boutiques. I recommend it!

There was an old town market going on in the main city square the day we arrived and we watched this young fellow hammer nails into a stump which is an activity our grandson Oscar likes to do too..

We met our friends Ene and Nick for lunch and a glass of celebratory bubbly in the garden of this lovely old hotel which has so many interesting corners in it. It is a small hotel and a most recent guest there was Bon Jovi ...

 The pink you see on the plate below is butter with beets in it and it was scrumptious!

Inside the main part of the hotel...

Of course we have come to see the song and dance festival which is held every five years which includes amazing dance performances, with thousands of dancers and two days of song performances too...10,000 dancers and 35,000 singers...yes, its true and let me just say it is an incredible event.

Yesterday was the parade...similar in idea to the Rose Parade in Portland except no floats, just dancers and singers in folk costume parading along Narva mnt to the song festival park...this parade lasted five hours. Here is a street scene as people head for the opening dance performance...dancers and audience members. We were all waiting for the bus.

Arriving at the Kalev stadium...

The dance flame arrived in the stadium in this really interesting three wheeled car....

The opening dance of the festival was made of 1536 men dancers from all the troupes and it was really a sight to see. I’ve included a few pictures I was able to take from our seats but if you really want to see some great photos and videos you should go to: www.postimees.ee you should look under: food ja blogi:tantsupeo peaproov ja I etendus.

Of course one of the most important parts of this trip for me is to spend time with my family in Estonia and meet the new little ones and see how the others are growing. It just seems like we have only been apart for a week or two and that to me is special. There was time to do some barbecue outside and enjoy some really amazing grilled fish...

we also have had time for a real Estonian sauna and some Saku beer and a stroll through a really new trendy part of Tallinn where the industrial areas have become a new open air farmer’s market and all sorts of food cart type little bistros and cafes like the one called Rock, Paper Scissors.

So far this has been a wonderful trip and Maya has been learning Estonian words and phrases too...maybe we can teach some to JC as well? A recent visitor to the yard here is this sweet little hedgehog who was very interested in us and delighted the children.

One of the many weather vanes of Tallinn...

Thank you for loving Estonian milk!!!

A souvenir shop near the Viru Tower gates...

Rukkilill is the Estonian national flower...

À bientôt!